Global energy and commodity price reporting agency Argus has agreed a strategic partnership with global growth equity firm General Atlantic. General Atlantic will acquire a majority stake in the business, enabling Argus to fuel its next phase of global expansion. Argus executive chairman and publisher Adrian Binks, who has led the company for more than 30 years, will continue in the business and retain the majority of his significant shareholding in the new structure alongside General Atlantic. Employee shareholders will also be given the opportunity to reinvest, while the family of Argus’ founder will sell their shareholding.   Argus was

Mid-market private equity firm LDC has backed the management buyout of CIPHR, a vendor of human capital management (HCM) software, to further develop its SaaS offering and expand its product range. CIPHR, which is headquartered in Marlow, provides HR management software targeted at small and medium sized organisations (SMEs) with between 100 and 5,000 employees. Its cloud-based technology is designed to make human resource functions more efficient, spanning the employee lifecycle from talent attraction, recruitment and on-boarding, absence and core to learning and development, employee rewards and benefits.   The investment will enable the business to further drive sales effectiveness

BGF (Business Growth Fund), a provider of growth capital to small and mid-sized businesses, is celebrating celebrates five years of growth during which it has invested nearly GBP850 million in a diverse portfolio of more than 125 companies including manufacturers, retailers, technology providers, restaurants and more. The milestone follows BGF’s strongest ever quarter; BGF invested over GBP100 million in the first three months of 2016 and is on course to pass GBP1 billion in committed investments later this year – a clear signal of the growing demand for this type of support among Britain’s entrepreneurial businesses.   The last five

Rail rolling stock leasing company Beacon Rail Leasing, a portfolio company of Pamplona Capital, is to purchase 13 sets of five-car intercity carriages which will be leased to TransPennine Express Limited (TPE), a FirstGroup plc company. The carriages will be manufactured by Spanish manufacturer, Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (“CAF”) and are currently scheduled to be placed into service in 2018. Beacon’s Class 68 diesel locomotives, which are leased to Direct Rail Services (DRS), will initially haul the carriages between Liverpool and Newcastle and will be sub-leased from DRS to TPE.  Beacon owns a diverse portfolio of freight and passenger

Clearwater International Denmark has acted as financial advisor to the owners of StarCo in the divestment of major parts of their aftermarket business to German Bohnenkamp. The StarCo Group has been family owned and expanding for more than 55 years. Today, StarCo has more than 700 colleagues, is represented throughout Europe and has an international manufacturing, assembly and distribution setup. The company delivers tyre and wheel solutions for a wide range of applications worldwide to manufacturers and aftermarket customers – from the smallest wheelbarrow tyre to the largest agricultural or industrial wheels. The StarCo Group had a turnover of more

The outlook for the healthcare industry remains challenging thanks in part to uncertainty over the upcoming presidential election and the continued changes ushered in by the Affordable Care Act (ACA). However, despite the uncertainty and rapid changes across healthcare, private equity investors are still attracted to many real opportunities.  These are some of the observations presented by William Douglass, Group Head and Managing Director, CIT Healthcare Finance, a division of CIT Group Inc. (NYSE:CIT), cit.com, a leading provider of commercial lending and leasing services, in “Affordable Care Act Drives Changes in Healthcare Market”, the latest piece of market intelligence in

Synlab Bondco, a subsidiary of Cinven portfolio company Synlab Limited, has successfully priced a private placement offering of EUR190 million in principal amount of additional senior secured floating rate notes due 2022 at a price of 99.5 per cent. Synlab is the leading pan-European clinical laboratories business operating across 35 countries with combined revenues of approximately EUR1.5 billion. Each year, Synlab undertakes more than 400 million diagnostic tests for close to 50 million patients.  As Synlab had updated its bondholders during the FY15 Results call, the integration and the organisational changes made within the combined Synlab business are now largely

Commercial cleaning and outsourced facility maintenance company, Capital Contractors, has closed on a USD5 million financing facility from its current majority owner, an affiliate of Palladium Equity Partners, LLC.  Founded in 1932, Capital Contractors will use the proceeds from the financing to continue to expand its sales, operations and customer service resources in its leading territories along the entire US eastern seaboard and midwest, as well as across all of Canada.  Capital Contractors also continues to invest in the latest cleaning technologies such as UVC disinfection equipment for its leading germ-eradicating sanitizing cleaning programs for schools, healthcare facilities, restaurants and

Pro-invest Group, a private equity real estate investment firm, has signed a fund administration agreement with global independent fund administrator, Apex Fund Services.  The partnership will deliver Pro-invest Group with the specialist private equity real estate fund accounting, regulatory reporting and middle office support services required to provide the required infrastructure and support investments.   Apex’s global presence and breath of service capabilities spanning the full value chain of a fund will ensure Pro-invest is supported by administrative resources that enable them to deliver cross-boarder services to their clients. With USD300 million (AUD) in committed capital, Pro-invest’s vision to provide