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StepStone Group (StepStone), a global private markets specialist, has named five new partners and six new managing directors.
StepStone partner and CEO Monte Brem says: “These talented and hardworking people have left an enduring mark on the firm; they have been instrumental to StepStone’s growth and success. We are proud to work alongside them.”
The new partners are:
Aiyu Nicholson joined StepStone in 2009 and is based in New York. She is a member of the private equity team and focuses on distressed debt and equity investments and co-investments.
Christable Yau joined StepStone in 2010 and is
Mercia Fund Managers has appointed Will Schaffer as Investment Manager. He will be supporting businesses across Yorkshire, with a particular focus on the Sheffield City Region.
Will has six years’ experience in finance, most recently as a mergers and acquisitions specialist with KPMG in Leeds and previously with The McLean Group in Washington DC. He has worked on deals including the private equity-backed merger of Pharmacy2U and ChemistDirect.co.uk and the Pressure Technologies Plc divestment of its Hydratron subsidiary to Pryme Group. For the past 12 months he has been seconded to NorthInvest, where he developed an angel investor network and support
Idinvest Partners, an investor in SMEs across Europe, has held the final closing of its second capital growth fund (Idinvest Growth Fund II) at EUR340 million, surpassing its initial target of EUR300 million.
Idinvest Growth Fund II brings together a panel of renowned investors, of whom more than 75 per cent are based outside France.
Since its launch in 2017, the fund has invested 50 per cent of its total commitments across 15 companies, including Ogury, Secret Escapes, Klaxoon, Vestiaire Collective, and Sophia Genetics.
Idinvest Growth Fund II (IGF II) invests in businesses with strong potential that have
Europa Capital, a pan-European real estate investment manager, has expanded its Private Capital Markets team with the appointment of Ian Currie as Director as it looks ahead to another year of strong capital-raising to support a range of European strategies.
The newly created role will also support the management and growth of Europa Capital’s EMEA-based client relationships across global real estate equity and real estate debt funds, working closely with other Europa Capital affiliates and Mitsubishi Estate’s global marketing team.
Currie brings to the role a strong track record and contact base in real estate business development and investment
Abacus Group, a provider of IT services for alternative investment firms, has completed the acquisition of competitor Proactive Technologies. The two companies will merge under the Abacus Group umbrella.
Since its founding in 2007, Proactive has grown to service over 120 alternative investment clients, mostly in the New York City area. As a result of the acquisition, Abacus Group, which as of year-end 2018 services over 400 clients across the US and the UK, will now be the largest IT managed service provider specialised in alternative investment firms in the New York metropolitan region, based on client count. For year-end
STAR Capital Partnership (STAR Capital) is to acquire ASL Aviation Holdings. Headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, ASL Holdings is a global aviation services provider with operations on six continents.
The Group’s multiple airlines provide ASL with wide-ranging traffic rights and valuable slots at key airports across Europe, Asia and Africa.
ASL’s airlines operate scheduled and charter flights under their own brands and operate passenger and cargo networks on behalf of major international customers including express freight integrators and passenger airlines.
STAR Capital has reached agreement with ASL Holdings shareholders, Compagnie Maritime Belge (51 per cent) and 3P Air Freighters
French private equity investor Siparex recorded a fifth consecutive year of growth in 2018, with business brisk across all of the company’s operating segments.
The Group met or exceeded its targets, with EUR235 million in investments and EUR260 million in exits. All five lines of business (Midmarket, Midcap, Small Cap, Innovation, and Mezzanine financing), spanning the entire corporate growth cycle, have contributed to this strong expansion over the past several years. Assets under management have steadily increased over the past decade, to EUR2 billion.
The Midmarket and Midcap businesses made a prominent contribution to the Group’s overall activity, with
Prestige Funds, a specialist in the management and distribution of direct lending funds, has launched a new multi-manager investment fund that will specialise in allocating to both UK and international private debt and high yield credit managers.
‘Multi Finance Opportunities Fund’ was recently launched and is managed by Prestige Capital Management, a Malta based MFSA-regulated Alternative Investment Fund Manager (AIFM). Prestige has over 10 years operating experience in Fund-based direct lending and fund of fund investing. Multi Finance Opportunities will target returns of 5 per cent – 7 per cent pa and will provide investors with access to absolute returns
Neptune Financial (NepFin), a technology-enabled lower middle market commercial lender, has expanded its presence in the Midwest by opening a Chicago office, which will be led by Matthew Kirst, Senior Managing Director.
In this role, Kirst brings deep industry knowledge and expertise to the firm and will drive initiatives throughout the Midwest.
“There are many phenomenal middle market companies throughout the Midwest and we are excited to expand our practice into the Chicago market so we can work even more closely with those companies on their capital needs,” says Albert Periu, NepFin Co-Founder & CEO.”
Kirst has nearly
Macfarlanes has advised LGPS Central Limited, one of the eight local Government pension scheme pools in England and Wales, on the launch of its inaugural pooled private equity vehicle.
Macfarlanes assisted with both the structuring and the formation of the platform. The platform is predicting annual fund launches, the first of which closed at the end of January 2019, and aims to manage and deploy in excess of GBP2 billion over the next few years for investments in a mixture of fund and direct private investments.
The team was led by investment management partner Alex Amos and tax partner
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