Managers
Cooper’s Hawk Winery & Restaurants, an lifestyle brand centred around food and wine, has secured an investment by a fund managed by the Private Equity Group of Ares Management Corporation (ARES). Terms of the investment have not been disclosed.
Since its founding in 2005, Cooper’s Hawk has built the world’s largest wine club and a highly differentiated and experiential restaurant concept. Today, the company has nearly 400,000 wine club members across its 36 restaurants and tasting rooms. The concept was created with a vision to create memorable moments that enrich lives by bringing a wine country experience to local communities,
Audax Private Equity (Audax), in partnership with management, has completed the sale of Preferred Compounding Corporation (Preferred Compounding) to HEXPOL (STO:HPOL-B).
Headquartered in Copley, OH, Preferred is a leading provider of proprietary and custom mixed rubber compounds, including strips, slabs, pellets, and calendered sheet end forms. The Company maintains relationships with a broad set of blue-chip customers across several end markets, such as automotive, general industrial, and infrastructure. Under Audax ownership, Preferred completed three add-on acquisitions and significantly increased sales volume.
Jay Mitchell, Managing Director at Audax Group, says: “We are proud to have partnered with Ken Bloom and the
Inverness Graham Investments, a lower middle market private investment firm, has raised USD415 million for Inverness Graham Investments IV (IGI-IV), eclipsing its USD300 million target and meeting its hard cap in less than four months. The firm did not use a placement agent.
IGI-IV will continue its strategy of acquiring high growth, technology enabled businesses with a buy and build approach leveraging the 50-year operating history of the Graham Group. The firm typically invests in companies with enterprise values of less than USD100 million and EBITDA between USD3 and USD10 million. The firm has completed 57 transactions, including 21 platform companies,
Maven Capital Partners (Maven), has led a GBP900,000 investment in supercomputing technology specialist, ebb3 Limited (ebb3’).
A total of GBP750,000 was invested by NPIF – Maven Equity Finance (NPIF), managed by Maven and part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund, with a further GBP150,000 provided by the Maven VCTs.
The funding will enable ebb3 to further scale the business, double its headcount and support the growing demand for the company’s complete high-performance virtual workspace.
ebb3 redefine the concept of VDI for organisations that rely on data-intensive applications. Unlike any other service provider, ebb3 securely bring virtual desktops and high-performance
The Kempen European Private Equity Fund has acquired a significant direct interest in Wilvo Group a family business in the province of Brabant in the Netherlands that specialises in the processing of thin sheet metal and precision parts assembly.
Wilvo Group employs 230 people and has an annual turnover of approximately EUR50 million.
The participation of the Kempen European Private Equity Fund is a co-investment with the German investment company Steadfast Capital. The investors have backed the management buy-out by the Wilvo management team, who, as new co-owners, are highly motivated to drive further growth for Wilvo Group, both
Private equity manager Keensight Capital has acquired Infarco’s majority stake in 3P Biopharmaceuticals, a Contract Development and Manufacturing Organisation (CDMO) specialised in the process development and GMP manufacturing of biologics.
Founded in 2006 and based near Pamplona, Spain, 3P Biopharmaceuticals offers a complete biologics production service, from preclinical and clinical stages, all the way to full-scale commercial manufacturing.
3P provides a comprehensive service which is focused on quality, flexibility and a strong, two-way partnership with its clients.
With more than 240 employees and a wide number of customers located in Europe, North America, Australia and Asia, 3P Biopharmaceuticals has successfully
CEE private equity firm Innova Capital is to acquire Optiplaza, one of the major players in the Romanian optical market. The transaction marks further stronger entry of the fund into the attractive and growing optical market.
The funds managed by Innova Capital have signed an agreement to acquire 100 per cent of shares in Optiplaza. This is the second transaction by Innova Capital in the optical space in Romania this year. Both transactions are currently being assessed by the Competition Council and will be implemented following their clearance by the competition authority.
Optiplaza was set up in 2004 and
DW Healthcare Partners, a private equity firm focused primarily on making control investments in North American middle market healthcare companies, has closed its fifth fund.
The fund was oversubscribed and met its cap of USD610 million in total capital commitments. This brings DW Healthcare Partners’ total capital under management to USD1.43 billion.
“We are grateful for the support we have received from both previous and new investors in Fund V. We believe we have earned their trust through our long track record, sourcing model, and differentiated investment strategy,” says DW Healthcare Partners’ Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Andrew Carragher.
DW Healthcare
Venture capital funds globally reached their best post-2009 crisis period performance in Q4 2018, surpassing the previous best recorded one year earlier, according to eFront’s latest Quarterly Private Equity Performance report.
Performance of VC funds globally reached 1.531x in Q4 2018 – the highest level on record – before dipping back below 1.5x in the first quarter of this year.
2018 was the best ever year for VC performance, with high returns associated with low risk and shorter time-to-liquidity, as VC funds capitalised on a favourable exit environment.
Return dispersion in 2019 remains below the level seen in 2014 to
By Elizabeth Pfeuti – Co-investments remain a theme in 2019, as both GPs and LPs increasingly see value in separate partnerships alongside commingled funds.
Earlier this year, the listed Standard Life Private Equity Trust announced it would allocate up to 20 per cent of its net asset value to these partnerships, kicking off with a stake in Midlands-based Mademoiselle Desserts alongside Europe-focused IK Investment Partners.
Institutional investors, too, such as pension and sovereign wealth funds, are getting in on the act. Some of the largest public pensions in the US, including the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, which announced this year
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12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
