Latest News
Cairngorm Capital Partners is making a further investment in Polyframe Group Limited (Polyframe), a UK manufacturer of trade windows and doors, to facilitate Polyframe’s acquisition and merger with Customade Group Limited (Customade).
The enlarged group, with revenues in excess of GBP100 million, will trade as Customade and now has a comprehensive product range across aluminium windows, composite entry doors and PVCu products. It operates nationwide, with almost 900 employees across 10 manufacturing facilities extending from Scotland to the South-West.
Established in 1980, Customade is a specialist manufacturer of high-quality aluminium and PVCu windows, doors and conservatory roof products. Known for
APS Holding (APS) has acquired a portfolio of Croatian non-performing loans (NPL) with a nominal value significantly exceeding EUR100 million. The firm’s newly established office in Croatia is expected to have more than 40 employees in the first half of the year.
The acquisition includes secured and unsecured non-performing corporate loans, with the secured positions held against mostly residential, commercial and industrial property. The portfolio has been acquired from Hrvatska Poštanska Banka with the approval of the Croatian National Bank.
Martin Machoň, CEO of APS, says: “Our target is to assist banks with distressed debts and help debtors to be
Last year proved to be a challenging year for the private equity (PE) industry as market instability and political uncertainty took hold worldwide. But 2017 has ushered in a more optimistic outlook, according to BDO’s Eighth Annual PErspective Private Equity Study.
When the initial survey of 200 fund managers across North America and Western Europe was conducted in October 2016, more than half (56 per cent) of fund managers characterised the investment environment as favourable, while 44 per cent said it was unfavourable—the highest proportion since 2014. In a follow-up poll conducted in early January, however, the number of fund
One of the persistent pain points for alternative fund managers is finding a way to streamline the investor onboarding process by automating the subscription document process. To date, this has remained a notoriously inefficient and error-prone set of processes, stymieing the ability for managers – both hedge funds and PERE funds – to bring investor capital into funds and put that capital to work in a timely fashion.
Focus on the front office
A recent survey by MergerMarket and Pepper Hamilton (Going the Distance: The Expanding Lifecycles of Private Equity Funds) finds that the entire lifecycle of PE
Sixpoint Partners (Sixpoint), a global investment bank serving the middle market, has appointed Michael Leonardo as Vice President, West Coast Distribution.
In addition, the company has promoted three long-standing members in the New York office, deepening its distribution and origination capabilities. Leonardo’s appointment and the promotions are effective immediately.
Leonardo joins from Ironwood Capital Management where he was an Associate Vice President, responsible for developing and maintaining the firm’s distribution and platform relationships. Previously, he worked at BlackRock where he advised institutional clients on customised portfolios and SMAs through the US Wealth Advisory and Global Client Group. He will
Blue Bay Travel, the award-winning online travel agent specialising in long-haul holidays to the Caribbean, Mexico and Indian Ocean, has secured a GBP6.5million investment from mid-market private equity firm LDC.
Founded in 2003 by Stuart and Angela Wilson, Blue Bay Travel provides holidays to more than 16,500 passengers per year – with a 31 per cent increase in bookings in 2016.
The business operates under several specialist brands – including Caribbean Warehouse, specialising in destinations such as Mexico, Dominican Republic, Barbados and Saint Lucia – and Tropical Warehouse, focusing on the Indian Ocean and Far East. Since 2003 the
Kerogen Capital (Kerogen) has committed to invest an initial USUSD50 million in Energean Israel, a subsidiary of Energean Oil & Gas, ahead of the planned USD1.3 billion development of the Karish and Tanin gas fields, offshore Israel.
Energean Israel is the operator of and holds a 100% interest in each of the Karish and Tanin licences, acquired from Delek Group in December 2016, for an upfront consideration of USD40million as well as USD108.5million in contingent payments. Proceeds from Kerogen’s investment in Energean Israel will finance the acquisition and key workstreams to investment sanction including FEED studies and the Field Development
Private equity firm HIG Capital (HIG) has acquired substantially all the assets of Xtera Communications (Xtera), a provider of innovative and bespoke sub-sea fibre optic solutions.
HIG previously provided debtor-in-possession financing to the Xtera debtors in connection with the chapter 11 case.
Established in 1998 and based in the UK (Harold Wood, Essex) and the US (Allen, Texas), Xtera supplies un-repeatered and repeatered sub-sea systems, using high performance optical amplifiers to carry data. Under HIG’s ownership, Xtera’s management and technical team will remain at the helm of the business, focused on successfully executing key existing customer contracts and expanding the
Darby Private Equity’s Darby Converging Europe Fund III (SCS) SICAR (DCEF III) has completed a mezzanine debt investment in Unilink SA (Unilink), strengthening Unilink’s balance sheet and providing capital for growth through acquisitions.
Financial details of the transaction have not been disclosed.
Unilink is the leading insurance multiagency in Poland offering products of over 40 insurance providers through a distribution network of approximately 8,000 sales representatives. The recent merger with Insurance Service created a clear market leader with over PLN 450 million (approximately USD110 million) gross written premiums issued in 2016, which was a significant milestone towards Unilink’s goal of
Mark Hardwicke of boutique investment bank, Invenio Corporate Finance, writes on the tactics required to make a successful exit.
The word was not even in the dictionary five years ago. Businesses were not making plans for it, the government was refusing to consider it, and almost no-one was predicting it. The ‘it’, of course, is Brexit, a word that now seems to permeate every aspect of national conversation. Added to the equally unpredictable presidency of Donald Trump, the once unthinkable UK referendum result made 2016 a very unpredictable year. The legacy for business is continued uncertainty – something which seems
Special Reports
Featured
Events
12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
