FORWARD FEATURES CALENDAR

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PrivateEuity.biz, Israel’s first online secondary trading arena, has signed a series of agreements with senior employees who own shares in high-tech companies, including leading pre-IPO Israeli and North American start-ups.  Following the agreements, which have been signed during the past few weeks, shares held by 14 employees at US, Canadian, and Israeli high-tech companies are currently being presented for sale on the PrivateEuity.biz trading arena.    The North American companies whose employees are presenting shares for sale include Jumio (United States), shares of which are also available on US platform SharesPost; DoubleVerify (United States); and QuickMobile (Canada). The Israeli companies
KKR and Borealis Maritime have acquired Hanseatic Ship Asset Management, a 100 per cent owned subsidiary of Commerzbank AG controlling a modern fleet of 18 container and dry cargo vessels, in a USD254.5 million deal through a joint venture vehicle established by the two firms. Hanseatic Ship Asset Management (HSAM) was established in Hamburg by Commerzbank AG in 2013 as part of a strategy to efficiently reduce their loan exposure to the shipping industry. Vessels with good market prospects and highly desirable specifications were taken over by Commerzbank in restructuring non-performing lending engagements. As a result, HSAM acquired a modern
Crescent Capital Christine Vanden Beukel
Crescent Capital Group’s Crescent European Specialty Lending strategy has co-led the financing for Exponent Private Equity’s acquisition of The BBI Group, a Cardiff, UK-based company specialising in products and technologies in the diagnostics, healthcare, research, defence and food industries, from Waltham, Massachusetts-based Alere, Inc.  EQT Credit and Babson Capital also provided funding for the transaction. “We are pleased to support Exponent’s acquisition of BBI, one of the UK’s leading and longest-serving companies in the global diagnostics industry,” says Christine Vanden Beukel (pictured), Managing Director and head of Crescent’s European Specialty Lending strategy. “Our European Lending Strategy continues to meet the
Dollars
Darktrace has completed a USD22.5 million Series B with Summit Partners, a global growth equity investor. The round completes an exceptional growth year for Darktrace, with Talis Capital extending the Series A they led in March 2015, with a further USD1.8m prior to the Series B round. Darktrace’s Enterprise Immune System represents a new class of cyber defence software that helps enterprises and government bodies protect themselves against advanced attacks and data compromises from within the network. Powered by Bayesian mathematics and advanced machine learning developed at the University of Cambridge, Darktrace analyses network activity and learns the behaviour of
Preqin Tim Friedman
Backstop Solutions Group – a provider of cloud-based solutions designed to help the institutional investment industry save time, increase productivity and make better investment decisions – has partnered with Preqin Ltd.  With this partnership, Backstop users can now seamlessly integrate Preqin investor data into their Backstop CRM platform. “Many of our clients are already using the Preqin database to source potential clients, so this partnership will further streamline their sales and marketing efforts and help them work more efficiently.” says Robert Goldbaum, Backstop’s Vice President of Product & Market Strategy. “With this integration, Backstop clients will have access to the
Union Group has continued its expansion in the growing Peru hydropower sector with the acquisition of Empresa de Generación Eléctrica Canchayllo SAC (EGECSAC), a subsidiary of Rurelec PLC, for a total consideration of USD14.3 million. The deal includes a 5.26MW run-of-river hydro power plant in Junin, Peru, which adds to Union Group’s substantial hydropower portfolio in the country. Across Peru, it is developing close to 1,000 MW of combined capacity.   Juan Sartori (pictured), President and Founder of Union Group, says: “Hydropower is a strategically important sector for Union Group in Peru, one involving long-term, cash-generative real assets that help
Christopher Elvin, Preqin
Investors and fund managers alike frequently benchmark private equity returns against public markets in order to gauge the relative performance of their investments.  For investors, it is an important exercise to undertake to inform portfolio construction decisions and to evaluate the performance of one asset class against another. For fund managers, it forms a key aspect of fund marketing to help secure investor commitments. Private equity returns, however, are not directly comparable with public market indices, due to the asset class’s illiquid nature and irregular timing of cash flows.    To aid the industry in benchmarking performance, Preqin has launched
Richard Baker, president and chief executive of the Managed Funds Association
The Managed Funds Association (MFA) inaugural European Conference, the Global Summit 2015, will be held on 27 October in London. The conference aims to broaden awareness of the important role alternative investments play in the European Union and help fund managers navigate evolving US and EU regulatory frameworks.   “As the global voice for the alternative investment industry and its investors, MFA is excited to announce our upcoming Global Summit,” says MFA President and CEO Richard H Baker (pictured). “This conference will provide a focused day of content designed to help managers gain clarity on what they need to know
The number of high value buy-out deals in Wales doubled last year, as MBO activity has rebounded to pre-credit crunch levels, according to an analysis by Hugh James solicitors and PwC. According to Hugh James and PwC, there were six buy-out deals with an enterprise value of more than GBP3million in Wales in 2014 – up from just three in 2013.   The last time there was this number was in 2007. At the height of the recession in 2009 and 2010, no MBO deals of this size were recorded in Wales at all, with only one in 2011.  
BrightBytes has secured a USD33 million Series C financing led by New York-based private equity and venture capital firm Insight Venture Partners, with Bessemer Venture Partners, Rethink Education and Learn Capital also participating.  The capital will be used to expand BrightBytes' Clarity platform for K-12 leaders, continue globalisation of its customer base and develop engineering and customer success teams. As part of the transaction Nick Sinai, Venture Partner at Insight Venture Partners will join the BrightBytes board of directors. Combining data analytics with sleek user-friendly design, BrightBytes' Clarity platform provides fast, informative answers for administrators managing a diverse range of

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