Latest News
Middle-market private equity firm One Equity Partners is to sell East Balt Bakeries (East Balt), a global supplier of premium buns and artisanal rolls to major restaurant chains, to Grupo Bimbo for USD650 million.
The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2017, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.
Headquartered in Chicago, East Balt employs 2,200 workers who produce 13 million specialty bread products each day, including bagels, biscuits, buns, English muffins, tortillas and bread. Founded in 1955 as a single bakery with one delivery truck, East Balt now operates 21 bakeries in 11
TickSmith, a specialist in big data applications for capital markets, has announced a strategic investment of CAD2 million from Illuminate Financial Management, a venture capital firm with a specific focus on capital markets financial technology, to further commercialise its flagship product, TickVault.
TickSmith addresses a growing need of exchanges, banks and buy-side institutions in capital markets: exploring and unlocking value from constantly growing volumes and ever-increasing sources of financially relevant data. TickSmith powers the data distribution platform of CME Group, enabling the exchange to monetise its historical data. The National Bank of Canada is also amongst its global client base.
The most vital asset a business controls is its information. As the driver of many business processes, data is a powerful tool, and therefore has to be secure, accurate and accounted for. When this sensitive information gets into the wrong hands, it can cause serious damage to a firm’s business operations and reputation.
Types of dirty data
Forgotten data poses a critical security risk to financial firms. This type of data includes old reports, archived emails, outdated customer information and information that is stored on devices you may not realise (eg flash drives, scanners, printers, and video conference equipment). Verizon’s 2008
By Jason Lawrence (pictured), IT Director and Group Information Security Officer, Augentius – Cybercrime is one of the most serious threats currently facing financial services firms. Yet, while the risk is also present for private equity and real estate funds, the level of recognition towards the threat is notably absent in this sector.
So why is this? It appears to be due to a prevailing misconception that cybercriminals do not have sufficient understanding of how funds operate and that many are too small to be of any appeal. However, a PFM report entitled Cyber Security in Private Equity: How Prepared
With Q2 closed out, new data shows public pension plans in the United States are increasingly favouring exposure to real assets and private equity strategies.
Of new investment commitments announced by US public pension plans in Q2 2017 and tracked by eVestment’s Public Plan IQ solution, 85 were for real asset strategies and 68 were for private equity. These were far-and-away the most popular new commitments announced in Q2 2017.
By comparison, private debt strategies saw 29 new commitments from public pension plans in Q2, equity strategies saw 28 new commitments in the quarter and fixed-income, hedge-fund and multi-asset
An overwhelming majority (74 per cent) of institutional and family office investors expect to allocate capital into a venture capital (VC) fund in the next two years, according to a new survey from Ariadne Capital.
Furthermore, 78 per cent said they expect to or have decided to invest directly into a high growth, technology start-up before 2020.
The survey is based on responses from 125 international investors, entrepreneurs and service providers attending Ariadne Capital’s 7th Annual ‘Follow the Entrepreneur’ Investor Summit (FTE), held for the first time in Malta on 10 and 11 July.
“The Survey results affirm
Receipt Bank, a bookkeeping automation platform, has raised USD50 million in Series B funding from Insight Venture Partners. The investment will be used to accelerate the growth of the company and to further develop its products.
The group passed USD10 million ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) in 2016 and continues to grow at more than 100 per cent every year.
Receipt Bank has been revolutionising bookkeeping for small business since its launch in 2011. Working with the leading accountants and bookkeepers around the world, it was the first software company to automate the collection and data extraction of receipts and
Canadian private equity company Novacap has closed its latest private equity fund, Novacap TMT V at its hard cap with total commitments of USD840 million. The Fund surpassed its target size by 40 per cent, driven by strong demand from new and existing investors.
“We are delighted by the support we have received from our existing long-term investors and welcome several new international investors to the Fund,” says Pascal Tremblay, President and Managing Partner of Novacap TMT. “The closing of the Fund comes at a period of significant activity for Novacap, both in terms of new investments and add-on acquisitions. TMT
By George Ralph, RFA – Imagine you’re the CTO of a successful hedge fund. You’re not big enough to have a dedicated CISO but you think you’re doing a pretty good job of securing your network. Your applications and databases are secure, you’ve just invested in a network intrusion detection system and some next generation firewalls.
Next, you move on to your internet traffic and cloud services. You make sure your firm’s SSL certificates are up to date, and you use HTTPS and OAuth2.0. Then you insist all remote users access the network via secure VPN, that files are
Running an alternative fund management business has become a far more considered, strategic affair in the light of significant regulatory changes post-08. One might compare it to the ultimate game of strategy, chess. To stay in compliance with AIFMD, Dodd-Frank, and the upcoming MiFID II and General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) in Europe, fund managers have to think two moves ahead, and ensure that they have their pawns in position. One wrong move and they run the risk of facing what might be best described as regulatory checkmate.
“I think the implementation of AIFMD has had the biggest impact on
Special Reports
Featured
Events
12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
