Atlanta-based private equity firm Hibernian Pacific Holdings (HPH) has bought a portfolio of 45 single family attached and detached residential properties in DeKalb County, Georgia.   The properties were bought from a private seller, with terms not to be disclosed.   Since its inception in 2009, HPH has focused its efforts on acquiring cash-flowing and value-add commercial real estate properties, not residential properties.   “Our core and focus at HPH has been commercial real estate assets and non-performing commercial real estate loans owned by community banks,” says Hibernian Pacific Holdings president and chief executive Jason Joseph (pictured). “This transaction was

Positive Cashflow Finance has secured a GBP22m funding line from RBS Invoice Finance and NatWest in a deal that gives the directors a majority shareholding in the business they founded five and a half years ago.   The company, which was backed by private equity firm Infinity Asset Management in December 2007, recently announced profits of GBP652,000 for 2012, on a turnover of GBP3.6m.   The firm provides funding facilities from GBP10,000 to GBP1m to improve working capital, fund acquisitions and accelerate growth.   Positive’s managing director David Smith (pictured) says: “We have enjoyed a fantastic relationship with our investors.

Private equity funds that closed in 2012 secured on average 44 per cent of their target capital by the time they held a first close, the lowest proportion in the period since 2006, according to a study by Preqin.   In addition, private equity funds closed in 2012 took an average of eight months to reach a first close, compared to five months for funds that closed in 2006.   However, evidence from 2012 suggests reaching a first close quickly can increase the chances of overall fundraising success. Fifty eight per cent of funds closed in 2012 that held a

Private equity firms GMT Communications Partners and Veronis Suhler Stevenson (VSS) have teamed up with management to provide growth capital to IT-Ernity, a provider of business critical managed services and shared hosting for SMEs in the Netherlands.   Founded in 2002 by its managing director Sebastiaan de Koning and R&D manager Tom Pfeifer, IT-Ernity offers a catalogue of standardised fully managed solutions, including system administration, protection, security, application management and other outsourcing services. Through the shared services and connectivity categories, the company offers shared hosting, domain registration and secure infrastructure connectivity through xDSL and fibre. Since 2008, the company has

Avenue Capital Group has acted as sole lender and agent in connection with the debt financing of the acquisition of Freedom Finance Nordic, the largest prime consumer loan broker operating in Sweden, Norway and Finland, by HIG Europe.    Avenue also has made a minority equity investment in Freedom Finance Nordic alongside HIG Europe, the European arm of global private equity firm HIG Capital.    The debt facilities provided by Avenue consist of a unitranche acquisition facility and a revolving credit facility.  They closed in early May 2013.   "Avenue is very pleased to have been able to provide the

The average holding period for private equity-backed portfolio companies increased year on year between 2008 and 2012, according to research carried out by Preqin.   Mega deals (over USD1bn) exited so far in 2013 had an average holding period of 6.2 years, up from just 2.1 years in 2008.   Increased average holding periods have impacted the amount of capital distributed back to investors. After six years, 2001 vintage buyout funds had distributed 95 per cent of paid-in capital to investors, compared to just 33 per cent of paid-in capital after six years for vintage 2007 buyout funds.   A