Allocations
The current year is on track to be the best year for M&A ever. Since the beginning of the year, global M&A volumes have reached USD1800bn according to Bloomberg, the best first five months in twenty years. Such figures include announced, pending and completed deals and are thus subject to revisions. Overall, US deals dominate, accounting for 45 per cent of M&A activity year to date and in terms of sectors, health care is leading, followed by financials and communications.
By James Williams – Sovereign Wealth Funds are showing a lot of appetite for real estate assets as total AUM in this segment of the alternative funds space continues to build and investors look to diversify their portfolios.
North America remains the most favoured region, with 59 per cent of SWFs allocating to that market; down from 72 per cent in 2013 according to the latest research by Preqin in its 2015 Preqin Sovereign Wealth Fund Review.
Indeed, 57 per cent prefer a global approach, broadening out their portfolios to include trophy real estate assets as well as exposure to private
Following on from last week’s extract from the Preqin Hedge Fund Spotlight | May 2015, which focused on the largest hedge fund managers in the industry, Simon Dhadwal takes an in-depth look at the ‘USD1bn Club’ of institutional investors allocating at least USD1bn to hedge funds, including the significance of this group, investment preferences and new entrants to the Club.
The past 12 months have seen mediocre performance generated by the industry as a whole and a handful of high-profile pension funds publicly announced their intention to scale back their hedge fund allocations. Nevertheless, assets under management (AUM) across
Altor Fund IV and Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division partner are to acquire a majority stake in Hamlet Protein from Polaris Private Equity and the founder of the company, Ole K Hansen.
Hamlet Protein is a global provider of soy-based protein solutions used in high value-add animal feed for young animals. The company services more than 50 countries from its two production facilities in Horsens, Denmark and Findlay, Ohio.
“This is another important milestone for Hamlet Protein and we are very excited about our new partnership with Altor and Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division,” says Søren Munch,
Ontario, Canada is making it easier for businesses that produce positive social or environmental impacts, along with a sustainable financial return, to grow and succeed.
The province, in partnership with the Network of Angel Organisations–Ontario (NAO-Ontario), is launching the Impact Angel Alliance. The Alliance will encourage more investors to help kick-start promising, high-growth social ventures in Ontario. This will be Canada’s first impact investing angel network.
“We want to encourage investors to target businesses that focus on achieving more than just profits – by placing their money into businesses that also positively contribute to social or environmental benefits in Ontario,”
The UK deals market is resurgent with Q1 deal volumes up 50 per cent on Q1 2014, according to PwC deals index. Total deal values increased by 96 per cent, driven by a number of 'mega deals' and the ongoing availability of capital.
Stuart McKee, PwC head of corporate finance in the firm’s UK Deals business, says: “Although headline numbers across all deal sizes showed a decline in this quarter, the market for larger deals was significantly more positive driven by the improving macroeconomic environment, increased market confidence, favourable debt markets and a strong UK/US deals axis.”
Though corporate activity
A pool of banks composed by Banca IMI, Banca Popolare di Milano, Banca Popolare FriulAdria, BNP Paribas Italy, GE Capital Interbanca, IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG Italy, UniCredit e UniCredit Bank AG Italy, financed the acquisition and provided the necessary resources to refinance the group’s debt and support its daily operational activities.
Gattai Minoli Agostinelli & Partners assisted the buyer with a team composed by partners Bruno Gattai and Gerardo Gabrielli, senior associate Caterina Gianciotta and associates Eleonora Canonici and Michele Amisano.
Gattai Minoli Agostinelli & Partners also advised Clessidra and the companies in the financing, with a team composed
In an extract from the Preqin Hedge Fund Spotlight | May 2015, Joseph McGee takes a look at the ‘USD1bn Club’, a group of the world’s largest hedge fund managers, and identifies the traits and characteristics that are unique to this distinguished group which controls a vast proportion of industry capital.
Over the past year, hedge fund industry assets have increased, surpassing the USD3tn mark as of December 2014. One notable group active in this space is managers with at least USD1bn in assets under management (AUM) – the ‘USD1bn Club’ – comprised of some of the largest hedge
Glennmont Partners, has completed the acquisition of an 18 MW operating wind farm in the North-East region of France. The wind farm is powered by Senvion turbines and was developed and built by German developer ENERTRAG.
ENERTRAG, which currently provides technical management and maintenance services for over 1,400 turbines, will continue to look after the technical and commercial operations of the wind farm.
This transaction takes Glennmont’s onshore wind portfolio over 210MW across France, Ireland, the UK and Italy. Glennmont continues to develop a diversified portfolio of renewable energy projects across geographies and technologies, to deliver robust and sustainable returns
European private equity firm Cinven is to acquire Labco, one of the largest European operators of medical diagnostic laboratories, from a consortium of investors, for an enterprise value of EUR1.2 billion.
Labco, headquartered in France, operates in France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Belgium and the UK and conducts clinical tests; delivers results to prescribing doctors and patients; and provides assistance with the interpretation of clinical results through in-house laboratory doctors. Labco also operates a large portfolio of hospital outsourcing contracts in Europe, providing services to both ambulatory care and hospitals.
Established in 2003, Labco operates a network of more
Events
12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
