Huron Capital has sold its interest in Labstat International ULC through its holding company, Apex Laboratories International, in a transaction that returned over six times its original investment. Apex was recapitalized by Alaris Royalty, a Canadian private investment firm, and Labstat management.  Huron’s 2006 investment in Labstat and Apex was made through its second fund, The Huron Fund II, a USD185,000,000 fund closed in 2005.  KPMG Corporate Finance advised Labstat on the transaction and Honigman, Miller, Schwartz and Cohn served as counsel. Based in Ontario, Labstat provides chemistry and toxicology testing services to global tobacco manufacturers for both regulatory and

Private equity firm Z Capital Partners has acquired a 24.97 per cent stake in Affinity Gaming, a casino operator with wholly-owned casino operations in Nevada, Missouri and Iowa, becoming its largest shareholder. "We have great respect for Affinity Gaming and its strong commitment to guests, employees, and partners," says James J. Zenni, president and chief executive officer of Z Capital. "This investment has been a two year process and we see significant potential for long-term growth at Affinity Gaming and look forward to supporting management’s efforts to lead the company into its next phase." "Z Capital has been a long-time

BV Investment Partners, a middle-market private equity firm, has sold its portfolio company Northstar Travel Media, to The Wicks Group of Companies. This is the fourth exit in 2012 for BV Investment Partners. Northstar is a business information and marketing solutions provider to the USD964bn global, travel, tourism, and meetings industries.  The Northstar assets include brands that have been serving the travel industry for over 30 years, including Travel Weekly, Meetings & Conventions, Travel Age West, Successful Meetings, Business Travel News, Incentive, Meeting News, and PhoCusWright. Andrew C. Davis (pictured), a managing director of BV, says: "Northstar’s superb management team

MVC Capital, a publicly traded business development company that makes private debt and equity investments, has closed the sale of SHL Group, a MVC portfolio company, to The Corporate Executive Board for USD660m in cash, subject to customary pre and post closing adjustments. SHL provides workplace talent assessment solutions, including ability and personality tests, and psychometric assessments. The fund first invested USD6.0m in PreVisor in 2006. In January of 2011, SHL acquired PreVisor and the fund received shares in SHL. With the closing of the transaction, the fund anticipates receiving net proceeds that closely approximate the current carrying value of

Eoxis acquired a portfolio of 20 MW solar photovoltaic projects in Italy from SunEdison between Q1 and Q2 2012. The portfolio includes four projects, which were connected by the end of 2011 and which are located in the regions of Puglia and Campania. The assets will be monitored, maintained and operated by SunEdison under long-term agreements.   In a parallel transaction, SunEdison, with Eoxis, closed the financing of two of the projects included in this portfolio through a EUR24.9m non-recourse, long-term senior debt facility with Centrobanca (UBI Banca Group).   This facility was partly guaranteed by SACE, the insurance and

Aureos Capital, a small and mid-cap private equity fund manager, has made an investment in Clinique Biasa, a private hospital and clinic providing medical services in Togo, West Africa. The investment has been made by the Africa Health Fund, which is managed by Aureos Capital. The fund’s objective is to enable low income Africans access to affordable, high quality health services while providing investors with strong long-term financial returns.   Aureos’ USD1.7m investment will enable Clinique Biasa to complete the financing of its modernisation and expansion plan which will cost approximately USD5m. This will in turn increase the range of

Investec Growth & Acquisition Finance has provided a GBP25m debt facility to support the buy-out of Enotria Group, a trade wine importer and distributor, led by chief executive Alison Levett and backed by BlueGem Capital Partners. Enotria was originally founded in 1972 by Remo Nardone and further enhanced by the acquisitions of Wheeler Cellars in 2008 and Great Western Wine in 2010. Headquartered in West London, the group’s wine portfolio is sourced worldwide directly from vineyards. Enotria employs 181 staff and in 2011 generated over GBP100m in sales.   Enotria will be acquired by BlueGem alongside its management team. BlueGem

AXA Private Equity has agreed to acquire a 45 per cent stake in Arkadin, a provider of collaboration services. The transaction, which sees AXA Private Equity working alongside Olivier de Puymorin, founder and chief executive of the company, follows the exit by the historical investors, Apax Partners, Altamir Amboise, Innovation Capital and UFG-Siparex, which supported Arkadin during the first stage of its development. The deal is subject to anti-trust agreement and is scheduled to close by the end of July 2012.   Founded in France in 2001, Arkadin provides a range of remote collaboration solutions (audio, web and video conferencing