Allocations
Kölleda-based Funkwerk AG has sold its UK subsidiary, Funkwerk Information Technologies York, to the Trapeze Group of Canada.
Funkwerk Information Technologies York has until now been a wholly-owned subsidiary of Funkwerk Information Technologies, Kiel, which is in turn wholly owned by Funkwerk AG, headquartered in Kölleda.
An international team from CMS Hasche Sigle and CMS Cameron McKenna led by corporate law expert and lead partner Eckhart Braun advised Funkwerk AG on all aspects of the cross-border transaction.
Funkwerk York markets software solutions to customers worldwide for the planning, simulation and management of railway infrastructure for local and
Rutland Partners has completed the simultaneous acquisitions of AFI-Uplift in the UK, Access Rental Gulf in the Middle East and Hi-Reach in the UK, for a combined enterprise value of circa GBP85m.
AFI-Uplift (AFI), owned by its management team and Equistone, is a provider of powered access equipment rental with 3,700 machines operating from 18 depots across the UK. AFI also provides complementary services including the provision of safety related training and the resale of ex fleet and third party sourced machines.
Access Rental Gulf (ARG), based in the United Arab Emirates, is owned by its management team
SVG Capital has completed the sale of 50.1 per cent of SVG Advisers to Aberdeen Asset Management.
The combined business will be branded Aberdeen SVG and will be led by SVG Capital’s chief executive Lynn Fordham (pictured).
Aberdeen SVG brings together SVG Advisers’ and Aberdeen’s private equity teams’ experience and combines SVG Advisers’ expertise and track record with Aberdeen’s distribution platform, creating a private equity fund management business with assets under management or advice of GBP5.1bn.
The cash consideration of GBP17.5m, together with the fair value of the company’s investment in the combined business will be included
SoftBank Capital, a venture group affiliated with Japan’s SoftBank Corp, has raised an additional USD51.02m to invest in early-stage New York State technology startups.
The additional capital extends SoftBank Capital’s position as a complete early-to-late stage investment partner with an ongoing commitment to New York’s emerging technology scene.
SoftBank Capital NY partner Jordan Levy will oversee investments, with others including Ron Fisher (managing partner), Joe Medved (partner), Ron Schreiber (NY partner) and special partners Eric Hippeau (Lerer Ventures) and Mike Perlis (president and CEO of Forbes Media), also helping to manage the fund.
The major investments will focus
Funky Chunky, a Consolidated Investment Group (CIG) company, has acquired the assets of Gracious Gifts, the creators of FunkyChunky and its line of customised gifts and artisanal gourmet snack items.
“Funky Chunky will use the knowledge, vision, resources, and management expertise of Consolidated Investment Group to grow FunkyChunky into a successful national brand,” says David Merage, chief executive and principal, CIG.
Gracious Gifts was founded in 1994 in Minneapolis by entrepreneur and creative artist Ronni Feuer who developed FunkyChunky. Known for its high quality ingredients and hand-made approach, FunkyChunky Chocolate Caramel Popcorn quickly became a favourite gourmet snack.
TuneIn, a service for listening to the world’s radio, has completed a USD25m round of funding led by Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), with participation from existing investors Sequoia Capital, Google Ventures and General Catalyst Partners.
TuneIn has also surpassed one billion listening hours in the first four months of 2013, with more than 227 million listening sessions in the month of March alone, solidifying the company’s position as the world’s number-one service for listening to live, online radio.
“This investment gives us the capital to accelerate the development of new technologies and support our ongoing expansion,” says John
Mid-market private equity specialist Graphite Capital has sold Aberdeen-based oilfield services company Dominion Gas to Praxair.
Praxair is a US-based Fortune 500 industrial gases group listed on the New York Stock Exchange, which conducts business in over 50 countries.
With facilities in the UK, Norway, Singapore and West Africa, Dominion specialises in the supply of specialist gases, gas cylinders, chemicals, tanks and related services to offshore oil and gas customers in more than 20 countries.
Since the management buyout in May 2007, Dominion has grown its international operations and its product range, both organically and through acquisitions.
Private equity and venture capital investment in Latin America soared to USD11.6bn in 2012, the second highest level in the past decade and more than double the performance in 2011, according to Venture Equity Latin America, an annual report from Thomson Reuters.
The report describes the deal, fundraising, and exit activity in Latin America and the Caribbean for 2012. It is produced for private equity investors under the WorldTrade Executive (WTE) brand, which is affiliated with Thomson Reuters Checkpoint research platform.
The report notes that private equity activity in the region looked bleak in the first half of 2012,
British Columbia Discovery Fund (VCC), a venture capital investment fund managed by Discovery Capital Management Corp (DCMC), has exercised warrants previously issued to it in May 2011 to purchase 1,153,846 common shares of its portfolio company, Vigil Health Solutions.
These shares represent nine per cent of the outstanding common shares of Vigil prior to exercise of the warrants held by the fund or of any other outstanding warrants to acquire common shares of Vigil. The exercise price was USD0.10 per share, so that Vigil receives proceeds of USD115,385 as a result of this transaction.
Following this transaction, as
Octopus has led a GBP2.95m investment round into Conversocial, a specialist in social customer service solutions whose clients include Tesco, Waitrose, Barclaycard, Groupon, Hertz and Net-A-Porter.
With consumers increasingly using social media as a channel to communicate with businesses, Conversocial has developed a social media engagement system for customer service teams. The platform enables companies to communicate and respond efficiently to their customers on Facebook and Twitter.
Alliott Cole (pictured), a principal on the ventures team at Octopus, says: “We’re thrilled to be working with the team at Conversocial as they continue to grow their brand, technology development
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