FORWARD FEATURES CALENDAR

Allocations

UK Private Equity fund Elaghmore has acquired Formaplex, an integrated manufacturer and supplier of lightweight component solutions to the global automotive, motorsport, aerospace, medical and defence markets. Established nearly 20 years ago and with revenues in excess of GBP60 million, Formaplex operates from four manufacturing sites based across the South Coast of England. The business started as a specialist tooling partner for the F1 motorsport sector before adding injection mould tooling and moulding to its skillset and developing its sought-after expertise in composite components. Formaplex employs over 500 employees, and, following the acquisition, the business will continue to be led
Claret Capital Partners Limited (Claret) (formerly Harbert European Growth Capital), has held the first closing of its third fund, which will continue to invest in innovative growth stage tech and life science businesses throughout Europe primarily to support organic growth and M&A.
Astia has launched a USD100m early-stage venture fund aimed at addressing the disparity in funding for companies that include women in founding or executive roles.   Led by an investment from Mastercard, the Astia Fund will invest globally in high-growth  companies that have at least one woman in an executive, equity-holding position. Additional  investors include: Priya Mathur, past president of the board of CalPERS; Jim O’Neill former  chief economist and former chairman of Asset Management at Goldman Sachs; Farvatn  Venture; Portola Creek Capital; Tides Foundation; numerous members of Toniic, a global  network of impact investors; and other notable LPs.  
AnaCap Financial Partners (AnaCap), a mid-market private equity investor, has sold Equa bank (Equa) to Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) through its Czech subsidiary Raiffeisenbank as. Based in the Czech Republic, Equa is a tech-enabled full-service challenger bank that focuses on private individuals and Small and Medium Enterprises segments. Equa has an omni-channel distribution strategy that combines an intuitive digital banking platform alongside a selective physical distribution network. AnaCap has transformed Equa into a market-leading, digitally driven challenger bank. Under AnaCap’s stewardship, the bank has grown its deposit base and loan book by more than 12x, leading to increased market shares across
Alex Di Santo, Crestbridge
By Alex Di Santo (pictured), group head of private equity at Crestbridge – It’s a good time to raise assets – which will more than double for the private equity and venture capital space by 2025.
Kirkland & Ellis is advising Pamplona Capital Management (Pamplona) on its acquisition of Signature Foods from funds managed by IK Investment Partners. Signature Foods is a leading chilled convenience food company active in the growing European market, with a strong presence in Benelux.   The team was led by transactional partners David Holdsworth and Rachel Greenhalgh and associate Sam Hare, debt finance partner Kirsteen Nicol and associates Stefan Arnold-Soulby, Jessica Kim and Maurice Walsh, antitrust and competition partner Sarah Jordan and associates Arjun Chandran and Jordan Goater and tax partner Timothy Lowe and associate Anthony Antioch.  
Two West Midlands’ businesses are set to pursue new growth following funding packages from The Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF) totalling over GBP1.7 million.  The duo of deals includes Birmingham-based insurance services firm, Parker Norfolk & Partners Ltd (“Parker Norfolk”) which secured GBP1.6 million, with Worcestershire company, AirTube Technologies Ltd (AirTube), receiving GBP175,000.    MEIF is managed by Maven Capital Partners (Maven) and backed by the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS).     Parker Norfolk provides multi-discipline insurance services that offers businesses a range of multi-insurance asset classes across different geographical markets. The funding package from MEIF Maven Debt
EQ Health Acquisition has closed its upsized initial public offering of 21,999,960 units at a price of USD10.00 per unit, including 2,869,560 units issued pursuant to the exercise in full by the underwriters of their over-allotment option.  The units began trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol EQHA.U on 29 January, 2021. Each unit consists of one share of the Company’s Class A common stock and one-half of one redeemable warrant. Each whole warrant entitles the holder thereof to purchase one share of Class A common stock at a price of USD11.50 per share. Once
Citizens M&A Advisory has served as the financial adviser to Leadec in its acquisition of Diversified Automation, Inc. Founded in 2002, Diversified Automation is a leading automation controls and software solution provider to the express parcel industry. It serves global express parcel and e-commerce companies, prime contractors and integrators with end customers that include Amazon, FedEx Ground and UPS. Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, and with annual sales of approximately $100 million, Diversified Automation has more than 140 engineers and project managers operating in seven locations across the United States.   Leadec, a portfolio company of Triton, is headquartered in Stuttgart,
Cabot Square Capital has substantially increased its equity investment in Blue Motor Finance (Blue). This further round of investment follows the announcement in December of a new GBP300 million financing facility with a leading international bank and provides Blue with sufficient funding to deliver beyond its 2021 plans. Blue continues to deliver very attractive investment opportunities characterised by loan portfolios with relatively low average loan sizes, low term lengths, diversity in originations and customer base, good security and predictable low default rates. Blue’s long term consistency and prudency in credit risk policy has supported this investment and their ongoing performance.

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