Managers
European SME lender iwoca, and Italy’s Intesa Sanpaolo, are partnering to provide Intesa’s SME clients with new credit products to bridge the funding gap and support growth.
The partnership will leverage iwoca’s market leading SME lending platform and Intesa’s expertise in building banking operations across Italy, Central Europe, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. The strategic partnership coincides with an investment in iwoca by Neva Finventures, Intesa Sanpaolo’s fintech venture capital arm.
Christoph Rieche, co-founder and CEO of iwoca, says: “To date, iwoca has been able to support over 10,000 small businesses with operations across the UK
Palatine Private Equity has invested in The Bunker, a provider of ultra-secure managed IT services to mid-market UK companies.
The transaction sees Palatine back the current management team, led by Phil Bindley, with Andy Hague joining the business as Group CEO. The deal is the fifth deal out of Palatine’s third fund.
The Bunker, which delivers mission critical cloud solutions via its ultra-secure data centres, was founded over 20 years ago and operates nationally from sites across the South of England. Palatine plan to use The Bunker as a buy and build platform to create a full service cyber security
Progressio Investimenti II Fund has completed its acquisition of Garda Plast. Garda Plast a producer of preforms in PET for mineral water, soft drinks and detergents.
Established in 1996 by the Tonoli Family, due to their extensive experience in the mineral water sector as bottlers, Garda Plast quickly emerged as a leading player in the domestic and European markets of preforms. The strong know-how built over the years and the high-tech production facilities guarantee a high quality level that represents one of the key success factors in such a competitive industry.
Progressio, established in 2005, is a private equity
Investors deployed USD21.78 billion to 1,958 US venture-backed companies during the second quarter, marking a significant uptick from the first quarter in capital invested while the number of companies receiving investment was stable, according to the PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor.
Through the first six months of the year, 3,876 companies received USD37.76 billion in financing, setting a pace to near or surpass the USD71 billion invested last year, and confirming that the industry has levelled off after peaking in 2015. Looking to the second half of the year, venture investors will continue to deploy capital to high-growth startups, having raised more than
Drayson Technologies Limited has reached a Five-Year Strategic Research Agreement (SRA) with the University of Oxford (OU) and Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (OUH) in the field of digital health.
The Licensing deal could see millions of NHS patients benefit from the commercialisation of cutting edge technologies invented in Oxford. The University of Oxford and Oxford University Hospitals developed and trialled the technologies in the Oxford Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).
Underpinned by the University’s academic research excellence, engineering expertise and the Trust’s clinical validation, the ground-breaking SRA will create
An affiliate of private equity investment firm HIG Capital (HIG) has acquired BIC Graphic North America and the affiliated Asia sourcing operations (BIC Graphic) from Société BIC.
Founded in 1969 and headquartered in Clearwater, Florida, BIC Graphic, with sales over USD300 million, is one of the largest suppliers in the promotional products industry, specialising in customised writing instruments, hard goods and calendars. BIC Graphic’s quality, innovation, and service are highly regarded by tens of thousands of distributor customers. The Company operates three manufacturing facilities across the United States plus a highly strategic product sourcing operation in Hong Kong and mainland
Liberum Investment Banking has completed eight public market transactions during a busy five-week summer period, acting as financial adviser on two public offers, completing the IPO of a service provider to the film industry, and raising equity for five listed clients in the Real Estate, Healthcare and Telecoms sectors.
Steve Pearce, Co Head of Investing Banking Liberum Capital, says: “This is testament to Liberum’s exceptional capabilities in supporting their clients in achieving strategic goals across a wide range of sectors, using a broad range of funding mechanisms.”
Wholly-owned subsidiaries of Cosco Shipping Holdings and Shanghai International Port (Group) Co have made a voluntary cash offer to acquire Orient Overseas (International) Limited (Orient Overseas) in a deal worth up to USD6.3 billion.
Cosco ShippingHoldings, which was represented by law firm Paul Hastings in the acquisition, is the world’s fourth largest container shipping company and Orient Overseas is the world’s seventh largest container shipping company.
The proposed acquisition marks the latest consolidation in the global maritime industry and one of the largest M&A deals globally so far this year. The combined entity will become the world’s third largest container liner.
Yamibuy, an e-commerce site for Americans to purchase the best Asian snacks, beauty products, health supplements and home appliances, has closed a USD10 million Series A funding round led by GGV Capital, with participation from New Oriental Education & Technology Group, Inc. (NYSE: EDU) and K2VC.
The investment, the company’s first round of institutional funding, was announced at a Jpress conference at Sofitel Wanda Beijing Hotel in Beijing, China. Yamibuy founder and CEO Alex Zhou was joined by GGV Capital managing partner Hans Tung, New Oriental general manager of investment business department Zheng Zhao and K2VC managing partner Shiyu Wang.
United Group, a multi-play (Pay-TV, Broadband, Telephony, Mobile) operator in South East Europe, backed by KKR and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), is to acquire the Croatian and Slovenian media portfolio owned by CME (CETV).
The transaction is subject to the relevant regulatory approvals.
The portfolio of assets includes leading TV channels in Slovenia and Croatia, two economies estimated to post real GDP growth of over 2% annually between 2016 and 2018.
United Group, will invest in those channels to further build their local production capabilities and expand their reach beyond their respective local markets
Events
12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
