Managers
Smart Communications, a specialist in enterprise customer and business communications, has completed its spinoff from Thunderhead and launched as an independent company led by its existing management team and backed by tech-focused private equity firm Accel-KKR.
As an independent company, Smart Communications will continue to define and lead the next generation of cloud-enabled customer communications management (CCM) by focusing on scaling its growth in new and existing markets, broadening its industry reach, and accelerating innovation and product development.
Smart Communications’ blue-chip customer base spans three continents and includes over 300 customers from a diverse range of industry sectors, including
Growth private equity firm TA Associates is to back a management buyout (MBO) of Goldman Sachs Asset Management’s (GSAM) Australian-focused investment capabilities and fund platform.
Financial terms of the transaction, which is expected to close by year-end, have not been disclosed. The company will rebrand accordingly.
Since the appointment of Dion Hershan as GSAM’s head of Australia equities in 2007 and the subsequent build out of the investment team, the company has grown to be a leading Australian equities and fixed income fund manager.
The company’s core offering is its Fundamental Australian Equities product set, consisting primarily of
Over three quarters (79 per cent) of venture capital trusts (VCTs) have a fund manager who has been in position for 10 years or more, according to research by the Association of Investment Companies (AIC).
The AIC says this is an impressive figure given that VCTs were only introduced 21 years ago.
Tim Levett is the longest serving VCT manager, having managed Northern Venture Trust for almost 21 years. He is closely followed by Patrick Reeve who has managed Albion VCT for over 20 years.
Both managers feature an additional two times in the list: Levett for managing
Arma Partners has acted as exclusive financial adviser on the sale of Attenda, a portfolio company of Darwin Private Equity, to Ensono, a portfolio company of Charlesbank Capital Partners and M/C Partners.
Attenda is a UK provider of hybrid IT managed services, specialising in running business critical applications.
The acquisition will achieve greater scale and visibility for the combined business, accelerating Ensono’s entry into the UK market.
It will also strengthen Ensono’s offerings across public cloud, dedicated infrastructure and mainframe, to meet the demands of its global client base.
Alternative fund platform Kuber Ventures has warned financial advisors that the EIS market will face significant capacity constraints in 2017.
The firm writes that this will result in missed investment opportunities if investors do not bring forward their due diligence process. Kuber Ventures has identified that recent changes in legislation, specifically those removing the ability to invest in renewable energy production within an EIS investment structure, have reduced the market capacity of investible opportunities by an estimated GBP500 million for the year 2016/17. In previous years, the energy sector would account for approximately a third of the total GBP1.6 billion
Inspired, a schools organisation in Europe, Australia, Africa and Latin America backed by private equity firm Oakley Capital Investments (OCL), has acquired the International School of Europe Group (ISE), St Louis School and St John’s International School.
Oakley Capital Private Equity and Oakley Capital Private Equity II both hold indirect interests in Inspired via their key shareholdings in Educas.
The additions of ISE, St Louis and St John’s will expand Inspired’s global network to a total of 23 schools, providing an outstanding education to over 15,000 students. As part of Inspired’s family of international schools, students and staff at
Lewis & Clark Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on Series A and B stage investments, has raised USD20 million of new capital to drive agriculture innovation.
Founded in 2015, Lewis & Clark Ventures has raised a family of venture capital funds to support the highest potential start-ups in the Midwest US.
The funds focus on sectors such as agricultural technology, enterprise software, healthcare technology and financial technology.
With a total of USD124 million raised to date, Lewis & Clark Ventures has invested in companies including OneSpace, Adarza Biosystems, and SpringBuk.
The new commitment augments the USD104
JZ Capital Partners, a London-listed fund that invests in US and European micro-cap companies and US real estate, has closed the sale of its minority stake in Winn Group.
The stake was sold to a major financial institution for EUR20.8 million (USD23 million) following the receipt of regulatory approval.
Founded in 2002, Winn is a Newcastle-based UK legal services firm specialising in personal injury cases.
The announcement marks the completion of the two-phase transaction to sell JZCP’s stake in six European investments held through EMC 2010 to the same financial institution, which was originally announced in February 2016.
Private equity firm Golden Gate Capital has acquired Tronair Parent from Levine Leichtman Capital Partners.
Tronair will remain headquartered in Holland, Ohio and will continue to be led by its current senior management team, including president and CEO Harley Kaplan.
Terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.
Founded in 1971, Tronair specialises in the design, manufacture, and sale of ground support equipment (GSE) for business, commercial and military aircraft.
Its GSE product lines – comprised of over 1,000 SKUs – are used by over 300 unique aircraft platforms. It serves aircraft OEMs such as Bombardier, Gulfstream,
Private equity investment firm Thoma Bravo has completed fundraising for Thoma Bravo Fund XII, its most recent flagship fund, with USD7.6 billion in commitments.
Thoma Bravo has completed more than 140 software and technology-enabled service acquisitions, representing about USD30 billion in enterprise value.
"Over the past 15 years we have been able to help software and technology companies realise their growth and profitability objectives while launching them into their next phase of innovation," says Orlando Bravo, a managing partner at Thoma Bravo. "We thank all of our investors for giving us the opportunity to continue to implement our model
Events
12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
