Allocations
Gryphon Investors, a San Francisco-based private equity firm, has completed the sale of portfolio company TrustHouse Services Group to Elior SCA, a provider of contract and concessions catering headquartered in Paris, France.
Elior partnered with its two main shareholders and TrustHouse’s existing management for the acquisition.
Terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.
Social media marketing company SocialFlow has secured USD10m in a series B funding round.
Fairhaven Capital led the round and was joined by existing investors SoftBank Capital, RRE Ventures, AOL Ventures and Betaworks, as well as new investors kbs+ Ventures and Rand Capital.
SocialFlow will use these funds to accelerate its range and reach, expand its product portfolio and further develop its partner base as the market for intelligent social network engagement and analytics platforms expands.
SocialFlow co-founder and chief product officer Frank Speiser developed the company’s proprietary technology to enable brands, agencies and publishers to actively
Silicon Valley Bank, financial partner to the technology, life science, cleantech, private equity and venture capital industries, has provided Brandwatch, a social media monitoring and analytics company, with a GBP1.5m venture debt facility.
This financing will allow the company to expand globally and invest in product innovation. It also complements existing equity funding Brandwatch raised in March 2012, led by Nauta Capital.
Brandwatch, which is headquartered in Brighton, and also operates in the US and Germany, provides monitoring and analytical services that help enterprises research, monitor and engage with social media. Since its launch in 2007, the company
A cross-office team from Squire Sanders has advised VTB Capital, the investment arm of Russia’s second-biggest lender, in its purchase of a minority stake in Russian satellite-television provider Tricolor TV for an undisclosed sum.
Tricolor TV is the brand of National Satellite Company, the largest satellite television operator in Russia and Europe, with more than 12.4 million registered subscribers and 9.12 million paying subscribers.
VTB Capital is the strategic business investment arm of VTB Group.
The Russian pay-TV market is rapidly growing and VTB Capital is seeking to prepare Tricolor TV for an initial public offering within
National Financial Partners (NFP), a provider of benefits, insurance and wealth management services, is to be acquired by affiliates of private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners.
Under the terms of the agreement, NFP shareholders will receive USD25.35 in cash for each share of NFP common stock they own, in a transaction with an equity value of approximately USD1.3bn, which includes the full value of the company’s convertible debt.
The purchase price represents a premium of approximately 26 per cent over NFP’s closing share price of USD20.05 on 12 March 2013, the last day of trading prior to press
UK mergers and acquisitions activity totalled GBP23.5bn with 213 deals in Q1 2013, up 46.9 per cent compared to Q1 2012 (GBP16bn), but down 22.5 per cent in deal count (275 deals), according to MergerMarkets’ UK M&A Round-up for Q1 2013.
The country witnessed a second consecutive quarterly increase, up 27 per cent from Q4 2012 (GBP18.5bn), and accounted for 31.7 per cent of total European M&A (GBP74.1bn) activity, up from 15.6 per cent in the same period last year.
Results are largely down to the country’s top deal where Liberty Global acquired Virgin Media for GBP20bn, contributing 59.2
Private equity firm Graphite Capital has sold its majority shareholding in Optimum Care, a provider of homes and care to elderly residents, to Four Seasons Health Care, the UK’s largest independent elderly and specialist care provider, which is owned by Terra Firma.
Optimum, which was created in June 2007, now operates 17 homes with a total of 1,213 beds. The homes have high levels of occupancy and operate under the Avery brand name.
Graphite’s development capital investment in Optimum enabled the company to build and acquire care homes across England, starting initially with one trading home. Under its
AXA Private Equity, a European diversified private equity firm, has sold its majority stake in Aixam Mega to Polaris Industries, the US industrial group which specialises in powersports.
Aixam Mega is a European company which produces on-road motorized quadricycles and light duty commercial vehicles. Founded in 1983, the company manufactures and sells its passenger vehicles under the Aixam brand and light duty commercial vehicles under the Mega brand. Its distribution network comprises more than 400 partners throughout Europe.
Aixam Mega is based in Aix-les-Bains, France, and has two industrial sites across the country. AXA Private Equity took a
Bright Horizons Family Solutions, a provider of employer-sponsored child care and early education, has acquired kidsunlimited, one of the UK’s largest providers of nursery care, for a cash consideration of GBP45m.
The acquisition provides an exit for kidsunlimited’s private equity investor, LDC, which backed a secondary buyout of the business in 2008.
Bright Horizons, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, is a provider of child care, early education and other services designed to help employers and families better address the challenges of work and life. It delivers centre-based full service child care, back-up dependent care and
Swander Pace Capital, a private equity firm specialising in investments in consumer products companies, has completed the acquisition of Caleel + Hayden Holdings, d.b.a gloProfessional.
Terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.
"Swander Pace’s reputation and track record with respected brands in the beauty and personal care field is impressive," says Sean Butler, president of gloProfessional. "Through this partnership, we look forward to tapping their expertise and insight as we collaborate to maximise gloProfessional’s growth."
gloProfessional is a leader in the professional beauty domain with mineral-based cosmetics under the glominerals brand, premium skin care products under
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