Managers
Private equity firm Livingbridge has completed a GBP9.8 million investment in French restaurant group Le Bistrot Pierre, the Group’s first investment from its new, GBP220m, Enterprise 2 fund.
Established as a single franchise restaurant in Nottingham in 1994 by school friends Robert Beacham and John Whitehead, Le Bistrot Pierre provides customers with great value, authentic French cooking in a relaxing, lively atmosphere. The business now has a family of 14 bistrots located across a variety of locations, from large city centres such as Cardiff and coastal bistrots in Torquay to shopping centres in Newport and market towns like Leamington Spa.
Investec Growth & Acquisition Finance has provided a GBP55 million debt facility to support an affiliate of Sun European Partners (Sun) in its acquisition of Finlays Horticulture Investments Limited and Finlays Horticulture Holdings Limited (Finlays) from the Swire Group.
Blending asset-based and cashflow lending, the funding structure provided by Investec features revolvers and term debt to support the acquisition. It also caters for ongoing working capital and investment to drive future growth.
UK-headquartered Finlays, a distributor of fresh flowers, bouquets and packaged vegetables, generates annual revenues in excess of GBP300 million, selling to multiple retailers in the UK as well
Milbank advises EQT Mid Market on FocusVision acquisitiojn
Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy has advised private equity firm EQT Mid Market in its acquisition, in partnership with management, of technology solutions and services provider FocusVision.
Milbank’s deal team was led by New York-based Corporate partners Brien Wassner and Bob Kennedy.
FocusVision is a provider of quantitative and qualitative technology solutions to the market research industry, providing an online survey platform, research facility video streaming, webcam focus groups, ethnography streaming, mobile device usability studies, content management and end-to-end project management solutions. FocusVision’s services allow research professionals to engage with
Private equity firm HIG Capital has completed a strategic investment in Mr Cat, a Brazilian footwear company headquartered in Rio de Janeiro.
Present in 26 Brazilian states through more than 200 dedicated stores, Mr Cat offers a complete footwear portfolio for men and women, as well as accessories under the nationally recognized Mr Cat brand. The investment will support the company’s aggressive expansion plan through dedicated stores, other sales channels and international expansion.
“We are very excited to have HIG as a partner. Their ability and experience in helping companies grow will be of great value to Mr Cat.
Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has finalised a loan facility of GBP30 million to Alliance Pharma plc (Alliance) as part of a GBP100m bank club.
Alliance will use the facility to partially finance the GBP127.5 million acquisition of the Healthcare Products Business from Sinclair IS Pharma plc.
The acquisition of 27 products will see Alliance almost double in size and increase its footprint outside the UK, with almost half the new company’s sales coming from overseas markets including the US, Asia Pacific and mainland Europe.
Rosh Wijayarathna, Director of Corporate Banking at SVB’s UK Branch, says: “We are delighted
NorthEdge Capital has supported the management buyout of TKC, an established supplier to the fitted furniture industry.
Denton-based TKC is a specialist distributor of kitchen and bedroom doors and other components, sourcing the majority of its products from Italy. It currently employs 128 staff and supplies to independent kitchen retailers, kitchen manufacturers and local installers. Established in 1989, the company has experienced strong revenue growth, with turnover reaching £19m in the year to September 2015.
TKC offer a wide range of classic, traditional and contemporary doors and components for both kitchens and bedrooms. The company recently launched its newest
Element Materials Technology, a specialist in materials and product qualification testing in the aerospace, oil & gas and transportation markets, has been acquired by Bridgepoint from 3i Group for an undisclosed sum.
Element, which can trace its origins back almost 200 years, operates in the global outsourced materials testing market with 34 laboratories in the US and 19 across Europe. It serves a longstanding customer base of over 10,000 aerospace, oil & gas and transportation companies worldwide. The business generates annual revenues of circa USD290 million.
Element works with its customers to ensure that the materials systems and products
Efesto Energy, the energy fund managed by EOS Investment Management (IM EOS), has completed the acquisition of five photovoltaic power plants from Green Network Group for an overall investment value of circa EUR16 million.
The agreement, achieved after several months of negotiation, is another important achievement also given the stringent criteria imposed by EOS IM on the selection and acquisition processes, which include a thorough due diligence analysis. Efesto Energy has thus successfully completed its first wave of acquisitions of PV plants for a total value of c. EUR 60 million and total capacity of 25 MW. The current portfolio
Signavio, a provider of SaaS-based business process and decision management technology, has completed a EUR31 million minority investment from global growth equity investor Summit Partners.
Signavio plans to use the investment to expand its international footprint and continue its very strong growth trajectory.
Founded in 2009, with offices in Berlin, Singapore and Sunnyvale, Signavio is a provider of cloud-based software that helps businesses efficiently design, implement and manage complex processes, decisions and workflows. With its three products – Process Editor, Decision Manager and Effektif – Signavio offers an intuitive and collaborative process transformation platform, enabling company-wide compliance, process performance
The introduction a new fund vehicle by new regulations governing European Long-Term Investment Funds (ELTIFs) on 9 December will bring more opportunities for professional and retail investors to fulfil their long-term investment objectives.
That’s the view of the Cyprus Investment Funds Association (CIFA), which says that, for the first time, ELTIFs will allow for fund managers to lend directly to the real economy as part of a major milestone marking the increased sophistication of the Capital Markets Union (CMU). CIFA believes that owing to Cyprus’ already well-established Alternative Investment Funds (AIF) legal framework, ELTIFs can be marketed across the EU
Events
12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
