Managers
Mid-market advisory firm Clearwater International has advised Signature Outdoor on its sale to LDC-backed Ocean Outdoor, a provider of external digital advertising sites.
The value of the deal has not been disclosed.
Established in 2003, Signature is the market leader in Premium Large Format outdoor media in Birmingham and the West Midlands, operating some of the region’s most iconic advertising destinations. The company has recently moved offices to accommodate for the anticipated future growth of their premium digital portfolio.
Headquartered in London and founded in 2005, Ocean is a boutique media company specialising in large-format digital billboards, iconic
Sell-side, mid-market M&A firm Cavendish Corporate Finance has advised on the sale of Freedom Finance Ltd, the UK’s largest personal loan broker, to Target Group, a portfolio company of SOF Annex Fund.
Freedom Finance, established in 2007, has undergone strong growth within the loan brokerage market driven by its unique search technology, which provides customers with accurate real time quotations across a panel of both unsecured and secured lenders. The company has partnered with some of the most well-renowned lenders in the UK including Barclays Bank, Sainsbury’s Bank, Creation and Hitachi Personal Finance.
Target is a provider of software
Beringea’s portfolio company Altacor has been acquired by Esperante, a Netherlands-based life science investment company, for an undisclosed sum.
Beringea first invested in Altacor in 2007.
Altacor is a specialty ophthalmology company with a portfolio of eight marketed pharmaceutical products. The company differentiates its development products primarily through formulation or re-profiling existing compounds with established clinical activity and systemic safety.
Esperante is the investment arm of the C&P Group, a global, privately owned group of life science businesses including Nordic Pharma, a fully-integrated, pan-European pharmaceutical and services company, PolyPeptide Laboratories, a global peptide bulk drug actives producer and
Walgreens has exercised its option to complete the second step of its strategic transaction with Alliance Boots and fully combine both companies.
The transaction, subject to shareholder and various regulatory approvals, will form the first global pharmacy-led, health and wellbeing enterprise.
This action follows the launch of the companies’ long-term strategic partnership in June 2012, when Walgreens acquired a 45 percent equity ownership in Alliance Boots, with the option to proceed to a full combination by acquiring the remaining 55 percent of Alliance Boots in three years’ time (Step 2). Walgreens expects to close the transaction in the first quarter
Palatine Private Equity and Bridgepoint Development Capital (BDC) have completed the sale of Hallmark Hotels to Topland.
Palatine and BDC first invested in 2007, each investing GBP9.4m for a combined 78 per cent stake in the business. The sale achieves a 2x return for the private equity firms.
Both private equity investors have executed a buy-and-build strategy. Hallmark was established in 2007 as a vehicle to facilitate the acquisition of under-performing three star hotels with a view to driving operational improvement and achieving a standardised and upgraded level of quality. Today, Hallmark Hotels has a portfolio of eight four star
Rcapital, the London-based private investor, has funded its portfolio company City Motor Holdings in the acquisition of the Marshall Roebuck Peugeot car dealership in Newbury.
The site, now known as City Peugeot, joins the City Motor Holdings existing portfolio of 11 dealerships in Basingstoke, Newbury and Reading. 


The acquisition marks the latest phase of expansion plans for City Motor Holdings with further growth planned over the next 18 months. The City Peugeot site is located adjacent to Gowrings Ford, one of three Ford dealerships in the group.
City Motor Holdings now employs 310 staff across 12 dealerships which
Private equity firm SFW Capital Partners has completed the sale of MD Buyline, a provider of healthcare analytics and supply chain spend intelligence capabilities to healthcare providers and vendors, to TractManager, a portfolio company of Arsenal Capital Partners.
SFW acquired Dallas-based MD Buyline in 2011 and supported CEO Satin Mirchandani and the company’s management team in a wide range of strategic growth initiatives, including enhancing and extending its product lines, investing in the company’s sales, marketing and account management functions, and strengthening the company’s business infrastructure.
These investments enhanced MD Buyline’s service offering for its customers and extended coverage
ACON Investments has held the final closing of the firm’s most recent Latin America middle market private equity fund, ACON Latin America Opportunities Fund IV, with total commitments of USD515 million.
In May 2014, the firm also closed on the issuance of MXD2 billion (approximately USD150 million) of Mexican publicly traded trust certificates, specifically Certificados de Capital de Desarrollo or Capital Development Certificates (CKD).
The fund, together with the CKD and co-investment appetite from many of ACON's limited partners, represents well over USD600 million of potential capital for pan-regional mid-market private equity investments.
ALAOF IV was oversubscribed, with global
Elysian Capital I has acquired, in conjunction with the company’s management, Access Hire Nationwide (AHN) and Welfare Hire Nationwide (WHN).
This is the eighth platform deal in the Elysian Capital I LP Fund and the fourth acquisition made by Elysian in the last 18 months.
AHN specialises in the hire of high quality, specialist powered access and welfare vehicles in the UK. It provides Vehicle Mounted Access Platforms (VMAPs) to end use markets in infrastructure maintenance such as power, street lighting and telecoms. Only a third of the market is currently serviced through outsourced rental fleets with the remainder
HIG Europe, the European affiliate of private equity firm HIG Capital, has completed the acquisition of Café & Té and Panaria, two bakery, coffee-shop and tapas bar operators in the Spanish foodservice market.
Café & Té is a Spanish coffee-shop and tapas bar operator with a network of 147 points of sale with 101 directly operated stores (DOS). Café & Té Group operates, amongst others, through the following brands: Café & Té, Café & Tapas, Il Caffè di Roma, Kroxan and Sky Madrid.
Panaria was founded in 2010. In four years Panaria has developed a network of more than 60
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