Managers
European private equity firm Cinven has agreed the sale of all 245 ASK Italian and Zizzi restaurants to Bridgepoint for a consideration of GBP250 million.
This transaction represents Cinven’s complete exit from its investment in the Gondola Group (‘Gondola’ or ‘the Group’), the market leader in the UK casual dining sector, following the sale of the PizzaExpress and Byron restaurant brands separately for a combined consideration of approximately GBP1 billion. This sale brings the total sale proceeds to approximately GBP1.3 billion, generating a money multiple of 2.4 times.
In the UK, Zizzi and ASK operate 136 and 109 restaurants,
Maven Capital Partners (Maven) has racieved a 3.8x multiple return on its investment in control systems specialist EFC Group, via a secondary buyout to a consortium of private investor.
The exit from EFC represents the latest profitable disposal by Maven’s Aberdeen-based team. In recent years the team has overseen the sale of a number of high-growth energy services support businesses, including Nessco and Walker Technical for returns of 2.7x and 2.9x respectively.
Aberdeen-based EFC is a niche market leader providing monitoring systems and instrumentation to the oil and gas sector. Its specialist designed and engineered solutions are now used
Africa-focused private equity firm DPI, along with other investors, is to sell Assur Africa Holding (AAH) to the AXA Group “AXA) for a total consideration of approximately EUR198 million.
AAH holds a 77% stake in Nigerian insurance company Mansard Insurance (Mansard). AfricInvest, DEG, FMO and PROPARCO were invested alongside the fund, which was the largest shareholder in AAH. The transaction is expected to close before the end of 2014.
Mansard offers a diverse range of life and non-life products to both institutional and retail clients. Mansard is listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange and is the largest listed insurer by
A new foster placement scheme has been launched in Birmingham, supported by a Social Impact Bond (SIB).
Following a competitive tender process, Birmingham City Council selected Outcomes for Children, a social enterprise within Core Assets Group, to deliver the service, with funding from Bridges Ventures’ Social Sector Funds.
Nationally, too many young people grow up in residential care institutions, where their long-term life outcomes are typically worse than those who grow up in a family. Outcomes for Children has been commissioned to find stable family foster placements for around 60 young people currently in residential care in the Birmingham
Amit Srivastava has joined Cycle Capital Management (Cycle Capital) as Senior Partner
With more than 20 years of experience in venture capital, Srivastava brings to Cycle Capital team a very rich experience in international business development. Until recently, Srivastava served as Managing Partner and CEO of Entrepia Ventures. Prior to joining Entrepia in 2001, he worked for seven years at JP Morgan Chase, including four years at JP Morgan Partners (formerly Chase Capital Partners), where his responsibilities included leading venture capital investments in the electronics sector, oversight of private equity investments in India, and serving as the Portfolio Manager of
Octopus Investments has completed the merger of the five Octopus Titan Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs). The merged Octopus Titan VCT will target an annual regular dividend of 4p per share initially.
This will increase to 5p per share during the two years after the merger, and will also pay special dividends where applicable. The latest special dividends of 15p to Titan VCT 4 shareholders and 10p to Titan VCT 5 shareholders were paid on 21 November.[1] In September Octopus announced the launch of a GBP50 million fundraise across the Titan VCTs, which will remain open following the merger.
The
Figures released by the Bank of England have placed Aldermore third in a list of participants in the Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS).
Aldermore’s net new lending to SMEs as part of the scheme in the third quarter of 2014 was GBP73 million. This continues the Bank’s sustained increase in lending to UK SMEs.
Aldermore Chief Executive Phillip Monks, says: “We are pleased to see that Aldermore is, once again, among the three lenders to have lent the most to SMEs during the third quarter of 2014. Aldermore is a bank that champions SMEs, we know how important small
Canada's private capital industry is poised to have its best year for deal activity in buyout and related private equity (PE) markets since 2007.
That is the main finding from the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association's (CVCA) Q3, 2014 report released today. This is largely due to the CAD12.5 billion merger of Tim Hortons Inc with Burger King Worldwide Inc.
According to Q3 data, Canadian venture capital also continues to grow in terms of money invested and number of deals done. However, new capital commitments to Canadian VC funds continued to decline in the third quarter which is
Mid-market private equity firm Graphite Capital has backed the management buy-out of recruitment company Human Capital Investment Group (HCIG).
HCIG is a fast growing, diversified recruitment company serving a range of specialist areas within the public and private sectors in the UK. It trades under a number of brands focused on health and social care, social housing, construction and infrastructure, and engineering. Its leading brands include Eden Brown, Caritas, Synergy, Proactive, ewi and Resourcing Group.
Graphite has acquired a majority stake in HCIG, with debt funding being provided by HSBC and RBS. The highly experienced senior management team, led
BioMarin and Prosensa have reached an agreement whereby BioMarin will offer to purchase all of Prosensa’s outstanding ordinary shares, at USD17.75 per share, for a total consideration of approximately USD680 million.
In addition, two approximately USD80 million contingent milestones are payable for the approval of drisapersen in the US no later than 15 May 2016 and Europe no later than 15th February 2017, respectively.
Prosensa is a Dutch biotechnology company engaged in the discovery and development of RNA-modulating therapeutics for the treatment of genetic disorders. Its primary focus is on rare neuromuscular and neurodegenerative disorders with a large unmet
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12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
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