Managers
International law firm McDermott Will & Emery has advised Apposite Capital, a healthcare specialist private equity investor, on its acquisition of a majority shareholding in CrestOptics, a specialist in the development and manufacture of advanced systems for fluorescence microscopy from XYence Capital and management.
As part of the transaction, the early-stage diagnostics research programmes that CrestOptic has been conducting with Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) in the fields of cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and point of care virus detection have been spun off into a sister company, D-TAILS.
CrestOptics is a world leader in scientific optical instrumentation for Fluorescence Microscopy. It
Pollen Street Capital has agreed a sale of Aryza Holdings Limited (Aryza) to Atlas Bidco 1 Limited – a company owned by Macquarie Capital Principal Finance, Pollen Street, and Aryza senior management.
Sika is to acquire MBCC Group, the former BASF Construction Chemicals, from an affiliate of Lone Star Funds, a global private equity firm, for a consideration of EUR5.2 billion.
Stressfreecarrental.com – a new challenger in the online car rental market – has raised GBP534,000 in a funding round led by DSW Ventures and including angel investor Harry Dixon, former technical director at Rentalcars.com.
Stressfreecarrental.com operates a price comparison and booking platform for car hire and airport transfers. It aims to bring a fresh approach to product, service and technology and offer lower prices, improved transparency and better customer experience.
The Manchester-based company already operates in the UK, South Africa, Australia and the US. The investment will allow it to expand its team with the creation of 13 new
Olympus Corporation has launched Olympus Innovation Ventures to invest in pioneering startups with innovative technologies that improve clinical outcomes, reduce healthcare costs and enhance the quality of life for patients.
Olympus Innovation Ventures, a fully owned subsidiary of Olympus Corporation of the Americas, is a venture capital fund focused on startups poised to improve patient outcomes, radically advance the detection and treatment of disease, and transform the surgery suite. The new fund expands upon Olympus’ strategy to strengthen endoscopy and pioneer next-generation tools and procedures for minimally invasive surgery.
Olympus’ venture fund is stage-agnostic, prioritising early- and growth-stage companies globally
Independent Wealth Planners (IWP), a UK-wide group of independent financial advisers, has expanded its nationwide coverage with the acquisitions of Alex M Grant and Custodian Wealth Management.
Alex M Grant, based in Keith, north-east Scotland, joins IWP’s regional firm for Aberdeenshire, Buchanan and Associates, bringing across a total of GBP290 million in client assets. The firm is headed-up by founder and principal, Alex Grant, who has over 32 years’ experience providing independent financial advice to families and businesses.
Surrey-based Custodian Wealth Management was set up in 2004 by directors and financial planners, Branimir Gavrilovic and Richard Sutcliffe. Custodian, with
PixelMEDIA-Docmation, working closely with BV Investment Partners, continues to grow its B2B and B2C ecommerce experience on Salesforce by welcoming the addition of Gears CRM.
Gears specialises in Salesforce Service Cloud, allowing the combined organization to expand its capabilities as a multi-cloud systems integrator. Joining forces last year, Pixel and Docmation’s addition of Gears supports their collective focus to be a leading provider of ecommerce solutions on the Salesforce platform.
Gears is a well-suited addition to Pixel-Docmation with their entrepreneurial roots and focus on Salesforce. Together, Pixel, Docmation, and Gears will be able to help organizations launch, manage, and
Fremman Capital (Fremman) has acquired a majority stake in Kids Planet Day Nurseries (Kids Planet), a UK-based, independently owned nursery operator.
Kids Planet, mostly clustered around the Liverpool and Manchester area (with a recent expansion to Oxford), was established in 2008 by Clare Roberts and her father John Hoban, in response to Clare’s own challenges of finding flexible childcare. With 82 sites, responsible for the education of over 7,500 children, Kids Planet is the largest independent private operator of nurseries in the UK, and third largest operator overall.
Since 2016, CEO Clare Roberts has led a number of acquisitions
Circulus, produced of post-consumer resins (PCR) from recycled low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and a portfolio company of private equity firm Are Partners, has launched in the US market, with a fully operational plant in Riverbank, California.
Circulus is a portfolio company of Ara Partners, a Houston-based private equity firm specialising in industrial decarbonisation investments.
An emerging leader in plastics recycling, Circulus is building out a widespread footprint of plants that utilise advanced technologies with a multistep mechanical process to transform lower grade plastic into resin suitable for a variety of commercial and industrial applications. The company’s products address sustainability challenges
Altus Group Limited, a provider of software, data solutions and independent advisory services to the global commercial real estate (CRE) is to acquire Scryer, Inc (dba Reonomy), an AI-powered data platform for the CRE industry, for USD201.5 million (approximately CAD249.5 million) subject to adjustments. The transaction is expected to close on 12 November, 2021.
Mike Gordon, Chief Executive Officer of Altus Group, says: “The combination of Reonomy’s AI-powered data platform with Altus’ suite of software, data and analytics capabilities creates a very compelling client offering that will enable our clients to better manage performance and risk within their CRE portfolios
Events
12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
