Bain Capital Partners has completed the acquisition of Apex Tool Group, a tools manufacturer. The purchase from Danaher Corporation and Eaton was valued at approximately USD1.6bn. Apex Tool is one of the largest global producers of industrial hand and power tools, tool storage, drill chucks, chain, and electronic soldering products for industrial, commercial and demanding do-it-yourself applications. Based in Sparks, Maryland, the company serves a variety of markets, including automotive, aerospace, electronics, energy, hardware, industrial, and consumer retail. Apex Tool will continue to be led by Steve Breitzka as president and chief executive officer, and the current management team. “Bain

Chase Templeton Group, one of the UK’s largest private medical insurance (PMI) specialist intermediaries, has secured investment from Palatine Private Equity. Chase Templeton was founded in 2002 by Kevin Amphlett and is the major consolidator in the PMI broker sector having undertaken 10 acquisitions over the past few years. The move secures the firm’s strategy to undertake further acquisitions of PMI and employee benefit specialist services.   The company operates from offices in Blackburn and Bridgwater in Somerset and employs 50 people. Turnover is expected to reach about GBP12m by the end of 2013.   The investment is the first

The media:tech sector team at Livingstone Partners has sold Taste Festivals to IMG Arts and Entertainment, part of IMG Worldwide, the sport, entertainment and media company. Livingstone advised Taste Festivals’ parent company, Brand Events, and its investor Ingenious Media Active Capital on the transaction. Taste of London and the company’s other international festivals bring together the latest restaurants and world famous chefs to offer signature dishes and inspiration to thousands of foodies in one location over four days.  Since its launch, Taste Festivals has rapidly grown into a global phenomenon. Taste now runs annual events in 17 cities across the

Oakley Capital Private Equity has sold Emesa Group, an online consumer auction platform in the European leisure industry, to Cyrte Investments for a gross consideration of EUR95m.  Oakley Capital Private Equity originally acquired Emesa Group in March 2011 for consideration of EUR35m. The transaction represents a 3.6x gross return for the fund in less than two years of ownership, with an IRR in excess of 100 per cent.   Peter Dubens, director at Oakley Capital Private Equity, says: “Emesa has been another successful investment for the limited partnership. This is a significant disposal for the fund and delivers an attractive

A resurgence of investor confidence in public markets in the closing months of 2012 has left private equity funds facing an increasingly competitive environment for deals, according to research released by BDO’s corporate finance team. With private equity already facing a dearth of quality deals, public company valuations have risen to their highest levels since Q2 2011, meaning that vendors now have a wider choice of where they sell their business.   BDO’s research shows a clear convergence as private equity valuations fell 18.6 per cent while public market valuations rose.  The average price/earnings multiple paid in private equity transactions

Two of Kirtland Capital Partners’ portfolio companies have completed strategic add-on acquisitions. Precision Dialogue, based in Chicago, acquired Hub Marketing Solutions, while SmartSource Computer & Audio Visual Rentals, headquartered in Long Island, NY, acquired CRE Computer Rentals & AV Solutions. Precision Dialogue is an analytics-driven customer engagement firm that improves marketing ROI using customer insights to execute personalised, relevant multi-channel communications.  Hub is a provider of marketing data management and business intelligence solutions designed to enable dialogue-based customer management strategies. The Hub acquisition will add scope and scale to Precision Dialogue’s customer engagement solutions. Precision Dialogue engaged Jones Day and

US retail and consumer merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in 2012 was primarily driven by corporations spinning off businesses, private equity investment in retail, increased cross border activity and expansion into e-commerce, according to PwC’s US retail and consumer M&A insights 2012 Year in Review and 2013 Outlook report. The report finds that strong retail and consumer deal activity in 2012 drove both deal volume and value up from the prior year as the number of larger deals over USD1bn almost doubled.  Private equity activity in the retail sector comprised nearly 40 per cent of deal volume and 55 per

The Thames Valley and South Coast corporate finance team of James Cowper has secured the sale of Reading-based Aggregated Telecom for an undisclosed sum. Acting on behalf of the company’s owner, James Cowper sold 8el to Selection Services, backed by Palatine Private Equity. Founded in 2001 by Justin Hamilton-Martin, Aggregated Telecom which trades as 8el, is a networking, connectivity, voice and hosted telephony service provider to over 40,000 users across the UK. The sale was agreed and finalised on 23 January. Together the companies will boast revenues of GBP37m and around 400 employees. The James Cowper team was led by

BioClinica, a provider of clinical trial management solutions, has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by a holding company controlled by private equity firm JLL Partners. Simultaneously, JLL Partners has reached a definitive agreement to acquire CoreLab Partners, a provider of medical imaging solutions and cardiac safety services based in Princeton, New Jersey. Following the proposed acquisitions, BioClinica and CoreLab Partners will be merged to create a provider of medical imaging services and eClinical solutions for clinical trials. Ampersand Capital Partners, which is the majority owner of CoreLab Partners, will also be a significant investor in the combined