Halyard Capital, a New York-based private equity firm, has formed Digital Fortress, a new data centre colocation platform, along with two initial acquisitions of digital.forest, Inc. and Fortress Colocation Services. Headquartered in Seattle, Digital Fortress capitalises on the underserved market of regional small to medium sized enterprises seeking to enhance

RiverRock European Capital Partners LLP has held the second institutional close for its European Opportunities Fund (EOF). The close is built upon new major UK and continental European institutional investors. The European Opportunities Fund is a five year fund targeting direct lending to strong, small to mid-sized European companies that

KBC has closed the previously announced transaction with affiliates of JC Flowers & Co for the sale of its subsidiary Fidea, having received the necessary regulatory approvals. The acquisition of Fidea represents an important investment in the Belgian market by JC Flowers & Co. Fidea is a well-established player on

Joint Administrators, John Whitfield and Matt Ingram, both of financial advisory and investment banking firm Duff & Phelps, have confirmed that they have successfully sold the business and assets of AMI Blaymires Limited. The sale, which concluded on 30 March 2012, is to Unitech Blaymires Limited, part of Unitech Industries. Unitech

Gulf One Investment Bank has established a new office, Gulf One GmbH, in Munich, Germany. Gulf One GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of Gulf One, will support the management of portfolio companies of the bank’s private equity funds and source new investments and advisory business opportunities for it. The new

Sun Capital Partners’ portfolio company Sonneborn, Inc. (“Sonneborn”) has been sold to One Equity Partners. Terms of the transaction have not been disclosed. Sonneborn, based in Parsippany, NJ, was acquired from a large publicly-traded company in June 2005 in a corporate carve-out transaction. Upon acquisition, a series of initiatives were

GCP Capital Partners has acquired Garrets International Limited, a leading international provider of marine catering management for the commercial shipping industry. Derrick Samms founded Garrets in 1991 and has since pioneered the market for outsourcing of catering services for the merchant navy. Garrets provides its customers with a range of

Mergers and acquisitions in the US financial services industry could increase in both number and value of deals, if markets improve and European banks sell noncore business units, PwC says in a new report. M&A prospects remain uncertain, however, after deal volume fell in 2011 due to the European debt

Maven’s Manchester team has led the MBO of Vodat International Limited (Vodat) from its founder Mike Bielinski in a GBP5m transaction. Vodat provides managed network and communications solutions to business customers, with a particular focus on the UK retail sector in which it has a leading market presence. Cheshire based