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Adams Street Partners, a private markets investment management firm with more than USD32 billion of assets under management, has appointed Matthew H Scanlan to the firm’s Board of Directors, effective 1 April 2018.
Scanlan will succeed long-standing board member Wilbur (Bill) H Gantz, who announced his intention to retire from the Board earlier this year.
“Matt is an accomplished and well-respected business and thought leader with more than three decades of experience across the asset management industry. We are pleased to welcome Matt to Adams Street’s board and look forward to his guidance and counsel,” says Bon French, Chairman
The private debt industry has seen a steady increase in the number of investors active in the asset class in recent years. At the start of 2018 there were 3,100 institutions investing in private debt, up from 2,400 at the start of the previous year and an increase of 1,200 from the start of 2016.
That’s according to new research by Preqin which reveals that most of these investors are based in North America and Europe, which comprise 57 per cent and 24 per cent of active investors respectively. However, Asia-based investors have become an increasingly prominent part of
Wynnchurch Capital has acquired Heartland Automotive Services, one of the largest franchisees in the quick lube business and is the largest operator of Jiffy Lube service centres with approximately 523 locations.
The acquisition of Heartland, which will which will be renamed Team Car Care, was completed in partnership with Mid-Atlantic Lubes, an existing Jiffy Lube franchisee.
John Hatherly, Co-Managing Partner at Wynnchurch says: “Heartland is a tremendous addition to our portfolio of service businesses. We feel very fortunate to be partnering with Jiffy Lube International, Inc. We are also excited to partner with Mid-Atlantic Lubes, Inc. and its 10-year
WestBridge Capital has appointed a new Investment Executive, chartered accountant Edward Minton.
Minton joins from WK Corporate Finance, where he specialised in supporting management teams to undertake buyouts, having previously worked at Terra Firma Capital Partners. At WestBridge he will join the investment team to originate and make new investments.
Minton says: “WestBridge has a track record of successful investing and a growing reputation in the market. The partners have delivered excellent returns from their first fund and it’s an exciting time to be joining as they look for more great management teams to support.”
WestBridge has developed a
Tesi made new investments totalling EUR149 million in 2017, including a EUR60 million commitment in the fund-of-fund KRR III. The firm’s direct portfolio companies also continued to grow strongly, sales increasing on average 22 per cent during the year.
Coupled with a favourable operating environment, strong growth in portfolio companies as well as numerous exit, this added up to a financial return of EUR66 million for the year.
CEO Jan Sasse says; “In 2017 the Finnish venture capital and private equity market developed well. New funds were raised in all development phases. The Finnish venture capital investor Inventure
Research by international law firm Pinsent Masons has found that the number of private equity backed IPOs increased by almost a third in 2017 compared to the previous year, from 16 to 21.
The firm also found that the GBP3.1 billion raised was more than double the amount raised in 2016 and represented 40 per cent of all new money raised in IPOs on the London markets last year.
In the report, which looks at the trends in private equity back IPOs, Pinsent Masons says that the IPOs of ContourGlobal and TI Fluid Systems were the two largest private
Small business lender iwoca is pledging to lend GBP100 million to micro and small businesses in the North of England by 2020.
The alternative finance provider is making the pledge in response to the withdrawal of credit facilities for small businesses by the UK’s banks, which has been most acute in the North.
According to data collected by UK Finance, the value of lending (loans and overdrafts) for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the North of England has contracted by 14.3 per cent, compared with the national average of 9.5 per cent, over the past three years. The
Independent fund administration specialist Circle Partners has expanded its presence in the Asia-Pacific region with the opening of a new office in Singapore.
The office, which opened for business in February, is being managed by Gerben Oldekamp.
This latest addition to the offices Circle Partners already has in Europe, the Caribbean and the United States gives the company a physical presence in all major time zones around the globe.
Europe’s direct lending (or private debt) market continues to flourish as M&A activity picks up and small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) look for alternative financing, beyond the banks, to support future expansion and R&D. The region mirrors what has happened in the US over past decades where non-banking, institutional sources of financing have long prevailed. Around 70 to 80 per cent of corporate America is financed this way.
Whilst it still lags a fair way behind the United States, Europe, and more specifically the UK, is on a clear growth trajectory.
Since 2012, European direct-lending loan volumes have surged 120
Since 2012, European direct-lending loan volumes have surged 120 per cent year-on-year, with an estimated 86 funds raising more than GBP50 billion.1 As Preqin noted in its Q2 2017 private debt report2, Europe had a total of USD39.1 billion of targeted capital.
This is encouraging news but there are reasons to be cautious, with some direct lending managers concerned by the rise of covenant lite deals and a perceived willingness to engage in risky lending activities to corporate Europe.
One of those managers is BlueBay Asset Management, one of the pioneers of direct lending who raised in excess of EUR3 billion
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