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Defying Gravity: The Future of Alternative Investments in Exceptional Times. This was the theme at the fourth Cayman Alternative Investment Summit, hosted by Dart Enterprises at the stunning, recently opened Kimpton Seafire Resort & Spa on Grand Cayman.
Featuring a stellar cast of panellists from leading institutional investment groups, alternative fund management groups, economists, philanthropists and academics, the two-day event explored the many forces working against the alternatives industry – the challenges and opportunities that managers face and how they must defy gravity, to take the industry into a higher orbit.
"With rapid technological changes and major geopolitical shifts around
Go Capital has held the first closing of Go Capital Amorçage II, a EUR60 million venture capital fund.
The first Go Capital seed fund of EUR57 million was launched in 2012, at the initiative of the Regional Councils of the western France, with the support of Bpifrance (through the French state-owned Seed Fund FNA), the European Investment Fund and a regional bank partner.
It has just closed its investment period with 25 equity investments in innovative start-ups.
Out of this first seed fund, over EUR60 million was invested into multiple start-ups, both by the fund and in co-investments
Apex Fund Services has partnered with DataGuidance to enhance the group’s data protection and data privacy programme.
Apex will use DataGuidance’s suite of privacy tools to receive research and intelligence on privacy legislation.
Apex will benefit from up-to-date information available for all jurisdictions and where a dedicated local Apex data protection officer is monitoring any change in legislation and its transposition by the local markets.
Sonja Maria Hilkhuijsen (pictured), global head of compliance, Apex Fund Services, says: “The use of the DataGuidance privacy platform across the group is evidence of Apex’s strong commitment to upholding the highest levels
Campbell Lutyens, a global alternative asset advisory firm focused on fund placement and secondary transactions, has added Wayne Kozun to its advisory board.
Kozun was until recently a senior vice president at Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board where his various responsibilities included management of OTPP’s global public equities portfolio, the relationship investing team and the direct long term private equity investing team.
He co-chaired OTPP’s responsible investment committee and was responsible for the opening of OTPP’s Asian office in Hong Kong in 2013. He joined OTPP in 1995.
Kozun serves on the boards of the Pacific Pension &
Vendep Capital has launched a EUR40 million venture find which will invest mainly in Finnish start-ups offering software to B2B customers.
The investors are Finnish institutional investors, foundations, family offices and private investors.
By the first closing at the end of April, Vendep Capital Fund II has received capital commitments worth over EUR30 million from more than 20 investors.
Among the investors in Vendep Capital Fund II are Tesi (Finnish Industry Investment Ltd), KRR II, Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Company, The Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra, AI-Partners, and Gerako.
Other investors include foundations, such as the Gösta Serlachius
Kain Capital has acquired a majority stake in King Engineering Associates, strengthening its position within the civil engineering space.
Financial terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.
King Engineering is a full-service civil engineering firm with headquarters in Tampa, Florida, and operations across Miami, Sarasota, Florida and Austin, Texas.
"This acquisition greatly advances our strategy of focusing on strong businesses in the engineering space with opportunities for growth," says Kunal Kain, managing partner of Kain Capital. "Our partnership begins with all existing managers remaining in place, and 16 senior managers retaining an ownership stake in the company."
Elaia Partners, a Paris-based venture capital firm, has held the initial closing of its new venture capital fund, Elaia Delta Fund, at EUR115 million.
This new investment vehicle pursues the fundamental drivers of Elaia Partners’ historical strategy targeting European early-stage digital opportunities based on high disruption and on deep technology.
Elaia Partners will focus on B2B or B2B2C business models demonstrating global ambitions.
Thanks to its increased fund size and optimised portfolio management model, Elaia Partners will be able to drive further its investment strategy by supporting its best performing investments through their successive fundraisings.
Xavier Lazarus,
Citizens Financial Group has acquired Western Reserve Partners, a Cleveland-based merger and acquisition advisory firm dedicated to delivering a full range of financial advisory services with a focus on middle market clients.
The transaction follows the 2016 launch of Citizens Capital Markets, which added broker-dealer capabilities to the bank’s capital markets platform.
The acquisition will further strengthen Citizens’ ability to serve commercial clients by accelerating the build out of its M&A and financial advisory capabilities. This key and growing client need was highlighted in the bank’s recently published sixth annual nationwide Middle Market M&A Outlook, in which 73 per
Direct lender Beechbrook Capital, which backs small and medium-sized businesses in the UK with a turnover of between GBP10 million and GBP100 million and EBITDA of more than GBP1 million, has opened its first regional office in Manchester.
The office, in Hardman Square, Spinningfields, will support the UK SME Credit fund, which provides finance to UK SMEs.
The Manchester office will be run by investment director Matt Kenny, who joined Beechbrook at the beginning of April. His previous roles include three years as an investment director with LDC, originating and leading mid-market private equity investments, and more than six
Pan-European private equity firm Agilitas has appointed Debojit Mukherjee as chief operating officer (COO) with immediate effect.
Debojit joins Agilitas after seven years at Change Capital Partners, where he was chief financial officer and prior to that head of operations.
Earlier career positions have included director of operations and financial controller at Carbon Capital Markets and IBD analyst at Barclays Capital.
Debojit qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Bright Grahame Murray.
Martin Calderbank, managing partner at Agilitas, says: “We are very pleased to welcome Debojit to Agilitas. His operational and organisational skills will be an invaluable asset
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