Darwin Private Equity has completed the management buyout of Esendex, a provider of mission-critical application-to-person SMS services to businesses, in a deal worth GBP11m.   Esendex’s services are used by more than 6,500 businesses around the world to improve customer service, communicate with employees, increase operational efficiency and generate sales.   Clients include Ocado, BAA Gatwick, ASOS, Addison Lee, Dun & Bradstreet, ASDA, and Virgin Media. Esendex offers a combination of web-based tools and the ability to provide clients with direct connectivity to their own systems through highly functional and flexible APIs.   Founded in 2001 by Julian Hucker and

New Zealand private equity investor Rangatira has acquired a 12 per cent stake in benchtop NMR and MRI specialist Magritek for a non-disclosed sum.   The transaction will strengthen Magritek’s balance sheet and enable the company to make a significant investment in its offshore sales and marketing following the launch of its new Spinsolve Benchtop NMR spectrometer earlier this year.   Magritek chief executive Dr Andrew Coy says: "Spinsolve has met with a very encouraging market response particularly from chemists in academia and industries including pharmaceuticals, food, polymers and petrochemicals. Spinsolve is a unique offering in that it provides the

Precision Engineered Technologies, a portfolio company of private equity firm Joshua Partners, has acquired Imperial Machine and Tool Company, a precision boring and machining company based in Wadsworth, Ohio near Akron.   Charles Corpening, the chairman and founder of Joshua Partners, says: "The team at Imperial has built the company into a leading provider of turning, milling, and boring of rough steel into finished parts.  Imperial provides dedicated and complex machining services to long term customers in several high growth markets, including the hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") segment of the oil and gas industry and the steel industry.  With sophisticated machining

NewSpring Capital has led a USD15.65m equity financing in VidSys, a provider of physical security information management (PSIM) software.   NewSpring Capital, a family of private equity funds, invested through NewSpring Growth Capital, the firm’s dedicated technology and business services growth equity fund. Also participating were VidSys’ existing investors – Atlanta Equity, Flybridge Capital Partners, JVax Investment Group and Motorola Solutions Venture Capital.   VidSys provides a PSIM software platform used to run operations centres for public sector agencies and businesses globally. The platform continuously fuses and instantly correlates vast amounts of data gathered from any number or virtually any

Clearwater Corporate Finance’s debt advisory and real estate team has advised holiday caravan park operator Park Resorts on its recent debt and equity refinance of the company.   The deal team was led by partner and head of debt advisory Chris Smith with support from director Paddy Bamford.   Park Resorts operates 39 UK coastal holiday parks across England, Scotland and Wales, incorporating both a holiday sales business as well as a caravan sales business. With headquarters in Hemel Hempstead, it employs over 2,500 staff during the peak holiday season.   Clearwater led the refinancing negotiations for the company with

Wool and the Gang has secured funding of USD2.8m to build on its fast-growing reputation for sustainable fashion, which harnesses the power of the internet and the creativity of the maker movement.   The funding round was led by Index Ventures and Wellington Partners, together with MMC Ventures and a number of other tech investors. The funding enables Wool and the Gang to develop its Gang Collection and marketplace, as well as expanding its existing markets in the US, UK, Europe and Japan.   Wool and the Gang’s vision is to reboot old-style home manufacturing, slashing the time to market for fashion

ECP’s Fund III portfolio company, IHS Mauritius, has secured an additional USD1.035bn of equity and debt to fund new tower purchases and existing tower upgrades.   Following the equity capital raising process, which was led and managed by ECP, IHS has secured a total USD555m of new investment from an Asian sovereign wealth fund (marking its first African investment) as well as from existing investors including Wendel (the European investment firm) and other ECP co-investors.   The World Bank’s International Finance Corporation supplied USD280m financing to IHS’s Nigeria operations while a syndicate led by Ecobank supplied USD200m of debt for

Transom Capital Group has sold Baltic Latvian Universal Electronics (dba Blue Microphones) to The Riverside Company.     Blue Microphones represents the first exit from Transom Capital Fund I.   Founded in 1995, Blue is a rapidly growing developer and marketer of premium quality microphones for professionals and consumers.  The company is the leader in the fast-growing digital USB and iOS microphone market as a result of its technologically innovative, design-forward microphones and brand credibility earned by serving demanding professional recording artists and engineers.    "Blue is very special to us as it was the first investment, and now the