Deals
SALU Capital (SALU), together with its partners Apex Group (Apex), and Inlife Holding (Inlife), has closed the purchase of all outstanding shares of Augur Financial Opportunities 2 SICAV (AFO-2), a Luxembourg investment vehicle managed by German Augur Capital that includes the fund’s portfolio companies, German life insurer myLife Lebensversicherung (myLife) and Luxembourg-based fund administration and ManCo business LRI Group (LRI ), from the Fund’s investors in a secondary fund buy-out transaction.
The closing of this complex transaction, upon receipt of all regulatory approvals in Germany and in Luxembourg, is the latest step of SALU Capital, a young and growing private
European impact investor, Wermuth Asset Management, has completed its second round of funding under the Green Gateway Fund 2 (GGF2) portfolio, doubling its investment in NexWafe.
Until recently silicon solar wafers have been the costliest single components of a solar module, accounting for around 40 per cent of the total product cost. But new wafer technology company, NexWafe, has stepped in as an industry disruptor with the development of a drop-in replacement for wafers specifically designed for future high efficiency solar cells with a low energy and material consumption during production that significantly brings down the costs.
“The historic
Venture capital funding to automotive start-ups totalled USD8 billion in 2018, according to the latest Automotive Technology M&A Market Report from international technology mergers and acquisitions adviser, Hampleton Partners.
In parallel, almost 100 M&A deals were inked, including Renault, Ford and Volkswagen’s autotech acquisitions in the second half of 2018; however, total disclosed M&A transaction value reached USD3.9 billion in the time period, the lowest in over five years.
The report also shows the growing role of Private Equity (PE) in the autotech M&A market, accounting for almost one quarter of all transactions in 2018. The largest PE acquisition
Foresight Group (Foresight) has made two investments totalling GBP1.95 million into two fast-growing Lincolnshire based businesses, Firetree Chocolate Ltd and YPP Group via the Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF).
Foresight completed a GBP950k investment into premium chocolate maker Firetree Chocolate Ltd (Firetree) as part of a GBP1.2 million funding round in late January. Firetree was set up in 2017 as a bespoke high-end chocolate manufacturer. It has been successful in securing several prominent B2B supply contracts in the ‘super premium’ chocolate market, as well as securing two lucrative private label contracts. Firetree’s ambition is to develop its own brand of
Senseon, an AI platform for cyber defence, has completed a USD6.4 million seed funding round led by venture capital fund MMC Ventures, alongside Mark Weatherford, former Deputy Under Secretary for Cybersecurity, US Department of Homeland Security.
Additional investors include Amadeus Capital Partners, Crane Venture Partners and CyLon.
The funding will allow Senseon to continue its rapid expansion in the UK and increase its presence in EMEA and the US.
Founded in 2017 by David Atkinson – the first ever cyber operative within the UK’s specialist military units – Senseon empowers businesses to keep pace with the increase of
Leep Utilities, an independent multi-utility operator, is to purchase SSE Water, a New Appointments and Variations (NAV) company, from SSE plc. The transaction is expected to complete by the end of March and is conditional on approvals typical of a transaction of this nature.
Leep Utilities is a joint-venture between Ancala Partners (Ancala), a mid-market infrastructure investment manager, and the Peel Group (Peel), one of the UK’s leading private real estate investment and infrastructure companies. Leep owns and operates regulated and non-regulated utility networks, including electricity, water and district heating networks, with a portfolio of sites across the country.
Preservation Capital Partners (Preservation Capital), a financial services-focussed private equity firm which last year acquired an interest in the insurTech-driven cyber and specialty lines MGA Ascent Underwriting (Ascent), has made a strategic investment in US construction-focused MGA Cove Programs (Cove).
Together the business will manage in excess of USD200 million GWP, making it one of the largest independently owned emerging risk and specialty lines MGAs. Ascent and Cove will continue to operate under their respective market-leading brands. Each is a pioneer in speciality product development and distribution within their respective markets, supported by best-in-class underwriting and claims teams. However, senior
Baltisse has completed the acquisition of Polflam, a Polish fire-resistant glass manufacturer. The selling shareholders were the two founders, Maciej Szamborski and Wojciech Wilczak, and Syntaxis Capital, a private debt and growth capital investor.
Polflam is the leading fire-resistant glass manufacturer in Poland, as well as a successful challenger on other European markets, with a constantly growing share of export sales. A unique proprietary technology and hard to replicate production process provide the Company with a sustainable cost advantage and best-in-class product qualities. The Company’s experience and professionalism is backed up by thousands of successful installations all over Europe. Polflam
Essling Expansion has acquired a stake in the Evolucare Group alongside its manager Elie le Guilcher and his team, becoming a reference shareholder in the process.
Founded in 1988, Evolucare Technologies is a family group that publishes medical software for healthcare institutions. The group’s offer covers the entire patient journey within institutions through 3 areas of activity: Computerized Patient File (CPR), Critical Care and Imaging. With sales of EUR23 million in 2018, the group is already present in nearly 1900 institutions in France and abroad and is, through its positioning, perfectly at the crossroads of Essling Expansion’s investment universes.
Palamon Capital Partners (Palamon) has completed a roll-over investment, alongside core Palamon investors Adams Street Partners and PGGM, in Ober Scharrer Gruppe, following the sale of the Company by Palamon to majority owner Nordic Capital Fund IX in 2018.
Palamon originally acquired a majority share in Ober Scharrer Gruppe from its two physician founders in 2011 having identified the opportunity created by deregulation and the subsequent corporatisation of healthcare delivery in Germany. Palamon executed a substantial transformation programme to institutionalise the business and accelerate its growth through M&A. Under Palamon’s ownership, the Company unlocked the sizeable consolidation opportunity in the
Events
12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
