Latest News
Investment firm Octopus Titan Venture Capital Trust intends to raise GBP200 million when it opens towards the end of the summer, making it the biggest VCT fundraise ever.
Alex Davies (pictured), CEO and founder of Wealth Club, the online investment platform for High Net Worth Individuals (HNWIs) says: “This is the biggest VCT raise ever and reflects the fact VCTs are becoming an increasingly mainstream investment option. With cuts to the pension allowances, restrictions on buy to let investing and more onerous taxation we expect demand to be greater than ever.”
In the 2016/17 tax year, VCTs saw the
By Gaurav Marwah, Technical Director, and Hugh Stacey, Executive Director, Investor Solutions, Augentius – Sustained top performance means continued evolution and change. Technology became ever more accessible in the 1990s when personal computers began appearing in every home. But if you’re a tech-savvy person today, you’re not using a dial-up connection on a desktop computer. Everyone knows you can’t be successful today using 1990s technology.
Similarly, private equity players can no longer use a 1990s-era rulebook to structure funds. The world is a more complex place than it was two decades ago. There’s a different playbook now, and LPs and
LDC-backed contact centre technology and services group Connect Managed Services (Connect) has today completed the acquisition of PC-1 for an undisclosed sum.
Connect provides round-the-clock availability and pain-free transformation of business-critical contact centre and UC (unified communications) environments for global clients from financial services firms such as Barclays to household names including Tesco.
Mid-market private equity investor LDC previously backed the multi-million pound management buyout of Connect in April 2014. The acquisition of PC-1 forms part of Connect’s strategy to broaden its practice areas of expertise with market leading technologies, expand its reach and build scale in its chosen
The Greater Manchester Loan Fund (GMLF) has invested GBP440,000 in School Lettings Solutions (SLS), an outsourced lettings management service that hires out school and college facilities to local community clubs and organisations.
The funding package will support SLS’s continued expansion into new schools across the UK, enable the business to meet the demand of its sales pipeline and develop a proprietary facilities booking system. The investment will safeguard around 55 jobs with an anticipated additional 10-20 roles to be created over the next two years.
Founded in 2012 by directors Scott Warrington and Paul Andrews, SLS manages the process
Much like a brooding teenager, cash has become a high maintenance asset class as a result of events over the last few years. Whether it is finding liquidity to put to work for new investment strategies (or, for that matter, support existing ones in terms of collateral management) or looking for ways to invest cash to improve investment yield, traditional approaches to liquidity management have become increasingly problematic.
This ‘liquidity conundrum’ has made it more important than ever that investors have solutions in place to find the right balance of how and where to invest cash. Northern Trust detailed this earlier
Mid Europa Partners (Mid Europa), a private equity investor in Central and South Eastern Europe, has listed its portfolio company, Waberer’s International (Waberer’s) through an initial public offering (IPO) on the Budapest Stock Exchange.
Waberer’s shares will start trading on 6 July 2017.
Waberer’s IPO values the Company’s equity at nearly EUR300 million and is the largest on the Budapest Stock Exchange since 1998. The stock will be included in the BUX, Hungary’s top index, and will be its 5th largest constituent.
Through the Offering, the Company will raise EUR50 million of new capital, which will be used
Inflexion has promoted Andrew Mainwaring and Andrew Priest to Partner with immediate effect. A further five promotions have also been announced across the firm’s team.
This follows Inflexion’s very recent investment in ProLabs, representing the tenth investment in under a year.
Mainwaring is a Partner within Inflexion’s Enterprise Fund team. The Fund is dedicated to accelerating growth in lower mid-market companies, bringing Inflexion’s full suite of value accretive expertise to companies with an equity requirement of GBP10 million to GBP20 million. Mainwaring co-led our recent investment in K2 Partnering Solutions and was closely involved in the buyouts of Shimtech
SteelEye, the compliance technology and data analytics firm, has appointed Matt Smith (pictured), a highly-experienced regulatory tech specialist, as its new Chief Executive Officer.
Smith’s appointment is aimed at helping drive the firm’s growth as it markets its secure and scalable data storage platform which incorporates best-in-class analytics. The SteelEye product has been designed to help financial firms meet their obligations under MiFID II, whilst also acquiring valuable insights into their businesses.
Smith brings over 18 years of technology and management expertise to SteelEye. He joins from Bloomberg where he was a senior product manager working on a range
MARU Group (MARU), a technology-enabled market and customer insights group which is backed by private equity firm Primary Capital Partners, has appointed Heather McRae as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) with immediate effect.
This appointment further strengthens the Group’s operational expertise, as it pursues its acquisitive growth strategy.
McRae brings over 25 years’ experience in the financial services sector, in numerous senior finance positions. Heather joins from the Group’s portfolio company, Maru/edr, where she was appointed CFO in February 2016.
Prior to joining Maru/edr, Heather held a number of senior finance roles at the global advertising and marketing services
New Sparta Asset Management (NSAM), a specialist emerging market investment manager established by Dr Jerome Booth, has made three senior hires at New Sparta Energy (NSE), a fully owned subsidiary which specialises in the identification, development, construction and operation of power projects in Africa, with a focus on renewable energy.
Its role is to advise NSAM on the management of the underlying assets and implementation of the investment strategy.
David Anson has been hired as Director and Head of Development, Richard Scott as Project Director and Camille Astier as Legal Director. All three are based in London and will
Special Reports
Featured
Events
12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
