Allocations
Venture capital funds globally reached their best post-2009 crisis period performance in Q4 2018, surpassing the previous best recorded one year earlier, according to eFront’s latest Quarterly Private Equity Performance report.
Performance of VC funds globally reached 1.531x in Q4 2018 – the highest level on record – before dipping back below 1.5x in the first quarter of this year.
2018 was the best ever year for VC performance, with high returns associated with low risk and shorter time-to-liquidity, as VC funds capitalised on a favourable exit environment.
Return dispersion in 2019 remains below the level seen in 2014 to
By Elizabeth Pfeuti​ – Co-investments remain a theme in 2019, as both GPs and LPs increasingly see value in separate partnerships alongside commingled funds.
Earlier this year, the listed Standard Life Private Equity Trust announced it would allocate up to 20 per cent of its net asset value to these partnerships, kicking off with a stake in Midlands-based Mademoiselle Desserts alongside Europe-focused IK Investment Partners.
Institutional investors, too, such as pension and sovereign wealth funds, are getting in on the act. Some of the largest public pensions in the US, including the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, which announced this year
Cairngorm Capital Partners’ second fund, Cairngorm Capital LP II, has acquired Millbrook Healthcare Limited (Millbrook), together with its subsidiaries, Ultimate Healthcare Limited and Consolor Limited.
The transaction marks Cairngorm Capital’s entry into the assisted living sector, a long-held objective for the firm, which was facilitated by the appointment of Dr Amit Thaper as Investment Director in April 2017. Dr Thaper, who practiced as an orthopaedic surgeon with the NHS for several years, will use his knowledge and expertise to help Millbrook to respond proactively to the challenges presented by an ageing population and to enhance service users’ experiences.
Established in
Foresight Group (Foresight) has invested a further GBP4 million of growth capital into portfolio company ONFAB to fund the acquisition of Lancashire based designer and manufacturer of clean air containment products, Envair Holdings Limited (Envair).
ONFAB produces flexible clean-air enclosures and consumables, designed and manufactured in-house from sites in Cheshire and Spain. Founded in 2005 by Oliver Nulty, ONFAB received investment from the GBP60 million Foresight Regional Investment LP fund in September 2017 to facilitate a majority buyout of the business. Since then, with an enlarged team and renewed focus on sales, margins and new products, it has grown by
VR hardware specialist Moiin is forming a USD100 million VC fund, based in Silicon Valley, to aid in the growth of VR gaming globally.
The team behind the new fund plans to seek investment opportunities globally to drive global VR development forward to help usher in the 4th Industrial Revolution of a fully immersive VR world.
Global investment bank GCA Altium has advised Cawood Scientific, a UK-based provider of accredited analytical testing and sampling services in the agriculture and environmental renewables sectors, on its partnership with Waterland Private Equity.
This is the second time that GCA Altium has advised Cawood, having supported the business on its secondary buyout by Inflexion Private Equity in 2017.
Cawood offers multi-disciplinary analytical sampling and testing services to the agronomy, livestock, agrochemical and environmental renewables sectors, and currently serves over 3,000 customers. Headquartered in Berkshire, the company operates across five accredited laboratories and an accredited sampling business, and is supported
Investment company Fortino Capital Partners has taken a majority stake in the Odin Group, an independent ICT service provider consisting of the companies Previder, Heutink ICT and Winvision.
The management of the Odin Group believes that Fortino is the right partner to support their growth ambitions and the further development of the Odin Group, whereby delivering excellent customer service will be paramount.
Odin Group specialises in IT solutions, cloud hosting, security, managed services and consultancy. The Odin Group relies on the knowledge of its 470 employees to provide its customers with the required expertise in making strategic ICT decisions.
The
Alpha Private Equity Fund 7 has finalised the sale contract for the acquisition of AMF from Italglobal Partners, Simax Srl (vehicle of the Faerber family) and HB 2.0, which reinvested together with Alpha in the new shareholder structure.
The completion of the transaction is expected before the summer break. Carmen Faerber, current CEO, will continue to lead A.M.F. together with the current management team. AMF, founded in 1996 by Carmen and Andreas Faerber and based in Bassano del Grappa (VI), is one of the leaders in the market of metal and non- metallic accessories for clothing, leather goods and bijoux,
Alcentra, part of BNY Mellon Investment Management, has closed a EUR5,5 billion capital raise for its latest European direct lending strategy, nearly double its minimum target size of EUR3 billion, with strong demand from a broad range of institutional investors from Europe, Middle East, US and Asia.
This round of fundraising is now closed to new investors. The fundraising brings assets under management for Alcentra’s European direct lending platform to over USD10 billion, and the firm’s total AuM to USD39 billion.
The direct lending strategy provides investors with access to largely pan-European private credit investment opportunities across a wide
Stableton Financial (Stableton) has launched a startup & venture programme as a part of the firm’s alternative investments platform which was announced earlier this year.
The startup & venture program caters to qualified investors, and financial intermediaries in particular, who wish to provide their clients with efficient access to Swiss and European early-stage and growth companies.
Such investments have been difficult to access and required specialised expertise to evaluate. Due to their fiduciary character, lack of securitisation, and administrative overhead, financial intermediaries were previously unable to include startup and venture investments into their investable universe, let alone provide consolidated reporting
Events
12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
