The Blackstone Group’s private equity funds have agreed to acquire Antares Restaurant Group in New Zealand from Anchorage Capital Partners. Headquartered in Auckland, Antares has the exclusive franchise development rights for the Burger King brand in New Zealand and operates 75 Burger King restaurants throughout the country. Under the leadership

The Aureos South East Asia Fund has sold its stake in Environmental Care Management (ECM), Thailand’s pioneer in water purification for industrial waste water, to a consortium of investors for USD3.7 million. Aureos Capital is a private equity fund management company specialising in investing in small and medium sized businesses

Northern Light Venture Capital (NLVC), a China-focused early stage venture capital firm, has closed Northern Light Venture Fund III LP, (together with its parallel funds, (NLVF III), with USD400 million in committed capital. The capital was committed by leading institutional investors from the United States, Europe and Asia. NLVC plans

Headland Capital Partners’ Private Equity Fund 6 has acquired a 26.45% equity shareholding in Miclyn Express Offshore Limited (MEO) for USD141 million. Headquartered in Singapore, MEO is one of the largest providers of offshore vessels to the oil and gas industry in Southeast Asia, Australia and the Middle East with

Aureos South East Asia Fund II has completed a USUSD7m deal acquiring a third of HBC Inc, a cosmetics retailer in the Philippines. Aureos Capital is a private equity fund management company specialising in investing in small and medium sized businesses in emerging markets.   HBC is the Philippines’ largest

Independent private equity real estate advisor MGPA intends to launch a core plus special fund under German investment law, aimed at making investments in the Asian region. The focus will be on established markets such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan. MGPA has operated in Asia since

Ashurst and Blake Dawson have announced plans to combine their businesses in Asia and merge their operations globally, creating a new and powerful legal presence in the international market under the Ashurst name.   This follows a positive vote of both partnerships, which took place on 23 September 2011. Ashurst

Dutchess Opportunity Fund has agreed a GBP30 million extension of the Equity Line Facility (ELF) to Australian-based Range Resources, Ltd.  With this extension of the Equity Line Facility, Range Resources will have immediate access to funds for any appraisal operations that would be necessary, should their exploration wells result in

As the focus of global economic growth rapidly shifts to the East, financial services (FS) mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in Asia are expected to accelerate in late 2011 and 2012, according to a new report from PwC, ‘Emerging Opportunities: Financial Services M&A in Asia 2011’.   A large majority of