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Duff & Phelps has appointed Ben Collett as a Managing Director in its Restructuring Advisory practice.
Working across the firm’s Birmingham, Manchester and London offices, Collett will focus on providing advisory services to corporate clients across the UK and Europe. He joins the firm from IMI Precision Engineering, where he was the Global Director of Strategic Projects.
Prior to that, he spent 27 years with KMPG in the firm’s advisory practice. Collett specialises in assessing and driving strategic change programs involving restructuring, turnaround, profit improvement and mergers and acquisitions for clients in both underperformance and growth situations.
Matt
Amit Jain has rejoined Growth equity private equity firm TA Associates as a Vice President and member of the North America Technology Group in the firm’s Menlo Park office.
“It is a pleasure to welcome Amit back to TA,” says Jennifer M Mulloy, Managing Director at TA Associates and head of TA’s Menlo Park office. “Having been an integral part of the TA team for several years as an Associate, Amit has demonstrated his ability to add value to TA’s growth private equity investment process, particularly in sourcing and analysing new investment opportunities.”
Added Brian J Conway, Chairman and
Log Fire Pizza Co, a popular Italian street food brand, and Delaney’s Donkey, a new Irish Bar and Restaurant concept, are both set to open at The Riverwalk, the GBP30 million redevelopment on the banks of the River Wear in Durham.
This news comes as Odeon’s fit out works progress for the new multi-screen cinema. The Riverwalk is owned by Clearbell Property Partners II LP (Clearbell), a fund managed by Clearbell Capital.
Log Fire Pizza Co and Delaney’s Donkey are due to open this summer, joining Cosy Club and Turtle Bay on The Riverwalk’s striking new promenade. Winner of the
Authority Brands, a home services franchising platform backed by funds advised by Apax Partners, has acquired Clockwork, and certain of its affiliates from Direct Energy Group, a subsidiary of Centrica plc.
The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2019. The acquisition is the third home services add-on for Authority Brands since the company was acquired by funds advised by Apax Partners in September 2018.
Established in 1999, Clockwork delivers critical home services through three leading plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) providers across the United States. Its household-name brands – Benjamin Franklin Plumbing
Ÿnsect, an ag-tech innovator that specialises in breeding insects and transforming them into premium ingredients for fish feed, pet food and organic plant fertilisers, has raised USD125 million (EUR110m) in a Series C funding round to scale up production by building the world’s biggest insect farm in Amiens Metropole, Northern France.
Led by Astanor Ventures — and backed by established international funds including Bpifrance, Talis Capital, Idinvest Partners, Finasucre and Compagnie du Bois Sauvage — this investment is the largest-ever ag-tech funding deal outside of the United States.
With a mission to tap into the natural goodness of insects
iCON Infrastructure Partners II has completed the divestment of its interests in Beckton Energy Limited (Beckton) and Rothes CoRDe Limited (Rothes) to Arjun Infrastructure Partners (AIP). iCON’s co-investor at Beckton, Melquart Limited (Melquart), also sold its stake in the company.
Beckton is the owner of an 18MWe / 28MWth bio-liquids fired combined heat and power plant (CHP), which is strategically located in London and integrated with key infrastructure owned by the major utilities Cadent Gas Limited (formerly National Grid Gas Plc) and Thames Water Utilities Limited, to which Beckton provides heat and electricity respectively.
Rothes is the owner of
East Coast Concepts, a Manchester-based restaurant and bar group, has appointed Simon Kaye as managing director as it targets growth across the UK.
The Group, which was backed by mid-market private equity firm NorthEdge Capital in 2016, operates two restaurant-bar brands – Neighbourhood and Victors. Neighbourhood is inspired by New York’s dining district and operates three city centre locations in Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds. Victors offers an elegant Hamptons-inspired dining concept, with three locations in Oxford, Hale and Alderley Edge.
Kaye has a wealth of experience in the hospitality sector and will be responsible for accelerating growth of the
Independent fund and corporate services provider, the Aztec Group, has added Pete Blackburn and Farhan Ahmed to its real assets senior leadership team in Luxembourg.
Previously based in the Group’s Jersey office, Blackburn has been with the Group for over 10 years and has held numerous positions in relationship management and financial reporting, gaining exposure to a wide range of asset classes and structures, including mezzanine, mid-market buyout funds and fund of funds. He was promoted to Associate Director in 2013.
In his new role, Blackburn will have overall responsibility for a portfolio of real estate and infrastructure clients,
By Denise Davidson, Associate Partner, EY – Investor demand for long-term, non-correlated returns is driving convergence and competition, pitting traditionally distinct players against one another in a new alternatives middle ground.
Ten years ago, it would have been unusual to find a hedge fund and a private equity house crossing paths in the entrance to a beauty parade, not least because of their differing traits.
Traditionally, the people-driven, synergy-seeking psyche of private equity has seemed far removed from the quant-driven disposition of the hedge fund industry, but market convergence is blurring these lines.
Investor demand for customised products and outcome-oriented
We’d all like to have a crystal ball and see how the markets will perform in future but it remains one of life’s impossibilities. At Private Equity Wire, we’ve tried to do the next best thing and ask the manager community to share their views and opinions on how they see 2019 playing out: in terms of the macro backdrop, deal flow, fee structuring and fundraising.
In Europe, deal volume reached an all-time annual record of 2,230 last year, while deal value reached an 11-year high of EUR199 billion. What might 2019 have in store?
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