Managers
BlackFin Capital Partners is launching a venture fund focused on FinTech opportunities across Europe.
The venture fund, which will be supported by a new dedicated FinTech team led by Julien Creuzé and Maxime Mandin, will focus on the FinTech sector including all aspects of banking, payments, wealth and asset-management, brokerage, insurance, insurance distribution, financial software and technology, technology related to regulatory requirements, and financial media.
After a first wave of FinTech start-ups mainly focusing on distribution and customer relationship, new ventures are now providing full stack financial services rethinking the whole value chain, BlackFin says.
The fund
Law firm Howard Kennedy has kicked off the 2016/17 VCT season with the early launch of the Octopus Titan VCT from Octopus Investments. The new share offer from the UK’s largest venture capital trust is seeking to raise up to GBP120 million for its GBP309 million fund.
It follows last year’s unprecedented success, where Octopus raised GBP100 million in just seven months.
Octopus Titan VCT invests in a portfolio of early stage companies, a number of which have grown to be established house-hold names such as Zoopla Property Group, Graze.com and SwiftKey.
As well as being the first of the 2016/17 season, Octopus Titan
Roundtree Automotive Group has formed a long-term partnership with Lantern Capital Partners, a middle-market private investment firm headquartered in Dallas, Texas.
Roundtree Capital Partners will focus on the acquisition of high-quality automotive dealerships throughout the US.
Roundtree is the holding company for retail franchises of automotive-related companies extending from California to Louisiana. The formation of Roundtree Capital Partners represents a continuation of a focused approach to acquisitions and building relationships across the automotive industry.
Roundtree’s acquisition strategy is to partner with local entrepreneurial dealership managers who maintain minority equity ownership and have a desire to significantly improve performance.
Six months after creating a consolidation platform in the aeronautical subcontracting sector, Mecadaq Group and Activa Capital have acquired RBDH Marignier, a manufacturer of precision-made gearings with a turnover of EUR8 million.
Located in the Arve Valley, Marignier is an independent subsidiary of the industrial group RBDH.
Its revenues have grown in recent years, notably thanks to partnerships with leading clients such as Zodiac Aerospace, Somfy, Dura Automotive Sytems, Alkan and Hutchinson.
Mecadaq Group has a turnover of EUR20 million in aeronautical subcontracting, mainly from high-precision aerostructural manufacturing, such as aircraft doors for civil aircraft manufacturers Airbus and
Investment banking advisory firm Evercore has extended its strategic alliance for cross-border M&A advisory services with Korea’s NH Investment & Securities for an additional two year period.
The advisory alliance enables Evercore and NH to continue to capitalise on what they believe to be a positive long-term trend driving cross-border M&A activity in Asia.
Ralph Schlosstein, Evercore's president and chief executive officer, says: "We are pleased to extend and expand our Alliance with NH, which we established in 2011. Our longstanding relationship with NH is an important part of our global strategy and enables Evercore and NH to serve domestic
Livingstone’s consumer sector team has advised the management team of Long Tall Sally, a multi-channel retailer of fashion for taller women, on the GBP30 million acquisition of the business by Equistone-backed TriStyle Mode.
Founded in 1975, East London-based Long Tall Sally, led by CEO Andrew Shapin and backed by Amery Capital, offers taller women fashion through its 26 stores located in the UK, Canada, Germany and the US, and its online offering.
The business will continue to be operated independently by the existing management team led by Shapin and Amery Capital Chairman Maurice Helfgott post-acquisition, with both Shapin and
Boutique asset manager Unigestion has held the first close of its fourth dedicated private equity secondaries fund, Unigestion Secondaries Opportunities IV (USO IV).
The fund represents a continuation of the secondaries strategy that Unigestion has deployed since 2000.
USO IV has now received commitments in excess of EUR177 million, which is almost 60 per cent of the fund’s target size. Unigestion is seeking total commitments of EUR300 million.
USO IV seeks transactions at the smaller end of the secondary market, in which high-quality assets can be acquired at attractive valuations. It focuses on small and middle-market funds, fund
An affiliate of private equity and alternative asset investment firm HIG Capital has acquired CABLExpress Corporation d/b/a CXtec and TERACAI Corporation.
Headquartered in Syracuse, New York, CXtec is a provider of refurbished networking and telephony hardware and data centre cabling products to a diverse base of blue-chip customers.
Since its founding in 1978, CXtec and its equal2new brand of certified pre-owned equipment have established a market-leading position with deep domain expertise. CXtec’s systems and testing / certification processes ensure that IT procurement professionals are able to maintain and extend the life-cycle of existing IT infrastructure equipment by purchasing reliable
HIG Europe, the European arm of global private equity firm HIG Capital, is to sell the International School of Europe Group (ISE).
Closing of the transaction is expected in mid-September 2016. Terms have not been disclosed.


ISE, founded in 1958 by the Formiga family, is a group of schools in Italy with over 1,800 local and expatriate students between the ages of three and 18 years old in Milan, Modena, Monza and Siena. ISE is one of the leading IB schools in Europe.
Raffaele Legnani, managing director of HIG and head of HIG’s activities in Italy, says: “Paolo and
Noerr has advised Isaria Wohnbau on its capital increase carried out in connection with its takeover by the US private equity investor Lone Star.
The cash raised amounted to around EUR53 million.
At the same time, Noerr assisted the Munich-based project development company in cancelling the admission of its shares to trading on the regulated market of Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
This was the first withdrawal from the stock market under the new rules on delisting which have been in force since the end of 2015.
A team led by Noerr partners Dr Laurenz Wieneke and Dr Stephan
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