Managers
The Standard Life European Private Equity Trust (SLEPET) has reported net asset value (NAV) total return for the six months to 31 March 2016 of 11.3 per cent. NAV total return for the 12 months to 31 March 2016 was 17.4 per cent.
The NAV at 31 March 2016 rose 10.2 per cent to 310.2p (30 September 2015; 281.6p) including the payment of a final dividend of 3.5p per ordinary share for the year ended 30 September 2015 in the period.
The Board has declared an interim dividend of 1.80p to be paid on 15 July 2016. It remains
Aleva Neurotherapeutics, a developer of next-generation implants for deep brain stimulation (DBS) in major neurological indications such as Parkinson’s Disease and Essential Tremor, has raised USD 18 million in a Series C financing round.
The round was led by Greatbatch (NYSE:GB), a strategic lead investor contributing a total of USD5 million to the transaction. In February 2016, Aleva and Greatbatch announced the closing of a strategic development, supply and manufacturing agreement. In addition, Aleva will combine their innovative directional lead technology with the proprietary neurostimulation platform of Nuvectra, a recent spin-off from Greatbatch.
Aleva’s existing investors (BioMedPartners, BB Biotech Ventures,
Mid-market private equity firm LDC has backed the GBP22m management buyout of global ID cards business, Magicard, from listed defence and security group Ultra Electronics Holdings plc.
Founded in 1992, Magicard is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of secure desktop ID card printers, software and related consumables for the identity and access control markets. Its products, which include direct-to-card and retransfer printers, are capable of printing and encoding all types of card format, including magnetic stripe, proximity cards and ‘chip and pin’ cards used in the banking sector. Magicard printers are renowned for their built-in card security features, including
Amulet Capital Partners (Amulet), a middle-market private equity investment firm focused exclusively on the healthcare sector, has acquired SynteractHCR Holdings Corporation (SynteractHCR), a contract research organisation (CRO) focused on Phase I‐IV clinical trials for emerging to mid-sized biopharma clients in the US, Europe and Asia.
Terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.
Headquartered outside San Diego, California, SynteractHCR was founded in 1995 and is now a top 20 global full‐service CRO. The company has over 800 staff members across 21 countries. SynteractHCR has a reputation for clinical excellence in complex trials in a broad range of therapeutic areas, contributing
State Street Corporation’s (STT) GX Private Equity Index, a benchmark for comparative analysis of private equity performance, which includes a comprehensive data set dating back to 1980, saw an overall return of 1.11 per cent in Q4 2015.
“Private equity funds posted a modest recovery in the fourth quarter after a brief drop in the previous quarter,” says Will Kinlaw, senior managing director and global head of State Street Associates, part of State Street Global Exchange. “Overall we have seen relatively steady performance in private equity investments for the past few years. The biggest driver in the fourth quarter rebound
Norsk Titanium AS, a supplier of aerospace-grade, additive manufactured, structural titanium components, has closed a USD10 million growth debt facility with Harbert European Growth Capital Fund I (HEGCF) as part of the company’s current aerospace production financing round.
The funds will be used to further strengthen Norsk Titanium’s leadership team and operations worldwide in support of aerospace qualification and production orders for precision structural components produced by the company’s patented Rapid Plasma Deposition (RPD) technology. The investment was led by Fahad Khan at HEGCF. Details of the investment were not released.
“Norsk Titanium is strategically expanding, and the addition of
Monroe Capital has acted as co-syndication agent on the funding of a senior credit facility to support Argyle Executive Forum’s (Argyle) acquisition of Innovation Enterprise. Argyle is an existing portfolio company of the Wicks Group.
Based in New York City and founded in 2004, Argyle is a provider of high-touch engagement events for Fortune 500 C-level executives. The company hosts more than 150 full-day forums, private dinners, virtual conferences, think tanks and roundtable discussions annually for its selective executive membership in the United States and Canada.
Innovation Enterprise is a leading producer of engagement events and marketing services. The acquisition
Lightbend (formerly Typesafe), the company behind the Reactive Platform that includes the Akka, Play and Lagom Frameworks as well as the Scala programming language, has closed a USD20 million Series C funding round led by Intel Capital.
Blue Cloud Ventures also joined Intel Capital as a new investor, with full participation from previous investors Bain Capital Ventures, Polytech Ecosystem Ventures and Shasta Ventures. Vibhor Rastogi, Director for Enterprise Software at Intel Capital, will join Lightbend's board of directors.
Enterprises including Walmart, Verizon, iHeartRadio, William Hill, and Samsung (see case studies) have adopted the Lightbend Reactive Platform to build low latency,
Global private equity group EQT has held the closing of the EQT Ventures Fund, a multi-stage venture capital fund advised by the EQT Ventures team at EQT Partners (EQT Ventures).
The fund will invest in fast-growing, innovative and tech-enabled companies across Europe, supporting great entrepreneurs throughout different stages of growth.
Thomas von Koch, Managing Partner and CEO of EQT, says: “There is a huge opportunity for venture capital investing in Europe – transformational shifts in technology are occurring across numerous industries and this disruption is spurring on new, innovative companies. EQT Ventures is ideally equipped to support great entrepreneurs in
Taiyo Pacific Partners has accumulated in excess of 5 per cent in Hitachi Maxell to become the second largest shareholder in the provider of micro batteries, camera lens and LED headlamp lenses for cars.
Taiyo Pacific Partners is a pioneer of friendly engagement investing in Japan and has been proactively working with senior management at its portfolio companies to enhance shareholder value for over 13 years.
Brian K Heywood, Chief Executive Officer and Founding Partner of Taiyo Pacific Partners, says: “The demise of cassette tapes and CD-ROMs means you probably haven’t heard the name Hitachi Maxell in a while but
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12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
