Managers
Browne Jacobson’s corporate finance team has advised the management of Gala Coral on the GBP241m acquisition of Gala Bingo Holdings Limited (Gala Bingo) by Caledonia Investments plc (‘Caledonia).
With its Headquarters situated in Nottingham, Gala Bingo manages 130 clubs throughout the UK and holds an impressive 38% market share with over 1.1 million active members.
The Browne Jacobson team comprised of lawyers Mark Hughes, Gavin Cummings, Emma Hinton and Beth Dowson and Gala’s management team was led by Chief Executive Officer Simon Wykes and Chief Finance Officer Alex Wood.
Wykes says: “The Browne Jacobson team has demonstrated once again why
Specialist private equity investor Calculus Capital Ltd is seeking to raise up to GBP8 million through a new D share class offer for the Calculus VCT.
Proceeds from the fundraising will be used to follow Calculus Capital’s proven strategy of investing in well-established smaller companies with capable and experienced management teams, spread across a range of business sectors.
This approach has contributed to the Calculus VCT delivering superior performance and dividend payments to investors since launch in March 2010.
Calculus VCT has to date paid cumulative dividends of 48.25p per Ordinary Share and 18p per C Share. In addition, the
The Georgian Co-Investment Fund (GCF), a USD6 billion private equity fund based in Georgia, and Georgian construction company AXIS are to build Axis Towers, twin skyscrapers which, when complete, will be the tallest buildings in Tiblisi.
GCF will own 50 per cent of the completed development, while the other 50 per cent will be held by AXIS.
The multifunctional complex consists of two 147 metre tall, 41-storey towers, four floors of which will be underground. One tower will be glazed with dark glass, while the other will feature white stone cladding. The total buildable area of the towers equals 94,000 sq
minicabit, a UK-based online mini-cab price comparison and booking service, has secured GBP1.4 million in funding from some of the UK’s best known investors and business leaders.
The funding was heavily oversubscribed, led by Hambro Perks alongside the team at Oakley Capital. Hambro Perks recently backed Laundrapp, the on-demand app disrupting the dry-cleaning sector and will take a seat on minicabit’s Board, and Oakley Capital has previously advised on the flotation of JustEat and investment in The Hut Group. These high-profile investors include Rupert Hambro, one of the UK’s most respected merchant bankers, Dominic Perks, a serial entrepreneur and successful
Private equity funds managed by Blackstone have agreed to acquire MBAe, a Tier I engine component manufacturer and repair business, from Arlington Capital Partners.
MBAe has facilities across the US, UK and Poland. The company has a well-balanced manufacturing model providing complex machined and fabricated assemblies into production and aftermarket applications across an installed base of 65 engine platforms. MBAe has secured strong positions on next generation engines that will soon come into production. The Company also operates a repair business to help reduce inventories for its customers as their focus increases on the full life cycle management of aero-engine
Simility, a cloud-based fraud detection startup, has closed its USD5.7 million seed round, including tier one investor Trinity Ventures along with angel investors, adding USD2.25 million to the previously announced USD3.45 million investment led by Accel Partners.
“Investing in Simility is an investment in preserving trust in e-commerce, and they’ve already made remarkable progress,” said Trinity Ventures general partner Fred Wang. “In just a year, Simility has hired a team of data science, engineering and operations professionals, opened new offices, and deployed its private beta fraud detection offering in online marketplaces that serve millions of people worldwide.”
Simility’s adaptive fraud
International law firm Simmons & Simmons has advised the UK Department of Health on the launch of the global Dementia Discovery Fund.
The Dementia Discovery Fund is the world’s first venture capital fund dedicated to funding pre-clinical research for a cure or treatment of dementia and is a collaboration between the UK Government (Department of Health), six global pharmaceutical companies (Biogen, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company) and the charity Alzheimer’s Research UK. Simmons & Simmons, working as a team with the Government Legal department, advised the Department of Health on all matters related to
Hedge fund launches are under the spotlight in this extract from the Preqin Quarterly Update: Hedge Funds, Q3 2015.
Alternative mutual funds saw a significant rise in their share of new fund launches in Q3 2015. These structures accounted for 13 per cent of the new launches monitored by Preqin’s Hedge Fund Analyst, a 10 percentage point increase on the previous quarter (Fig 1). Their European equivalent, UCITS vehicles, also accounted for 13 per cent of fund launches in Q3 2015, an increase from 9 per cent in Q2 2015. Single-manager hedge funds maintained their dominance: these funds
This extract from the Preqin Quarterly Update: Real Estate, Q3 2015 examines current closed-end private real estate funds in market, looking at target capital, primary geographic focus, time spent on the road and a sample of the largest funds currently fundraising.
The number of closed-end private real estate funds in market has increased slightly since Q2, with 463 vehicles currently seeking USD160 billion in capital (Fig 1). The make-up of funds in market at the start of Q4 2015 remains relatively consistent, with the majority of funds in market and aggregate target capital focused primarily on North America (Fig 2).
Private equity firm GTCR has closed the previously announced sale of AssuredPartners to Apax Partners.
Founded in 2011, AssuredPartners is the an independent P&C insurance brokerage with offices in over 30 states, the District of Columbia and London. Through Assured’s network of agencies, the Company provides property and casualty and employee benefits insurance brokerage services to commercial enterprises and individuals.
In executing the Leaders Strategy, GTCR partnered with long-time insurance brokerage industry leaders Jim Henderson and Tom Riley to form AssuredPartners in 2011. Henderson and Riley had over 50-years of combined experience in the insurance brokerage industry, with specific experience
Events
12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
