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Attend almost any financial industry event today and the chances are a panel discussion will refer to blockchain and the transformation opportunities it could afford the industry. It has become a buzzword, a term that one has to pretend to understand and nod sagely whenever it comes up in conversation. If you don’t understand blockchain, you’re not in the club, cast aside as a technological Luddite.
In short, blockchain is a shared digital, immutable ledger that records events or transactions within a fully distributed or peer-to-peer network, whether public or private, and verifies them across the number of participants operating
Private equity house Key Capital Partners (KCP) has acquired a minority stake in London-based independent performance media agency, MC&C. This is KCP’s third investment from its latest fund.
The capital will be used to grow the firm, enabling key hires, further investment in operational technology, financing potential acquisitions, and acceleration of international growth. The investment triggers the formation of a new MC&C Group comprising MC&C London, MC&C Muse and the newly-formed MC&C International.
KCP partner Mike Fell joins a new group executive board alongside founder Mike Colling, executive chairman of MC&C London Steve Booth, UK managing director Mark Jackson and
Union Capital Associates, a lower middle-market private equity firm, has closed its most recent pool of capital – Union Capital Equity Partners II. The oversubscribed Fund closed at its hard cap of USD200 million.
The Fund will invest in smaller U.S. founder-owned businesses, where Union Capital is typically the first institutional investor. Union Capital has a 50 year history of successfully partnering with business owners, entrepreneurs and management teams. Union Capital’s investment team has spent 12 years working together on private investments, and is supported by several of its former CEOs that provide general operations expertise to assist portfolio company
By Nick Bayley (pictured), Duff & Phelps – Unsurprisingly, even a MiFID II geek like me prefers to spend time enjoying the Lions tour and Wimbledon than with the FCA’s second MiFID II Policy Statement which runs to over a thousand pages, including the Handbook text.
Much work is still to be done, decisions to be made, vendors to be selected, contracts to be updated. Hopefully, though, before people disappear for their summer holidays, the following mid-year checklist will help them to serve a few aces. Such that when everyone returns at the start of September, discussions can move along
Funds managed by Alpina Partners (Alpina) have invested in New Solutions (New Solutions) a provider of software solutions for the digitalisation of business processes on the shop floor.
The founder Christian Ehrenschwendtner will stay on board as a managing director and shareholder.
Since its foundation in 1999, New Solutions has developed into one of the leading providers of software solutions for the digitalization of production-related processes involving employees, production equipment as well as external partners. With the digital shift book “Finito”, the company offers a modular, web-based solution. In addition, New Solutions provides “CheckWare”, a solution for electronic checklists.
Collas Crill has advised Freedom Select Funds PCC Limited (FSF) on its conversion to Guernsey’s new Private Investment Fund (PIF) regime.
FSF is managed by Freedom Asset Management Limited (FAML) and was established as a registered closed-ended fund in 2016.
The Collas Crill team, including group partner Paul Wilkes and associate Alex Wickens, played a central role in the conversion as lead counsel to FAML.
Wilkes says: “The launch of the PIF regime in November last year provided an opportunity to take advantage of an even more flexible, cost effective fund regime.
“Using the PIF for FSF
Duff & Phelps has appointed Yann Magnan, Managing Director and leader of Valuation Advisory Services for Europe, as the firm’s EMEA Leader.
Yann will focus on growing Duff & Phelps’ business in Europe and the Middle East across all service lines, building on the firm’s continued success throughout the region.
With more than 20 years of experience in valuations and financial consulting, Yann has represented clients in industries including telecommunications, entertainment, retail, consumer products, healthcare and energy. He has particular expertise in international transactions and valuation projects, intangible assets and taxes, and he lectures on valuation topics worldwide.
International law firm Ropes & Gray has advised TPG Capital and its portfolio company, Beaver-Visitec International, a leading global developer, manufacturer, and marketer of specialised surgical devices for the ophthalmic marketplace, on the acquisition of Vitreq, a Dutch ophthalmic technology company.
Headquartered in Netherlands, Vitreq develops and manufactures high-quality, innovative products for the ophthalmic industry. With a special focus on vitreoretinal surgery, Vitreq’s team of in-house R&D, engineering, and manufacturing professionals collaborate with renowned surgeons to create a portfolio of state-of-the-art minimally-invasive instruments designed to match the demands of today’s surgical environment.
The Ropes & Gray team was led
Global venture capital (VC) deal value increased by 55.3 per cent to USD40.07 billion in Q2 2017, propelled by an uptick in mega-deals around the world, according to Venture Pulse Q2 2017 — the quarterly global VC trends report published by KPMG Enterprise.
Globally, the United States led VC investment, accounting for USD21.8 billion, followed by Asia (USD12.7 billion) and Europe (USD4.1 billion). The increase in funding was strongly affected by a continued resurgence in mega-deals, including Didi Chuxing’s record-breaking USD5.5 billion round and Toutiao’s USD1 billion Series D round. Globally, there were nine deals at or over USD500 million
Growth capital investor Beringea has exited its investment in APM Healthcare through the sale of business to national pharmacy chain, Day Lewis Pharmacy.
Day Lewis will take over APM Healthcare’s 18 UK pharmacies, which it runs in Joint Venture Partnerships with GP Practices across the country.
Trading under the name Community Pharmacies, APM Healthcare was founded in 2009. Beringea initially invested in the company in 2011, when APM was on the verge of expanding its network from just one pharmacy having secured a number of deals with local doctors. The expertise of Andrew Murray – who previously founded and
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