Diana, the French food manufacturer backed by AXA Private Equity, has acquired Givaudan’s vegetables, wines and vinegars extracts range. This is Diana’s fourth transaction since June and reflects the company’s ambitious growth strategy. AXA Private Equity has also set up a EUR50m “payment-in-kind” tranche, financed by JP Morgan Mezzanine and Mezzvest, to help finance this and other planned future acquisitions.   The acquisition of the assets from Givaudan follows Diana’s recent purchase of US food manufacturer Pacific Pure Aid and also French mushrooms’ extract specialist Arômes de Chacé. Diana has also recently created Ecuaprotein, a new AquaSea site in Ecuador,

Northzone has acquired an additional 11 per cent of Trustpilot, a provider of retailer reviews, from the Danish governmental seed investment vehicle DTU Symbion Innovation. This brings Northzone’s holding in Trustpilot close to 35 per cent post transaction, making it one of the two largest investors in the company. Founded in Copenhagen, Trustpilot has experienced growth in many major markets including the US, UK, Germany, Italy and France. Trustpilot has more than six million reviews of 100,000 merchants available on the site and the number of reviews grows rapidly with the community of active reviewers expanding globally. “We want to

Investcorp has completed the sale of FleetPride, North America’s largest truck and trailer parts distributor, to TPG, one of the largest private equity investment firms globally, for more than USD1bn. Steve Puccinelli, managing director at Investcorp and head of corporate investment for North America and Europe, says: “FleetPride represents the type of core, mid-market corporate investment that we typically target in the US. We worked closely with FleetPride’s management team from a very early stage in our investment to successfully implement strategic growth plans, thereby enhancing the company’s operations. The success of the FleetPride investment is a testament to our

Arkadin, the global collaboration services provider, has acquired Novasight, a company founded and managed by Philippe Decaesteke specialising in video conferencing services. Through this acquisition, Arkadin will reinforce its video conferencing offer (from the video-as-a-service to managed services) while boosting its development to Unified Communications, solutions which gather all the communication tools within a single interface. Novasight will be able to use Arkadin’s global network to accelerate its own growth. Arkadin will also be able to offer its 25,000 B2B clients the knowledge and expertise of Novasight’s teams and technological partnerships, which the company has built since its creation in

Wind energy specialist Gamesa has sold a wind project in France with installed capacity of 8 MW to Impax New Energy Investors II (NEF II), an investment fund managed by London-based Impax Asset Management, via its portfolio company, Epuron France. La Souterraine wind project in the Limousin region of France will be equipped with four Gamesa G97, 2.0MW turbines.  The construction of the project, which was developed and will be built by Gamesa, will start by the end of the year. Joe Berry, investment director in Impax’s private equity infrastructure team, says: “We are delighted to sign our first Gamesa

Private equity fund Brynwood Partners VI has sold its portfolio company, Balance Bar Company, to NBTY, a specialist in vitamins, supplements and active nutrition products and a portfolio company of The Carlyle Group. Balance Bar, founded in 1992 and acquired by Brynwood VI from Kraft Foods in 2009, has been an innovator in the nutrition/energy bar category. The company, which is headquartered in Valhalla, New York, is one of the leading brands in the high growth USD1bn nutrition/energy bar category. "We are delighted to announce the divestiture of Balance Bar, which was our first investment in our most recent fund,

Monomoy Capital Partners, a New York private equity fund focused on value investing and business improvement, has acquired the assets of MPI from Revstone Industries. Monomoy acquired MPI through its second fund vehicle, Monomoy Capital Partners II. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. MPI is a North American manufacturer of high-precision, fineblanked metal components for powertrain systems, hydraulic systems and other safety-critical automotive and industrial applications. Fineblanking is a dual-press stamping process for cutting, shaping and machining of highly engineered metal components that produces parts with uniform flatness, dimensional accuracy, and near-net finish. The process is ideal for manufacturing

Innova Capital, a Central European private equity fund, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) are investing in EnergoBit Group, an electrical engineering services company in Romania. Innova Capital, a Central European private equity fund, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) are investing in EnergoBit Group, an electrical engineering services company in Romania. Innova Capital, a Central European private equity fund, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) are investing in EnergoBit Group, an electrical engineering services company in Romania. Innova Capital, a Central European private equity fund, and the European Bank for