2009 saw a steep decline in European financial services M&A activity with values, excluding government led deals, hitting their lowest levels for six years, according to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers. By contrast, the outlook for increased deal activity in 2010 is positive and the level of private sector activity is

Investec Private Bank’s private equity partner and fund finance team has provided a GBP8.2m loan to Encore Ventures, a new division of European venture capital firm DFJ Esprit. The two year loan facility financed all the management fees, set-up costs and legal fees of Encore 1, Encore Ventures’ first fund,

LS Power, a New York-based investment firm focused on the development, acquisition and management of power generation and transmission infrastructure, has selected SunGard’s Investran to help address its accounting needs for private equity administration. LS Power will use Investran for customer relationship management and investment and partnership accounting. Investran supports

Private equity firm North Castle Partners has recapitalised flatbread maker Flatout in partnership with co-founders Stacey and Mike Marsh. Glencoe Capital’s Michigan Opportunities Fund participated on the recapitalisation, the terms of which were not disclosed. Founded over ten years ago, Flatout manufactures and markets healthy flatbreads, wraps, and snack crisps

Venture capital firms have agreed to sell their stake in Aardvark, an operator of a social search engine, to Google for approximately USD50m. The venture capital firms include August Capital and Baseline Ventures. Aardvark, founded by a group of former Google employees, has raised around USD6m in venture capital to

Maven has led the public-to-private acquisition of AIM listed LitComp, an insurance business operating predominantly in the after the event insurance market. Maven investors have taken a 40 per cent stake in the newly de-listed business. The acquisition has been made by bidco Torridon Capital and is the culmination of

Evercore Partners and Trilantic Capital Partners have formed an alliance to pursue private equity investment opportunities for Trilantic’s current fund and to collaborate on the future growth of Trilantic’s business. The relationship leverages the respective strengths of each firm while maintaining each firm’s independence. Trilantic, a private equity firm focused

Eurazeo’s net asset value EUR64.2 per share at 31 December 2009, an increase of 34 per cent compared to 30 June 2009 and 20 per cent compared to 31 December 2008. Consolidated revenues for 2009 were EUR3,785m, a decrease of 5.9 per cent from 2008 on a comparable basis. Patrick

An affiliated fund of Southridge, an investment firm providing capital to publicly listed companies, has closed a private equity agreement for up to USD7.5m in equity financing with PuraMed BioScience. "Southridge is very pleased to provide equity capital financing for this innovative market leader in the over-the-counter consumer market for