Hicks Equity Partners (HEP), the private equity investment vehicle of the Thomas O Hicks family, is leading an investor group that has acquired a majority interest in Directional Rentals, Inc, a privately held oilfield services company. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Based in Lafayette, Louisiana with satellite

Finam, the largest Russian brokerage and investment holding, that previously invested in Badoo and a host of other web companies, has invested USD10 million in IM+, a mobile messenger services with 17.5 million users and 800 million mobile ad impressions/month. As a part of the deal Finam and Shape Services,

Claude Paoli (pictured), majority shareholder and President of the French group BPI, has announced an intention to conclude a strategic capital partnership with Perceva Capital. The operation should be finalised in March 2012. The transaction would see Perceva Capital taking a majority stake. Created in 1984, BPI group is a

Morgenthaler Private Equity, the Boston and Cleveland-based private equity team focused on lower middle-market buyouts, has completed the sale of Phillips & Temro Industries, a designer, manufacturer and distributor of highly engineered diesel engine components to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and suppliers of construction equipment, light and heavy duty trucks,

Business Growth Fund (BGF), established to help Britain’s fast-growing smaller and medium sized businesses, has invested in GCI Telecom Group (GCI Com), an independent telecoms and data services provider, led by Midlands-based IT and communications entrepreneur, Wayne Martin. BGF has invested GBP10 million of equity capital to support GCI Com’s organic

EmVest Asset Management, a diversified agricultural investment company in sub-Saharan Africa, has received its first allocation from Truestone Impact Investment Management, which focuses on delivering market rate returns from social and environmental investments. EmVest manages the Emergent African Land Fund, a private equity fund focusing on the agricultural sector, with

General Atlantic is to acquire a minority equity stake in FNZ, a provider of technology, transaction and custody services to the wealth management industry, investing alongside HIG Europe and the management team. Completion of the transaction remains subject to EU competition commission approval.   HIG originally backed an MBO of

Private equity firm Francisco Partners has acquired Concerro through API Healthcare, an existing portfolio company that provides workforce management technology to the healthcare industry. Based in San Diego, California, Concerro is a provider of software-as-a-service (SaaS) staffing and scheduling systems for healthcare. Through this acquisition, API Healthcare will expand its

Boston-based private equity firm Riverside Partners is to make a significant investment in Park IP Translations, a market leader in the highly technical field of patent translation. The investment, which will be made through Riverside Partners’ portfolio company, Welocalize, will enhance the company’s service offerings, providing clients with better translations