Host Europe Group, the largest privately-owned hosting group in Europe, has been acquired by European private equity firm Cinven from Montagu Private Equity.   Headquartered in the UK, Host Europe Group is a provider of hosting and domain services to small and medium enterprises, with around 600 employees. It offers an end-to-end product suite including domain registration, application hosting, cloud hosting and managed hosting, with most of its revenues generated in the UK and Germany.   The business has established market-leading positions in its core markets leveraging a large base of 1.5 million customers, well-recognised brands (including 123-reg, Webfusion, Heart Internet

HIG Capital’s Brazilian affiliate has completed a strategic investment in Creme Mel Sorvetes, a Brazilian ice cream company.   Headquartered in Goiás, Creme Mel is the largest ice cream producer in the Mid-West of Brazil. The company has over 900 employees and sells ice cream in nine Brazilian states.   HIG’s investment will allow Creme Mel to expand its production capacity with the construction of a new plant and will provide capital for a faster expansion throughout Brazil.   “We are very excited to have HIG as a partner. Their ability and experience in helping companies grow all over the

Venture capital funds TT Venture, a fund managed by Fondamenta SGR, and Atlante Seed, a fund managed by IMI Fondi Chiusi SGR, an Intesa Sanpaolo Group company, have invested in MilkyWay, a start-up in Modena focused on the design, manufacture and online sales of bike-trial and extreme sports equipment.   The investment operation totals an initial EUR720,000, which MilkyWay will use to expand its range of products on the extreme sports market (such as kitesurfing, downhill biking and parkour) and to develop the online community (www.milkywaytribe.com).   In just a few months the MilkyWay community has positioned itself as a

Edison Ventures has made a USD5.5m investment in a USD7m total financing round in Ontario, Canada based eSentire.   Existing investor VentureLink joined Edison in the round.   The proceeds will be used to increase sales and marketing, expand product development to address markets beyond financial services eSentire combines behaviour-based technology with seasoned security professionals to provide a unique managed services offering. To date, the company has focused exclusively on serving the financial services market, specifically hedge funds. With Edison’s investment, eSentire will continue to penetrate the hedge fund sector and, expand into other markets.   Lenard Marcus, Edison principal

NBGI Private Equity (NBGIPE), the lower mid-market buyout firm, has sold its majority stake in Ochre House to US-based Pinstripe backed by Accel-KKR, which delivers a 4x return on NBGIPE’s original investment.   The sale will result in the combined business becoming the largest independent provider of global recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) and talent management solutions.   Ochre House has rapidly grown to become a leading provider of talent management services in the UK, Continental Europe and the Middle East and represents a significant EMEA platform for the US buyer, Pinstripe. The EMEA market is estimated at approximately USD967m and

AnaCap Financial Partners and the management of Simply Business have completed the management buyout of the small business insurance provider.   Under the terms of the agreement, funds advised by AnaCap and Simply Business’s management will acquire 100 per cent of Simply Business.   Established in 2005 by parent company Xbridge, Simply Business was amongst the earliest online brokers within the commercial insurance market. Using technology to simplify the process of buying small business insurance, the company has achieved rapid growth, from revenues of GBP4.2m in 2006 to GBP22.9m in 2012, and now insures more than 225,000 small businesses across

Germany’s largest online optician Mister Spex, a portfolio company of private equity firm DN Capital, has acquired two Swedish online eyewear operations, Lensstore and Loveyewear.   “With this step we demonstrate our leading position in Europe and accelerate our international expansion,” says Dirk Graber, founder and chief executive of Mister Spex. “We merge the business activities of the three fastest growing online eyewear companies in Europe. As early as 2013 we will jointly generate revenues of EUR48m.”   Lensstore sells contact lenses with a geographic focus on Sweden, Norway and Finland. Loveyewear offers premium brand prescription glasses and sunglasses in

Livingstone Partners’ debt advisory team has concluded a debt refinancing in support of Dunedin’s recently announced GBP43m buy-out of York-based Trustmarque Solutions.   Livingstone arranged a GBP19.5m debt package with HSBC Bank, with additional capacity for acquisitions.   Trustmarque is a provider of technology services and solutions to private and public sector organisations. The company helps organisations license, deploy and manage technology solutions from a wide range of developers including Microsoft. The business currently serves over 1,200 clients including RBS, Lloyds Banking Group, Sainsbury’s and Capita. Public sector clients include the NHS, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Justice, HMRC, local

Main Street Capital has closed a new portfolio investment totalling USD7m of invested capital in Garreco.   Main Street’s investment in Garreco consists of USD5.8m in first lien, senior secured term debt and a USD1.2m direct equity investment.   Garreco is headquartered in Heber Springs, Arkansas and is a manufacturer and supplier of consumable products used to create dentures, crowns, and bridges in dental laboratories and clinics. Garreco, founded in 1988, is one of the country’s largest manufacturers of specialised gypsum products used to create the plaster models and casts necessary to customise dentures, crowns, and bridges for a patient’s