Piper, a leading private equity specialist in consumer brands, has taken a significant, minority stake in bar operator Be At One. Be At One was founded by Steve Locke, Rhys Oldfield, and Leigh Miller, three former bartenders who worked together at TGI Fridays in the 1990s, The trio spotted a gap in then market to produce the finest cocktails in London served by the best quality staff. There are currently 190 exotic drinks on the menu and the company invests GBP5.000 on truing each bartender. Be AT One opened its first bar in Battersea in 1998. Today, the chain runs

Amplio Filtration Group has secured a EUR16 million equity investment from Ambienta SGR, a global private equity firm that invests in the environmental sector. Ambienta made the investment through its Ambienta I fund, and this leads to Ambienta SGR becoming a minority shareholder in Amplio Filtration Group. Ambienta I, started in 2008, has EUR217.5 million of committed capital and it is ranked in the top five private equity funds globally investing in the environmental sector (2011 analysis on Prequin data).   Amplio Filtration is currently delivering double digit growth and revenues of EUR35 million expected for FY 2011 ((2010: EUR22

Chatham Lodging Trust (NYSE: CLDT), a hotel real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on investing in premium-branded, select-service hotels, and affiliates of Cerberus Capital Management, LP, a private investment firm, have completed the acquisition of 64 hotels from affiliates of Innkeepers USA Trust. The joint venture between Cerberus and Chatham acquired the 64 hotels, aggregating 8,329 rooms, for a total gross purchase price of approximately USD1.02 billion, including the assumption of approximately USD675 million of mortgage debt on 45 of the hotels with a weighted average interest rate of 6.71 per cent and maturing in 2017. The other 19 hotels

TA Associates, a global growth private equity firm, has completed the acquisition of CoSentry, an Omaha-based provider of outsourced IT infrastructure services. TA partnered with CoSentry management to acquire the company. Financial terms of the investment have not been disclosed. Selling shareholders include McCarthy Capital, an Omaha-based private equity fund, and WaittCorp Investments, an Omaha-based investment company. Founded in 2000, CoSentry offers a full complement of business continuity and resiliency services, supporting complex IT solutions for enterprise clients. The company provides data center services (colocation, hosting, managed Internet access), managed services (24/7 help desk, network monitoring, compliance), cloud computing (virtual

Following hot on the heels of it’s acquisition of C-nario, YCD Multimedia has completed a new USD6 million fundraising round led by Carmel Ventures, Opus Capital, Pitango Venture Capital and Plenus, together with other existing shareholders. "We are delighted to have assisted this transaction and to be able to invest in the combined entity," says Avi Zeevi, C-nario’s Chairman and General Partner and Co-Founder of Carmel Ventures. "We can now combine the power of our individual strengths and core competencies to establish a leadership position in the digital signage industry. I would like to thank Tamir Ginat for leading C-nario

Pan-Africa private equity firm Emerging Capital Partners has made a US$32 million investment into IHS, a leading telecommunications infrastructure solutions provider. IHS was founded in 2001 and has grown into one of the leading tower infrastructure companies in Africa. The Company offers an end-to-end suite of telecoms infrastructure solutions and counts blue chip mobile network operators MTN, Airtel and Etisalat among its customers. IHS currently has a footprint in Nigeria, Ghana and South Sudan and plans to open offices in Uganda and Kenya early next year.   Commenting on the announcement, Isaam Darwish, CEO of IHS, says: “We are excited

EMPEA has been selected as a Strategic Data Partner and emerging markets private capital data provider for the Private Capital Research Institute (PCRI) global research initiative, led by Harvard Business School Professor Josh Lerner. The PCRI aims to facilitate high quality academic research on the nature and impact of private capital in the global economy. Professor Lerner says: "EMPEA is a leading source of global emerging markets data and is also an important partner in building greater understanding about the impact of private equity across markets. We welcome EMPEA’s support of our efforts to create more transparency around private capital

The UK’s Business Growth Fund (BGF) has signed a strategic partnership agreement with the Scottish Investment Bank’s (SIB) Scottish Venture Fund to boost availability of equity funding for ambitious Scottish businesses. The partnership will create significant potential investment opportunities of up to GBP10 million for Scottish businesses with a solid track record and demonstrable strong growth trajectory. The Scottish Venture Fund was introduced in 2007 to support development of Scotland’s private SME funding market by participating in risk capital fundraisings from GBP2 million to GBP10 million, with up to GBP2 million of investment. In line with other SIB funds, the

JZ Capital Partners Limited, the London listed private equity fund that invests in high quality US and European micro cap companies, has realised its investment in Dantom Systems, Inc (Dantom) for USD40.5 million. The realisation represents a 4.8x multiple of equity capital invested, and a 27.5% IRR. The price realised was fully recognised in the NAV valuation as at 31 August 2011. As at that date, Dantom represented approximately 6.8% of JZCP’s NAV and was one of the top five holdings in the portfolio, by value.       Dantom is a Michigan based company that provides business process outsourcing solutions to

Matrix Private Equity Partners has agreed to sell portfolio company App-DNA Group Limited for USD92 million (c. GBP58 million) to Citrix Systems Inc, subject to final contract.   Total proceeds from the exit will be approximately GBP16.4 million for the Matrix advised fund, The Income & Growth VCT plc. This represents a return of approximately 32 times the fund’s original investment.   App-DNA is a software company whose products enable blue chip customers around the world to save time and money when changing operating systems or virtualising IT applications. App-DNA’s products are in high demand following the launch of Windows