Allocations
Omnes Capital has invested EUR1.7 million in Nanomakers, becoming the largest shareholder in the French start-up producer of nanopowders. The deal aims to increase the company’s production capacity, continue its R&D efforts and strengthen the recruitment of key positions.
Founded in 2010 and based in Rambouillet, the French start-up Nanomakers has been designing and producing since 2012 patented silicon-based nanopowders which transform the mechanical, chemical or thermal properties of materials. Its disruptive technology has made it possible to triple the energy density of Li-ion batteries anodes, or to lighten and reinforce the mechanical properties of certain materials (metal alloys, elastomers)
GCA Altium has acted as exclusive financial advisor to Livingstone Holdings Limited, a provider of software asset management services, on its sale to The Carlyle Group.
Founded in 2010, Livingstone offers a full range of services covering all major enterprise software vendors. The company works with clients to collect and analyse information in order to establish their effective licence positions, determine if software usage is higher or lower than legally contracted, address any related issues, and create a framework to optimise their software deployment over time.
Livingstone has delivered strong revenue and EBITDA growth over the past few years and now provides software
White Star Capital, a global venture capital fund with offices in London, New York, Montreal and now Paris and Tokyo, has closed its second institutional fund at USD180 million.
The fund, which was oversubscribed and had an initial target of USD140m target, will back around 20 new companies with an initial investment of USD1 million to USD6 million. The fund will continue to focus on companies that use data as a competitive advantage and where the fund’s operational experience and physical presence can help companies scale internationally.
White Star Capital has already begun investing from its second fund and
Law firm Stroock has represented Atlas Merchant Capital as co-lead investor in the acquisition of Talcott Resolution, the run-off life insurance and annuity division of The Hartford.
The total consideration to The Hartford of USD2.05 billion was comprised of cash, a pre-closing dividend, transferred debt and a 9.7 per cent ownership interest in the acquiring company; the transaction generated total value to The Hartford’s shareholders of approximately USD3 billion. The deal closed on 31 May 2018. Stroock’s deal team was led by insurance M&A partner Bernhardt Nadell and private equity partner Bradley Kulman.
Other Stroock attorneys who assisted on
Mekong Capital’s Mekong Enterprise Fund III (MEF III) has completed an investment in mattress and bedding solution provider Vua Nem Joint Stock Company.
Hoang Tuan Anh, Founder and CEO of Vua Nem, says: “We are excited about this partnership with Mekong Capital. They are the leading private equity firm in Vietnam who has a strong track record of investing in top retailing companies such as MobileWorld and Phu Nhuan Jewelry. Our vision is to become the biggest retailer for mattress and bedding products in the country. Thanks to the partnership with Mekong Capital, we have had access to the value
Knight Corporate Finance, a specialist TMT corporate finance boutique, has advised the shareholders of Frontier Voice and Data on its sale to technology solutions provider, Chess ICT.
Frontier was owned and operated by industry veterans Peter Southgate and Sean Linehan who have built a number of successful businesses in the comms sector. Knight CF has a long standing relationship with Peter and Sean having also advised them on the sale of Cable Telecommunications and Pink Telecom also to Chess in 2012.
Southgate says: “After a career in comms spanning four decades, we appointed Knight with a view to realising
Bilateral deals sharply increased in 2017-18 according to data from Investec, as private equity firms increasingly seek out direct sales in an effort to deploy dry powder without the competition of an auction process.
An analysis of 587 deals from 2016-17 and 2017-18 shows that the number of bilateral deals increased by 71 per cent last year relative to the previous year. The value of these deals increased from GBP1.06bn in 2016-17 to GBP7.98bn in 2017-18, with bilateral deals accounting for 19 per cent of all deals by value in the last financial year.
Christian Hess, Head of Financial
Driven by the increased momentum in responsible investing, private capital firms are seeing rising investor demand for integrating ESG considerations into the investment process.
However, with a myriad of factors to consider, it is challenging to collect and monitor ESG and impact information across all stages of the private equity life cycle. With these issues in mind, Preqin Solutions has launched an ESG & Impact module.
The ESG & Impact module enables private capital firms to define and automate a structured responsible investment program. With it, general partners (GPs) can clearly outline their goals and choose KPIs by either
Goodwin’s Private Equity group led a multidisciplinary cross-border team as it advised long-time client GTT Communications (NYSE: GTT) on the completion of its acquisition of Interoute, for approximately EUR1.9 billion (USD2.3 billion).
GTT expects to complete the integration of Interoute within three to four quarters after closing.
The addition of Interoute significantly augments GTT’s scale, expanding its Tier 1 global IP network with one of Europe’s most extensive fibre footprints, strengthening GTT’s leadership in software-defined wide area networking and enhancing GTT’s global team with a world-class sales, operations and customer service organisation.
GTT Communications, Inc. provides multinationals with
Despite private equity managers raising a record USD453 billion in 2017, it is estimated that the amount of dry powder has risen to USD1.3 trillion. Whilst PE managers search for the best investments, this dry powder sits idle, to the detriment of investors. This is pushing large institutions to increasingly go down the direct investment path, with blue chip names like BlackRock aiming to commit USD10 billion to direct investments under the moniker, BlackRock Long-Term Private Capital.
Many other large institutions, with Canadian pension plans leading the way, are building out their investment portfolios beyond merely holding LP stakes in
Events
12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
