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Knight Corporate Finance, a specialist TMT corporate finance boutique, has advised the shareholders of Frontier Voice and Data on its sale to technology solutions provider, Chess ICT.
Frontier was owned and operated by industry veterans Peter Southgate and Sean Linehan who have built a number of successful businesses in the comms sector. Knight CF has a long standing relationship with Peter and Sean having also advised them on the sale of Cable Telecommunications and Pink Telecom also to Chess in 2012.
Southgate says: “After a career in comms spanning four decades, we appointed Knight with a view to realising
Bilateral deals sharply increased in 2017-18 according to data from Investec, as private equity firms increasingly seek out direct sales in an effort to deploy dry powder without the competition of an auction process.
An analysis of 587 deals from 2016-17 and 2017-18 shows that the number of bilateral deals increased by 71 per cent last year relative to the previous year. The value of these deals increased from GBP1.06bn in 2016-17 to GBP7.98bn in 2017-18, with bilateral deals accounting for 19 per cent of all deals by value in the last financial year.
Christian Hess, Head of Financial
Driven by the increased momentum in responsible investing, private capital firms are seeing rising investor demand for integrating ESG considerations into the investment process.
However, with a myriad of factors to consider, it is challenging to collect and monitor ESG and impact information across all stages of the private equity life cycle. With these issues in mind, Preqin Solutions has launched an ESG & Impact module.
The ESG & Impact module enables private capital firms to define and automate a structured responsible investment program. With it, general partners (GPs) can clearly outline their goals and choose KPIs by either
Goodwin’s Private Equity group led a multidisciplinary cross-border team as it advised long-time client GTT Communications (NYSE: GTT) on the completion of its acquisition of Interoute, for approximately EUR1.9 billion (USD2.3 billion).
GTT expects to complete the integration of Interoute within three to four quarters after closing.
The addition of Interoute significantly augments GTT’s scale, expanding its Tier 1 global IP network with one of Europe’s most extensive fibre footprints, strengthening GTT’s leadership in software-defined wide area networking and enhancing GTT’s global team with a world-class sales, operations and customer service organisation.
GTT Communications, Inc. provides multinationals with
Limited Partners (LP) taking stakes in GP management companies via specialist funds is becoming a mainstream dynamic in private equity, according to Coller Capital’s latest Global Private Equity Barometer.
One in six LPs already invest in this strategy, and this is likely to rise to over a third of LPs.
Another, recent development rapidly becoming mainstream is GP-led secondaries. From an almost standing start a few years ago, the volume of GP-led transactions has ballooned. The Barometer shows that such transactions are unlikely to dry up: four out of five LPs see GP-led secondaries becoming a routine part of
Cédric Lalain has joined Artemid as a Partner. Since 2017, Lalain worked as Head of Fixed Income at Assurances Crédit Mutuel and now joins the team which advises funds from the Artemid range.
These funds provide senior financing solutions, with maturities between five and seven years to European SME and mid-cap companies, both listed and unlisted.
“In view of the growth of our business and the success of our last fundraising, we are delighted to welcome Cédric Lalain, who will bring the expertise he has accumulated within the Caisse des Dépôts Group and the Crédit Mutuel Group,” says Annie-Laure
Despite private equity managers raising a record USD453 billion in 2017, it is estimated that the amount of dry powder has risen to USD1.3 trillion. Whilst PE managers search for the best investments, this dry powder sits idle, to the detriment of investors. This is pushing large institutions to increasingly go down the direct investment path, with blue chip names like BlackRock aiming to commit USD10 billion to direct investments under the moniker, BlackRock Long-Term Private Capital.
Many other large institutions, with Canadian pension plans leading the way, are building out their investment portfolios beyond merely holding LP stakes in
Vistra Fund Services (Guernsey) Limited has added to its team with the two new management appointments.
Gail Clark (pictured), joins Vistra as manager of the recently established corporate fiduciary team. Having worked in offshore finance for 28 years, she brings with her a wealth of experience.
Clark has knowledge and expertise in a diverse range of areas including fund administration, corporate fiduciary, private equity and client relationship management.
Vistra provides tailored trust, fiduciary, fund and corporate services to people all over the world. The business employs over 3,300 people, with over 50 of them based in Guernsey. The
Noerr has advised Daimler AG on an investment in Taxify. Daimler, whose mobility services portfolio includes Mytaxi and other ride-hailing services such as Clever Taxi and Taxibeat, now also holds an interest in ride-hailing provider Taxify.
Taxify operates predominantly in Central and Eastern Europe and in Africa. Chinese ride-hailing platform Didi Chuxing already acquired an interest in Taxify in 2017. With its investment in Taxify, Daimler is significantly expanding its ride-hailing portfolio. To date, Taxify has provided transport to more than 10 million passengers with more than 500,000 registered drivers.
Noerr partners Barbara Kusak and Dr Alexander Hirsch assisted
Mid-market private equity house Equistone Partners Europe has realised its investment in Travel Counsellors through a secondary buyout to Vitruvian Partners.
Travel Counsellors was founded in 1994 by travel entrepreneur David Speakman, and has expanded to include international operations in Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, South Africa, Australia and the UAE. In October 2014, Equistone backed a management buy-out of the business led by CEO Steve Byrne. Since then, the business has continued to experience rapid growth, with annual total transaction values growing by GBP130m to GBP512m. Statutory turnover and profit have also seen strong growth over the period, growing by
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