Allocations
Technology investment specialist Mercia Fund Management is launching a fund offering tax-efficient investment in the UK’s fast-growing digital economy.
The Mercia Digital Fund will use the hybrid structure of Mercia’s previous three tax efficient funds, combining the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS), to invest in a diversified portfolio of innovative digital companies with high growth potential.
Key sub-sectors within digital that the fund will target include:
· Fintech – financial technology – in which global investment has more than trebled during the past five years
· The Internet of Things (IoT) – focused around the
Middle market private equity firm Calera Capital has partnered with management to acquire United Site Services (USS), a provider of portable sanitation, temporary fencing and related site services.
USS has over 1,500 employees across 60 branch locations in the US.
James Farrell of Calera Capital says: “CEO Ron Carapezzi and the USS management team have developed USS into a true industry leader. The company has significant momentum and we are excited to support Ron and his team in continuing USS’s impressive history of outperformance.”
“We are extremely pleased to be partnering with Calera Capital to take the USS
A consortium of Duke Street, Partners Group and Tikehau are to acquire Voyage Care on behalf of their clients from HgCapital, in a GBP375 million transaction.
Voyage Care, headquartered in Lichfield, UK is a provider of specialist residential services and supported living for people with learning disabilities, associated physical disabilities, autistic spectrum disorders, acquired brain injuries or other complex needs.
Under HgCapital ownership, Voyage has grown to a business with approximately 8,500 employees, supporting over 2,000 people across 290 care homes as well as supporting approximately 1,000 individuals in supported living and their own homes.
“We are very
Ogier Legal has acted as Guernsey legal adviser to Mid Europa in the establishment of Mid Europa Fund IV, which closed at EUR800 million.
Mid Europa Fund IV is a Guernsey authorised closed-ended investment scheme established primarily to make controlling investments in market leading companies in Central and Eastern Europe and Turkey.
William Simpson (partner) and Bryon Rees (managing associate) led the Ogier Legal Guernsey team and worked with lead counsel Kirkland & Ellis International on the transaction.
Thierry Baudon, Mid Europa's managing partner, says: "We are delighted with the outcome of the fundraising for Fund IV which
Jamieson Corporate Finance, a management advisory firm, has established a Spanish joint venture, Jamieson & Basabe SL.
The new business will be headed up by José Basabe, who will be responsible for sourcing and executing management advisory mandates in the Spanish market.
Basabe is a seasoned financier with more than 20 years’ experience in private equity and investment banking. Since 2010, he has been working as an independent consultant advising on corporate strategy and restructuring. Prior to this, Basabe spent eight years with ABN AMRO Capital as co-head of the Spanish private equity team. Between 1988 and 2001, he
Mid-market advisory firm Clearwater International has advised Signature Outdoor on its sale to LDC-backed Ocean Outdoor, a provider of external digital advertising sites.
The value of the deal has not been disclosed.
Established in 2003, Signature is the market leader in Premium Large Format outdoor media in Birmingham and the West Midlands, operating some of the region’s most iconic advertising destinations. The company has recently moved offices to accommodate for the anticipated future growth of their premium digital portfolio.
Headquartered in London and founded in 2005, Ocean is a boutique media company specialising in large-format digital billboards, iconic
Sell-side, mid-market M&A firm Cavendish Corporate Finance has advised on the sale of Freedom Finance Ltd, the UK’s largest personal loan broker, to Target Group, a portfolio company of SOF Annex Fund.
Freedom Finance, established in 2007, has undergone strong growth within the loan brokerage market driven by its unique search technology, which provides customers with accurate real time quotations across a panel of both unsecured and secured lenders. The company has partnered with some of the most well-renowned lenders in the UK including Barclays Bank, Sainsbury’s Bank, Creation and Hitachi Personal Finance.
Target is a provider of software
Beringea’s portfolio company Altacor has been acquired by Esperante, a Netherlands-based life science investment company, for an undisclosed sum.
Beringea first invested in Altacor in 2007.
Altacor is a specialty ophthalmology company with a portfolio of eight marketed pharmaceutical products. The company differentiates its development products primarily through formulation or re-profiling existing compounds with established clinical activity and systemic safety.
Esperante is the investment arm of the C&P Group, a global, privately owned group of life science businesses including Nordic Pharma, a fully-integrated, pan-European pharmaceutical and services company, PolyPeptide Laboratories, a global peptide bulk drug actives producer and
Walgreens has exercised its option to complete the second step of its strategic transaction with Alliance Boots and fully combine both companies.
The transaction, subject to shareholder and various regulatory approvals, will form the first global pharmacy-led, health and wellbeing enterprise.
This action follows the launch of the companies’ long-term strategic partnership in June 2012, when Walgreens acquired a 45 percent equity ownership in Alliance Boots, with the option to proceed to a full combination by acquiring the remaining 55 percent of Alliance Boots in three years’ time (Step 2). Walgreens expects to close the transaction in the first quarter
Palatine Private Equity and Bridgepoint Development Capital (BDC) have completed the sale of Hallmark Hotels to Topland.
Palatine and BDC first invested in 2007, each investing GBP9.4m for a combined 78 per cent stake in the business. The sale achieves a 2x return for the private equity firms.
Both private equity investors have executed a buy-and-build strategy. Hallmark was established in 2007 as a vehicle to facilitate the acquisition of under-performing three star hotels with a view to driving operational improvement and achieving a standardised and upgraded level of quality. Today, Hallmark Hotels has a portfolio of eight four star
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12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
