William Blair, a global investment banking and asset management firm, has formed a strategic alliance with Allier Capital, an Australia-based independent financial advisory firm. As part of the strategic cooperation, William Blair and Allier Capital will offer clients in Australia access to a range of investment banking services in global markets, including public offerings in the U.S. securities markets, mergers and acquisitions, advisory services, and private placements, among others.   “After working with Allier for the last couple of years, we are delighted to formalise our relationship,” says Brent Gledhill, global head of Investment Banking at William Blair. “This partnership

QLess, an specialist in customer experience and queue management software, has secured USD2.5 million in True Growth Capital from Wellington Financial, a privately-held specialty finance firm. QLess helps companies optimise their customer experience process by providing an interactive platform for employees to manage customer service flow, equipping management with real-time reporting and analytics to boost operational efficiencies. Its cloud-based patented application eliminates physical lines by allowing customers to instead join a virtual queue by mobile phone, website, or via an on-site kiosk.  With its learning algorithms, QLess delivers more accurate wait times via text or phone message and notifies customers

Inflexion Private Equity has completed the management buyout of Global Reach Partners Ltd, a leading UK foreign exchange specialist providing payments and hedging services to businesses and private individuals. Global Reach Partners helps clients manage their foreign exchange exposure through a range of hedging strategies, which are tied to fundamental business needs. The hedging strategies are delivered through many products including spot payments, forward contracts and options in over 150 currencies.   Global Reach Partners transacts £3bn of foreign currency each year, through its team of over 85 expert traders and support staff based in London.   Inflexion will be

Future Finance Loan Corporation (Future Finance), which makes tailored loans to undergraduates and postgraduates at universities across the UK, has raised GBP119 million in growth and lending capital from leading FinTech investors QED Investors, Blackstone Strategic Opportunity Fund, Colchis Capital, Invus Opportunities, KCK, DW Partners, Fenway Summer Ventures, Ridge Road Partners, 1/0 Capital and others. £100 million of the recent funds raised is for lending capital, supplementing the company’s existing credit facility with Goldman Sachs. This new investment will enable Future Finance to make even more loans, ensuring that many more students have access to higher education in the UK,

Westbridge Capital portfolio company Energist Medical Group has bought part of Chromogenex Technologies Limited, the Llanelli-headquartered business that recently went into administration. Swansea-based Energist has acquired global rights outside the USA to the Chromogenex name and a range of well-recognised i-Lipo brands and products established by Chromogenex over the past decade.   Energist is a specialist in the medical aesthetic equipment industry, manufacturing a range of plasma, laser and light-based products used for the removal of hair and the reduction of fine lines, wrinkles, acne and veins.    Max Humber, Group CEO at Energist Medical Group, says: “Strategically, this deal

21 Concordia I, the Warsaw-based private equity fund of 21 Partners, has invested in Polish laundry services provider Hollywood SA. Founded in 1995 by Andrzej Konieczkowski, Hollywood is the largest B2B laundry chain in Poland. Operating across six laundry facilities located in Northern and Central Poland, the company provides bed linen and work-wear laundry as well as rental services to hospitals, hotels and manufacturing companies. Hollywood makes use of the most modern and environmentally friendly equipment.   Hollywood boasts a proven track record of successful acquisitions, leading the consolidation of a highly fragmented Polish laundry market and developing a nationwide

Lonsdale Capital Partners has supported a management buyout of the Global Yachting Group (GYG), which includes the two established trading brands Pinmar and Rolling Stock and is one of the world's leading providers of services to superyachts. GYG's management team is led by former yacht captains, Remy Millott (Executive Chairman), Rupert Savage (CEO), and Peter Brown (COO), who will each make a significant investment in the business alongside majority stakeholder Lonsdale.   Headquartered in Palma, Mallorca, GYG specialises in painting and maintaining superyachts, and operates across Europe and the United States. It has provided services to many of the world’s

Pinnacle Financial Partners has completed the previously announced purchase of an additional 19 per cent interest in Bankers Healthcare Group (BHG) for USD114 million. The transaction was funded with a combination of 860,470 shares of Pinnacle common stock and USD74.1 million of cash. As a result, Pinnacle now owns 49 per cent of BHG.   Consistent with previous expectations, Pinnacle funded substantially all of the cash portion of the incremental investment with short-term borrowings which it expects to repay with the proceeds of an offering of Pinnacle Bank-issued subordinated indebtedness. On 3 March, 2016, Pinnacle Bank agreed to issue an

Vista Equity Partners (Vista) has completed its buyout of software firm Solera Holdings. Other key investors include an affiliate of Koch Equity Development LLC, the investment and acquisition subsidiary of Koch Industries, and an affiliate of Goldman, Sachs & Co. The transaction, originally announced on 13 September, 2015, was completed on 3 March, 2016.   The acquisition – which strategically combines Solera’s world-class risk and asset management solutions with Vista’s technology-focused operational and financial expertise – sparks the next phase of Solera’s global expansion, and accelerates its mission to digitally transform how the world manages life’s two most important assets: the vehicle