Managers
Highland Europe has closed its third fund in six years, raising EUR463 million to boost funding for globally ambitious European software and internet-enabled businesses.
Significantly oversubscribed, the fund was raised in just 12 weeks and takes the firm’s assets under management to EUR1.1 billion.
There are now 29 active companies in the Highland Europe portfolio, with combined revenues of EUR1.1 billion in 2017. Together the firm’s companies employ over 6,500 people and are based primarily in Germany, the UK, and France and more broadly in Finland, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and the US.
Over the last 18
Paragon Group, a provider of Customer Communications, Identification and Graphics services, has acquired SIMS, the managed services division of St Ives plc. Following this acquisition, Paragon Group revenues will exceed EUR700 million during the next financial year.
SIMS will become part of Paragon Customer Communications’ business in the UK.
With revenue exceeding EUR40 million, SIMS procures a broad range of products and services for blue chip clients to support complete brand engagement programmes. These services will enhance Paragon’s existing supply chain solutions, while SIMS clients will benefit from the data analytics, digital communications and customer engagement capabilities of Paragon
PraxisIFM has acquired Nerine, a provider of private client and corporate administration services to an international client base.
This is Channel Islands-based PraxisIFM’s fourth acquisition in a two year period during which it has grown from employing 300 staff in the summer of 2017 to 520.
Nerine Trust was established in 1997 and the majority of its 92 staff are employed in Guernsey.
PraxisIFM’s Chief Executive Officer, Simon Thornton, says the deal will bring together like-minded teams. “In a world where so many of our competitors are owned by private equity houses or large institutions our continued independence and
SALU Capital (SALU), together with its partners Apex Group, Genstar Capital, and Inlife Holding, has purchased at least 95 per cent of the shares of Augur Financial Opportunities 2 SICAV (AFO-2).
The Luxembourg investment vehicle, which is managed by German Augur Capital and includes the fund’s portfolio companies, German life insurer myLife Lebensversicherung AG (myLife) and Luxembourg-based fund administration and ManCo business LRI (LRI Group), has been acquired from the Fund’s investors in a secondary fund buy-out transaction. As part of the transaction, LRI Group will become part of Apex, a Genstar portfolio company, while myLife will become a wholly
A veteran of litigation finance has launched a well-capitalised company with a commitment to elevate fairness and client objectives in financing commercial and business legal disputes.
Ralph Sutton, formerly chief investment officer of Bentham IMF, has formed Validity Finance to provide businesses, law firms and individuals with non-recourse funding for a wide variety of commercial litigation.
Validity’s backers have committed up to USD250 million of capital to the new business. The company is anchored by a majority commitment from New York and London-based private equity firm TowerBrook Capital Partners, through its Structured Opportunities Fund.
Sutton sees Validity as
OakNorth has provided The Inn Collection Group, one of North East England’s biggest leisure operators with seven sites across Northumberland, County Durham and Teesside, with finance to fund further expansion.
Established in 2006, The Inn Collection Group has become a market leader in developing contemporary inns providing accommodation, food and drink to leisure and business customers. It currently has 215 rooms across its seven sites, but plans to increase this to almost 300 by 2020 with the OakNorth lending.
In addition to opening an eighth inn later this year – a 30-bedroom inn in Amble, Northumberland – the business
Montagu Private Equity (Montagu) is to acquire Wireless Logic Group (Wireless Logic), a smart connectivity platform provider, from CVC Capital Partner’s Growth Fund. The Wireless Logic sale represents the first exit for CVC’s Growth Fund. Terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.
Wireless Logic was established in the UK in 2000 and provides businesses with specialist Internet of Things (IoT) and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) platform services across mobile, satellite, low-power wireless, and fixed line networks. The company’s services enable smart connectivity for applications and devices, creating two-way communication across secure private networks. The platform gives organisations of all sizes the
Magnitude Software, a specialist in delivering unified application data management to global organisations across industries, has acquired Every Angle Software Solutions, a specialist in SAP-powered business analytics.
Every Angle’s self-service solution works on any SAP system (ECC and HANA) and hides the complexity of SAP’s data structure, allowing end users to quickly identify and resolve key business issues.
This third acquisition in the past eight months, and seventh in total, immediately expands Magnitude’s leadership presence in the SAP ecosystem alongside providing a mature base of operations in Europe.
“Magnitude’s mission is to simplify the complex application landscape for
An investment subsidiary of Investindustrial VI (Investindustrial) has acquired Louis Poulsen A/S, a high-end lighting brand with a product portfolio rooted in a strong Danish design heritage, from private equity firm Polaris.
The transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals and expected to close in Q3 2018. The financial details of the transaction have not been disclosed.
Headquartered in Copenhagen and with production in Vejen, Denmark, Louis Poulsen offers a high-end lighting product range for both indoors and outdoors. Louis Poulsen is a leading Scandinavian brand in the high-end luxury lighting industry and one of the main global leading
Arlington Capital Partners has sold Zemax Software Holdings, a provider of optical and illumination design software, to EQT Mid Market US GP. The Company will continue to be led by current CEO Mark Nicholson.
Founded in 1990, Zemax enables its customers to more efficiently and accurately design optical components through its physics-based optimisation and design software. Zemax helps companies achieve a qualified design more efficiently by streamlining the workflow and communication between optical and mechanical engineers.
Zemax Virtual Prototyping tools include OpticStudio, the industry-leading optical design software, and LensMechanix, a unique application that allows mechanical engineers to package optical
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12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
