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Aviva Investors is to provide over GBP200 million of debt-financing, on behalf of Aviva UK Life and other third-party clients, towards a fleet of new rolling stock for the West Coast Partnership rail franchise, which will operate under the new ‘Avanti West Coast’ rail service, on one of the UK’s busiest rail lines.
The fleet of Hitachi trains, which comprises 135 vehicles and is based on bullet train technology, will be quieter and greener than the rolling stock they replace and are expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 61 per cent across the franchise. The ten seven-carriage electric units
Fundraising for the first vintage of the Green Continuum programme, a joint venture between Emundn and the European Investment Bank (EIB) has successfully reached EUR253 million as of 30 of November 2019. The programme was launched in July earlier this year.
The programme aims to contribute to the deployment of new financing required to meet the commitments made under the Paris Agreement on climate change. Amundi and the EIB launched the partnership to finance European environmental objectives, foster the development of new market instruments, and facilitate access to market financing for smaller companies and green projects, while offering higher yields
Livingbridge, one of the UK’s leading mid-market private equity investors, has appointed Mihir Patel and Joseph Evans as investment managers.
Patel joins Livingbridge from PwC where he was a manager in the Corporate Finance division, gaining lead advisory experience with the Real Estate M&A team. Prior to this, he worked in the Valuations practice with a range of financial services clients, and also in Banking & Capital Markets Assurance. He recently passed Level II of the CFA Program and is a qualified chartered accountant (ACA).
Evans most recently worked at Ennismore International Management Limited as a strategy associate in
Jersey Hemp, which in August became the first licensed operator in the British Isles for the EU-certified cultivation, extraction and production of cannabidiol (CBD) based products, has attracted GBP2 million of venture capital funding.
The funding will be used to establish extraction facilities at Jersey Hemp and provide working capital for the second year of cultivation and CBD production. The investment comes from a group of professional individuals including Bernard Fairman, Chairman and Founder of Foresight Group, who also becomes Non-Executive Chairman of Jersey Hemp.
Since being granted its licence, Jersey Hemp has seen strong demand from wholesale partners, in the
Idinvest Partners, an investor in SMEs across Europe, has arranged the unitranche financing of Keensight Capital’s acquisition of 3P Biopharmaceuticals. It is the 8th deal closed this year by Idinvest’s Private Debt team in the Iberian Peninsula.
3P Biopharmaceuticals is a leading Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) specialized in the process development and manufacturing of biopharmaceuticals through mammalian, microbial and yeast expression systems. 3P Biopharmaceuticals offers solutions at all developmental stages: from initial steps to analytics development, preclinical and clinical phases, and commercial production. Established in 2006 near Pamplona, Spain, the company provides a comprehensive service to a wide
Israeli med-tech venture capital fund Peregrine Ventures has just closed its fourth fund, Peregrine 4, raising USD115 million. Their partners include some of the leading institutional and private equity investors from Israel, the United States, Europe and Australia.
Peregrine 4 will continue to invest in early stage and late stage rounds of medical technology startups. Peregrine now has over USD200 million under management, and an equal amount available for co-investment, follow-on, and late stage investments in its portfolio companies from Peregrine 1, 2, and 3.
Since 2001, Peregrine Ventures has been at the forefront of medical, biotech, and life science
Private equity backed wireless telecommunications services business WHP Telecoms has completed the acquisition of Sitec Infrastructure Services Ltd (Sitec), a delivery-focused project management company providing end-to-end solutions for the UK’s mobile and fixed line network operators.
Sitec specialises in network design, rollout, upgrade, and management to the mobile telecommunications industry. It also has an expanding presence in the wayleave, design (planning) and installation of fixed line fibre optic networks.
The transaction brings together two sector leading businesses, with strong operational and cultural complementarities, to create a group with a turnover in excess of £100m and 500 employees working across
Boathouse Capital, a Philadelphia-based private equity firm, has partnered with Green Shoot Partners to acquire Fresh Dining Concepts (FDC), the third largest Auntie Anne’s franchisee and operator of over 50 in-line stores, baking kiosks and satellite retail units along the East Coast from New York to Florida.
In addition to its Auntie Anne’s operations, the Company also operates several Cinnabon and Carvel stores.
Steve Gord, General Partner at Boathouse Capital, says: “Auntie Anne’s has over 1,200 locations in the US and has established a dominant foothold as the world’s largest soft-pretzel franchise. We are thrilled to partner with Green Shoot
Muzinich & Co has held the first close of the Muzinich European Senior Secured Private Debt Fund at EUR104 million.
The Fund focuses on providing growth financing solutions for European middle-market companies and explicitly incorporates environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations and monitoring into the investment process.
With a target net return of Euribor plus 4 per cent, the Fund will predominantly invest in euro-denominated senior-secured 1st lien debt issued by European small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) (excluding the UK).
“Senior-secured debt instruments offer investors a lower-risk approach to private debt investing,” says Sandrine Richard, Co-Head of Senior Secured, Europe.
Global Parametrics (GP), a provider of parametric protection against climate risks in developing markets, and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), in partnership with the German Development Bank (KfW) and Hannover Re, have launched the Natural Disaster Fund (NDF) Deutschland.
The NDF Deutschland, actively managed by GP, has secured initial commitments of EUR25 million from BMZ and will target investments in risk-transfer instruments exclusively relating to natural catastrophes and climate risks in developing markets – regions that are disproportionately affected by extreme weather events. The fund follows on from and will partner with, the NDF UK,
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