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Morrisons is the latest well-known UK business to announce a potential sale to private equity following others such as the AA earlier in the year. Last year there were 25 take-private deals with a total value of GBP21.1 billion, according to professional services firm BDO.
Private equity’s interest in public markets has awakened some long-standing criticisms of the sector, but are these justified? What are the benefits of private equity ownership to businesses and how are private equity investment companies taking ESG factors into account? The Association of Investment Companies (AIC) has invited comments on these issues from investment company
GrowthCurve Capital, a control-oriented private equity firm that applies technology, AI, and human capital to create long-term value primarily across the financial and information services, healthcare, and technology sectors, has appinted Susan Soh as a founding member of the firm and Chief of Capital Formation and Investor Relations.
Soh brings over 25 years of investment industry expertise and extensive global investor relationships. Her successful track record includes growing businesses and spearheading strategic and capital development efforts at Two Sigma, Perella Weinberg, Highbridge Capital Management, Lightyear Capital, and Bear Stearns Merchant Banking.
Most recently, Soh was Chief of Strategy and Capital
QV Bioelectronics (QV) – a medical device start-up pioneering a first of its kind electric field therapy implant for the treatment of the most common and aggressive type of brain tumours, has closed a GBP735,000 seed funding round to advance the development of its innovative GRACE implant.
The round was significantly oversubscribed, attracting support from Consilience Ventures, SOSV, the GM & Cheshire Life Sciences Fund, managed by Catapult Ventures, and several angel investors. In Consilience Ventures – a VC that takes a very different approach to funding and service support as an integral part of its business model –
Business communications and technology solutions provider swcomms has acquired neighbouring ICT business, Taurus Clearer Communication.
Taurus has been trading in Exeter and the South West region since 1984 led by managing director Jonathan Sawyer. The merger of the two businesses will serve to extend their technical expertise and product portfolios.
Taurus’s current owners Jonathan and Jan Sawyer will step down and hand over the management to director Richard Whybra, who has been operationally running the company in recent years.
Brian Lodge, managing director of swcomms, says: “Taurus and swcomms have been working in the south west for many years and
Toqio has raised a seed round of EUR8 million from Seaya Ventures, Speedinvest and SIX FinTech Ventures, to scale its global financial SaaS platform. The company makes it easier for any business to quickly launch financial solutions, removing the need to build and manage complex software solutions through its platform and marketplace.
Toqio was founded in 2019 by serial entrepreneurs Eduardo Martínez and Michael Galvin, who previously built a small business SaaS startup, Geniac, which was acquired by Grant Thornton. They are joined by a founding team that supported their previous ventures, bringing together SaaS and financial technology experts.
Exus Management Partners (Exus) has been chosen by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) to deliver the full breadth of its asset management services for the 700 MW Travers Solar Project – Canada’s largest solar farm.
Located in Vulcan County, Alberta, the project represents CIP’s first renewable energy investment in Canada to date, requiring a partner to execute the long-term operations, maintenance and financial operations across the project.
Exus’ technical in-house team will offer CIP a digital monitoring and analysis package to enable complete oversight over the farm’s solar performance and optimisation capabilities.
Dhaval Bhalodia, Partner and Head of Asset Management
Rubicon Partners (Rubicon) has acquired 100 per cent of the share capital of Consolidated Timber Holdings Group (CTHG). This is the fourth investment made by Rubicon through its Fund V, which had its first close in May 2020.
CTHG is one of the UK’s leading importers, distributors and manufacturers of timber products.
The companies in the group are:
Compass Forest Products – importation and distribution of joinery softwoods and garden products
Falcon Panel Products – importation and distribution of wood based sheet materials
Hoffman Thornwood – cutting, laminating and processing of wood based sheet materials
MBM Forest Products –
Foundation Private Equity (Foundation PE), a provider of bespoke secondary solutions across Asia, has entered into a strategic partnership with Tikehau Capital.
Foundation PE is a founder-operated private equity player that specialises in delivering innovative secondary solutions to GPs and LPs across Asia. This firm is headquartered in Singapore, with a presence in Beijing and Mumbai.
Foundation PE targets private equity secondaries in Asia, with a focus on China, India and South East Asia. It specialises in GP-led fund restructurings, purchase of limited partner (LP) interests in existing funds, and other bespoke liquidity solutions for LPs. Foundation PE seeks
Pixel Holdco Ltd, the parent company of cloud centric IT services and data specialist Perfect Image and a portfolio company of Vhiltern Capital, has acquired Cyphra Ltd, a Northern Ireland-based provider of cybersecurity solutions to large public sector organisations, government agencies and private enterprises.
Founded in 2014, Cyphra supplies, implements and supports specialist technical solutions to help customers mitigate risk and protect themselves against the exponential growth in cyber threats, such as ransomware.
Through its partnerships with global cybersecurity vendors, including Palo Alto Networks, F5, Fortinet, CyberArk and Checkpoint, Cyphra provides enterprise grade cybersecurity architecture and solutions, cloud security and
The UK IPO market has continued its resurgence throughout H1 2021 with the number of new listings on the London Stock Exchange already exceeding the number that listed in the whole of 2020, according to research from law firm Pinsent Masons.
As of 28 June 2021, 45 companies have listed on AIM and the Main Market and six more say they intend to list this year. That compares to 31 companies that listed in the whole of 2020.
There was more IPOs in Q1 2021 (20) on the London Stock Exchange than in any previous first quarter of the year
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