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Welcome to the first edition of the new weekly Private Equity Wire newsletter. This week we feature the first contribution from reporter Elizabeth Pfeuti on Europe’s second largest pension investor PGGM and why it is looking to allocate EUR500 million to impact-focused private equity funds.
Advent, one of the industry’s leading PE groups, underscores how much demand there is among LPs for marquee names, closing its ninth global PE fund with USD17.5 billion, while in other news, a big announcement came out of London-based BlueBay Asset Management.
Having grown to EUR13 billion in AUM, its Private Debt business is spinning out
By Elizabeth Pfeuti – With great power comes great responsibility, and in 2019, institutional investors, who collectively oversee tens of trillions of dollars, are becoming alert to what their fiscal might can do.
In May, Europe’s second largest pension investor PGGM announced it had asked its private equity team to help meet its impact investment targets.
PFZW, the pension fund for Dutch healthcare workers and PGGM’s main client, had set out four themes it wanted to use its financial strength to tackle: water scarcity, food security, climate change and healthcare.
The mantle had already been taken up by other asset
Tonkotsu, the Emma Reynolds and Ken Yamada-founded ramen restaurant group is planning expansion after partnering with investment firm YFM Equity Partners (YFM).
Funds advised by YFM the specialist private equity fund manager are investing GBP5 million in Tonkotsu for a minority stake. YFM has a track record of backing businesses across all sectors in the UK. Mike Clarke and Jamie Roberts led the investment for YFM.
Tonkotsu, which is led by Managing Director, Stephen Evans, operates nine restaurants in London and one in Selfridges Birmingham, with two more due to open later this year in Peckham and Shoreditch.
Reynolds
Sheridan Capital Partners (Sheridan) has made an investment in Atlantic Vision Partners (AVP), a vision practice management company. In the transaction, Sheridan invested alongside AVP’s founders and management, who will retain a meaningful ownership stake in the business.
AVP, headquartered in Richmond, VA, serves ophthalmology and optometry clinics throughout Virginia. The Company has achieved significant scale in its core markets, while maintaining a reputation for providing excellent patient care for over 30 years.
“AVP has achieved meaningful scale in its geography,” says Jonathan Lewis, Partner of Sheridan Capital Partners. “The Company has grown significantly due to the team’s focus
Ogier is acting as Jersey counsel for Tarsus Group plc, a London-listed international business-to-business media and events group, on its recommended GBP561 million takeover by private equity firm Charterhouse Capital Partners LLP.
The transaction, which is to be carried out by way of a Jersey Scheme of Arrangement, is expected to complete in Q3 2019, following sanction by Jersey’s Royal Court.
Partner Simon Dinning and managing associate Alexander Curry are working on the corporate aspects of the deal, and partner Nick Williams and managing associate James Angus are advising on the elements of the transaction involving Jersey’s Royal Court.
The
Monroe Capital has expanded its direct originations team with the addition of seven experienced investment professionals – David Fischer and Nick McDearis in the firm’s Atlanta office, Dan Letizia and Tommy Ryan in the firm’s Chicago office, and Jack Bernstein in the firm’s New York office.
In addition, recently hired Stewart Hanlon is in the firm’s San Francisco office and Alex Patil is in the firm’s Los Angeles office.
“We are very fortunate to continue to attract the very best talent to our investment team with the addition of these seven experienced professionals,” says Tom Aronson, Managing Director & Head
Independent Growth Finance (IGF), an independent commercial finance provider, has appointed John Allbrook as Non-Executive Chairman.
Allbrook replaces Matt Cooper, who, during three years as Chairman, helped IGF transition from a small financier to a major independent asset based lender.
Since leaving GE Capital in 2004 Allbrook has built an impressive track record working with private equity and AIM-listed businesses in both the financial services and technology sectors. As CEO of GoIndustry plc, John was instrumental in helping the company to secure an AIM listing. As Executive Chairman of Syscap, he grew revenues and EBITDA significantly. Enabling the successful sale of the business to
The EQT VII fund (EQT VII) is to sell Press Ganey to a consortium of funds managed by Leonard Green & Partners (LGP), affiliates of Ares Management Corporation and other co-investors.
Press Ganey is a provider of safety, quality, patient experience and workforce engagement solutions for healthcare organisations in the US. The Company serves over 41,000 healthcare facilities, more than 75 per cent of US acute care hospitals and over 2,500 outpatient facilities. EQT VII acquired Press Ganey in a public-to-private transaction in 2016, marking EQT VII’s first direct investment in North America.
Together with the management team, EQT
Crane Venture Partners, a venture capital firm focused on early-stage intelligent enterprise startups, has closed Crane I, its first institutional fund. Crane Venture Partners is thematically focused on the pervasive impact of data and data driven solutions on the enterprise.
Crane’s founders, Scott Sage and Krishna Visvanathan, have been investing as a team since 2010, previously backing Icera, H2O.ai, Netronome, Onfido and Trustpilot, amongst others. Crane Partner Andy Leaver has spent the last 20 years scaling Silicon Valley enterprises from startup through to IPO including Ariba, HortonWorks, SuccessFactors and Workday.
“We are truly excited to be at the forefront of
Asoko Insight, an African corporate data platform, and Neu Capital Africa, which discreetly matches global institutional investors with mid-market African businesses, has announced a strategic partnership to enhance their respective offerings.
The partnership will see Asoko combine their unique data acquisition model and corporate database of over 50,000 private African companies, with Neu Capital’s professional investor and corporate finance community in a confidential and curated on-line setting regulated by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority.
The initial phase of the partnership will leverage their complementary business models to bring added value to both mid-market companies from East and Southern Africa who
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