Managers
Private equity firm IK Investment Partners’ (IK) IK VII Fund is to sell Transnorm Group (Transnorm), a provider of automation technology used in parcel, distribution and e-commerce warehouses, to Honeywell International (Honeywell) for approximately EUR425 million.
Founded in 1957, Transnorm has grown to become a global market leader for high-performance engineered conveyor solutions. The Company serves a global blue-chip customer base with strong relationships to all major system integrators as well as global parcel and e-commerce companies. In addition to its broad product portfolio, Transnorm also offers for its installed base of circa 160,000 units aftermarket services comprised of spare
Owlstone Medical, a global diagnostics company developing a breathalyser for applications in early disease detection and precision medicine, has completed a USD50 million financing round to drive the global commercialisation of its Breath Biopsy platform.
The round brings the total raised by the company to circa USD73 million since founding in 2016.
As has been previously announced, the initial phase of this financing round was led by Aviva Ventures, the venture capital arm of Aviva plc, a global leader in insurance, and Horizons Ventures, the private investment arm of Li Ka-shing. The additional USD35 million completion of the round
Piper, a specialist investor in consumer branded businesses, has led a GBP15 million investment into Bloom & Wild, the online flower gifting brand that is disrupting Europe’s GBP14 billion fresh cut flower market.
Founded in 2013 by Aron Gelbard and Ben Stanway, Bloom & Wild has transformed the online flower gifting market, pioneering the concept of ‘letterbox flowers’. Its offering allows customers the ability to gift beautiful, high quality, long-lasting, fresh flowers in a convenient slim box that fits through the receiver’s letterbox. More than 50 million flowers have been shipped to date across the UK, France and Germany. Piper’s
Inverleith, a specialist consumer brands investor, has taken a majority stake in Planet Organic, the London health and wellbeing supermarket, food-to-go chain and online retailer.
Inverleith has injected equity into the Company to expand the existing store footprint in London, to more than double the current portfolio of stores over the next 5 years.
Ben Thomson, Chairman of Inverleith, says: “This is an interesting time of change for the High Street with shoppers wanting more community-based shopping. Consumers are looking for an experience when they shop, and for real knowledge about the products offered. They care deeply about the
Forbion, a European life science venture capital firm, has held the final close of its new flagship fund, Forbion IV. The oversubscribed fund closed at EUR360 million in capital commitments, significantly above its original target of EUR250 million.
Forbion IV, like its predecessor fund, Forbion III, will primarily focus on opportunities in the EU including the UK, with the remainder of the fund targeting opportunities mainly in North America.
Forbion’s fourth fund will focus on biopharma investments, building on its track record of creating high-return, high-impact businesses, built around exciting new science, proven management teams or assets sourced from
AnaCap Financial Partners (AnaCap), a specialist European financial services private equity firm, has acquired EUR225m of Italian NPLs in two separate portfolios.
A EUR141 million NPL secured portfolio was acquired from Volksbank, primarily comprised of SME loans. The majority of the portfolio is backed by property in Northern Italy. In addition, AnaCap has acquired from Banca di Pisa e Fornacette Credito Cooperativo an EUR84 million NPL portfolio also comprised of predominantly secured SME loans, largely collateralized by real estate in Tuscany.
These acquisitions follow on from more than EUR8 billion of performing and non-performing loans that funds advised by
BGF has exited its minority investment in NewVoiceMedia, the market-leading cloud customer contact platform, to NYSE-listed communications provider Vonage Holdings Corp for USD350 million.
BGF invested in the London-headquartered business in 2015, joining a round of funding to accelerate NewVoiceMedia’s international growth plans, which was principally focussed on the North American market.
NewVoiceMedia has since grown rapidly, with new offices in Dallas and Munich, and international bookings growth of 55 per cent in 2017, and now serving more than 700 customers across six continents. It was positioned in the Leaders’ quadrant of Gartner Inc’s Magic Quadrant for Contact Centre
Piper, a UK specialist investor in consumer brands, has exited its investment in Orlebar Brown, the luxury swim and resort-wear brand, to Chanel SA.
The terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.
Founded in 2007 by Adam Brown and former business partner Julia Simpson-Orlebar, Orlebar Brown pioneered the tailored approach to men’s beach and swim shorts and has since evolved into a full collection of resort wear that revolves around the theme of travel, holiday and sun.
Piper invested £8m into the business in August 2013 enabling Orlebar Brown to increase sales to GBP22m and develop into
Ultimus Fund Solutions is the latest firm to join the The North American Fund Administration Association (NAFAA), a representative group for the alternative investment fund administration industry.
“With the recent acquisition of Woodfield Fund Administration, Ultimus has broadened its mutual fund administration services to include alternative investment funds and we are delighted to have them partner with us in enhancing the alternative fund administration industry,” says founding director, Chris Meader.
“Our involvement with NAFAA allows us to collaborate with other administrators in the US to bring new ideas and standards that will be beneficial for our firm, our clients
After obtaining the necessary regulatory authorisations, Unigrains, the agri-food and agro-industry investor, has completed the acquisition of Mecatherm, a specialist in industrial baking equipment, from Wendel.
Olivier Sergent, President of Mecatherm, says: “We are delighted to begin this new, ambitious development phase with Unigrains. This partnership will enable us to offer more added value, services and support to our clients thanks to the strategic and financial backing of our growth projects and via synergies with the French Grain Growers Association.”
Philippe Pinta, President of Unigrains, says: “This strategic acquisition is part of our effort to gain a better understanding
Events
12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
