Deals
Kurma Partners’s Biofund II, the first venture capital fund dedicated to financing innovation in the rare diseases space, has made its maiden EUR7.5 million investment in Oxthera, a Stockholm-based biopharmaceutical company.
OxThera is currently conducting a placebo-controlled clinical trial with Oxabact in patients with primary hyperoxaluria at seven clinical sites in three countries.
Primary hyperoxaluria (PH) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder leading to markedly elevated levels of endogenous oxalate in plasma and urine. High levels of urinary oxalate cause kidney damage, including calcification of the kidney. If left untreated, the disease can cause kidney failure and premature death.
The California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) has committed USD200 million to diversify its Private Equity Proactive Portfolio, which reaches small, niche emerging managers including those in under-served domestic markets.
This latest commitment expands the programme, established in 2003, to USD1.9 billion.
The programme adds a new partner, Chicago-based Muller & Monroe Asset Management, with a USD100 million commitment.
BAML Capital Access Funds Management (BAML, a subsidiary of Bank of America Corporation), an existing relationship, is expanding with another USD100 million commitment.
CalSTRS will invest in Muller & Monroe’s USD400 million commingled fund, known as the M2
Maven Capital Partners, a private equity and alternative asset manager, has secured GBP7 million of funding for a hotel development using the benefits of Business Premises Renovation Allowance (BPRA).
The deal will see the purchase of Telfer House, an empty office building in Glasgow’s Merchant City, for refurbishment into a 96-bedroom ibis Styles hotel, which will be managed by the UK’s largest specialist hotel management company, RedefineBDL.
The deal represents Maven’s second hotel refurbishment project in the past year using the tax incentives available from BPRA. In April 2013, Maven secured a GBP4.6 million funding package for the redevelopment
Coal Grill and Bar (t/a Charterhouse Leisure Ltd) has secured additional growth funding from Beringea and venture capital investors Octopus Investments, along with bank finance, to continue its expansion.
With six high volume casual dining restaurants already established in Basingstoke, Bristol, Bristol Waterside, Exeter, Meadowhall in Sheffield and Milton Keynes, Coal Grill and Bar will this year open new restaurants at locations including Cheshire Oaks, Gloucester Quays and Swindon.
The company is working with Savills’ London office to secure up to six restaurants per year for the next three years.
Stuart Veale, managing partner at Beringea, says: “Coal
The Abraaj Group has, through one of its funds, acquired a stake in Kool Food, a Moroccan chocolate confectionery manufacturer based in Casablanca.
Kool Food was founded in 2010 by entrepreneur Anas Lahlou and specialises in developing, producing and selling chocolate confections, powder drinks as well as other sweet and salted food products under its own brand.
Kool Food offers several categories of products which are sold locally as well as exported to countries in the Maghreb region, including Algeria and Tunisia. The company is one of the few chocolate-based product manufacturers in the region targeting the fast-growing mass
LoneStar, backed by private equity firm AEA Investors, has bought Hydrobolt, a manufacturer and distributor of high integrity fully traceable specialty fasteners, machined components, and flanges and fittings predominately servicing the global oil and gas and power generation markets.
The transaction, which has been managed by Rothschild, represents an exit for the Octopus Eclipse Venture Capital Trust (VCT) fund.
Octopus first invested in Wolverhampton-based Hydrobolt in April 2008, when the venture capital investor backed the management buy-out of Hydrobolt. Since then the company has grown substantially, both organically and via acquisition.
Jamie Simpson, managing director of Hydrobolt, says: “Since
Private equity firm Arsenal Capital Partners has acquired Synchrogenix, a regulatory writing and related services firm.
Synchrogenix provides services to pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device companies worldwide.
Concurrent with the transaction, Synchrogenix will be merged into Certara, a global technology-enabled drug development and drug safety consultancy acquired by Arsenal this past December.
Stephen McLean, a partner at Arsenal and co-head of the firm's healthcare group, says: "Pharmaceutical companies are looking for greater value and increased synergies from their outsourcing partners. Adding the complementary services Synchrogenix offers to the Certara portfolio will allow Certara to provide its preclinical and
Arma Partners has acted as exclusive financial adviser to AMT-SYBEX Group on its sale to Capita plc for an initial consideration of GBP82 million.
There is a contingent consideration of up to GBP23 million based on the business reaching specific profit targets over the next 12 months.
Completion of the acquisition is subject to approval from the competition authority in Ireland.
AMT is a proprietary software business providing software and related services in mobile technology and smart data management to the utilities and transport sectors.
AMT’s technology manages data from 35 million consumers, enables 35,000 mobile workers
Denver-based private equity firm KRG Capital Partners has completed the sale of Focus Group to WSP Global.
Focus is a provider of engineering services in Western Canada to the energy and infrastructure end markets.
WSP is a professional services firms, working with governments, businesses, architects and planners and providing integrated solutions across many disciplines.
The sale of Focus delivers a successful return for KRG’s Fund III limited partner investors, and builds on KRG’s track record of executing its buy-and-build investment approach. Over the life of the investment, KRG partnered with Focus management to complete nine add-on acquisitions, resulting
Mid-market private equity firm LDC has completed an investment to support the multi-million pound management buy-out of Connect Communications, a provider of telephone systems and unified communications channels to businesses across the UK, mainland Europe, Middle East and Africa.
Established in 1992, Connect Communications manages the day-to-day running of multi-site telecoms systems, via a state-of-the-art networks operations centre and a limited network of third party engineers.
Connect Communications’ software enables technical faults to be identified and rectified quickly and efficiently, before problems escalate.
High-profile global enterprises supported by the business on a pan-EMEA basis include Barclays, Coca-Cola, CSC
Events
12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
