Conning, a provider of asset management and consulting services to the insurance industry, has been acquired by funds managed by Aquiline Capital Partners, a New York-based private equity firm investing in the financial services sector. “We are pleased to close this transaction with Aquiline. This is a very exciting time

Amarin has entered into a definitive agreement with several existing and new institutional and accredited investors for a USD70m private placement. The private placement of units for USD70m consists of USD66.4m in cash proceeds and USD3.6m from the conversion of convertible bridge notes.  The financing was led by existing investor,

SEI has signed ten new collective investment trust managers over the past eight months. According to Cerulli Associates, CITs represented about USD733bn in employer-sponsored retirement plans, including defined benefit and defined contribution plan assets as of 30 June 2009. SEI has specialised in the CIT market for more than 15

Environmental Capital Partners, a New York based private equity firm, has made an investment in Cascade Drilling in order to fund the company’s future growth initiatives.  Bruce Niermeyer, Cascade Drilling’s founder, remains a significant shareholder and will continue as president and chief executive.  Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Fortress Investment Group has priced RailAmerica’s initial public offering of 10,500,000 primary shares of common stock at USD15 per share. A further 11,500,000 secondary shares of common stock of RailAmerica are being offered by RR Acquisition Holding, an entity wholly-owned by certain private equity funds managed by an affiliate of

GI Partners has completed the final closing of its third private equity fund, GI Partners Fund III. Since the fund’s launch, over USD1.9bn in capital commitments was secured in less than one year from institutional private equity and real estate investors. The aggregate size represents a 35 per cent increase

Negotiating private equity fees and terms has previously been challenging due to limited capacity among high-quality general partners and the restricted ability of limited partners to pool their bargaining power, according to Watson Wyatt. In a paper, entitled Private equity fees and terms, the firm suggests fairer fees and terms

Just 17 venture capital funds raised USD1.6bn in the third quarter of 2009, according to Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association. This level represents the smallest number of venture funds raising money in a single quarter since the third quarter of 1994 when 17 funds were also raised

VTB Capital has closed its deal to purchase a 35.4 per cent stake in Lenta, in cooperation with TPG Capital. With its 36 hypermarkets, Lenta is one of the biggest retail chains in Russia. The deal was supported by all shareholders of the company. The shareholders intend to come to

Austrian M&A has seen a total of 51 announced deals valued at USD2.6bn so far in 2009, representing a drop of 66 per cent by value and 37 per cent by volume compared to the first three quarters of 2008, according to mergermarket. The nine month period is the lowest