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Private equity investor Advent International has entered into exclusive negotiations with Safran to acquire Safran Identity & Security (Safran I&S), a specialist in identity and security solutions.
Advent has made a firm and irrevocable offer of EUR2.425 billion for Safran I&S. Bpifrance will invest alongside Advent International.
Safran I&S develops technologies for the public and private sectors globally, including identity management, secure transactions and public security solutions. The company’s technologies are used for a wide range of markets and applications, including production and personalisation of secure ID documents and systems, and biometry-based identification systems. Safran I&S employs 7,800 people
Asset management boutique Managing Partners Group (MPG) has appointed Philip Eaton Richards as head of its capital markets team as it expands its asset-backed securities (ABS) business based in Malta.
Reporting directly to the chief executive officer Jeremy Leach, Eaton Richards’ responsibility is to develop MPG’s securitisation and structuring services arm.
MPG believes the market for ABS is set to grow exponentially over the next few years in Europe to meet demand from companies in three main sectors – SMEs looking to expand their products and services, operators in the growing FinTech sector and alternative fund managers looking to
Middle market private equity firm Pamlico Capital has sold T2 Systems to tech-focused private equity firm Thoma Bravo.
Terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.
Headquartered in Indianapolis, T2 Systems is a provider of parking management technology, including SaaS-based software, services, and hardware to universities, municipalities, and private operators.
Pamlico acquired T2 Systems in September 2011 in partnership with management. Over the last five years, Pamlico helped to build out the management team, adding key members like Adam Blake (president and COO), and complete two strategic acquisitions that broadened the company’s product portfolio and expanded its addressable
NewAlpha Asset Management’s French venture capital fund has made its fourth investment, participating in the EUR7 million fundraising held by Lydia Solutions, a French mobile payments company.
For Lydia’s third financing round, NewAlpha and Oddo et Cie invested alongside a solid existing shareholder base that includes XAnge, Duval Fintech and Belcube.
It is the biggest ever fundraising in the sector in France.
“Je te fais un Lydia” (I Lydia you) has already entered the language for the French smartphone generation. Since launching in July 2013, the app has attracted more than 500,000 people in France, 80 per cent
Allied Minds and GE Ventures have formed an alliance to jointly identify and commercialise next-generation technologies.
Under the terms of the agreement, Allied Minds and GE Ventures agree to invest in new and existing technologies sourced from both Allied Minds and GE’s innovation pipelines.
The alliance expands Allied Minds’ network of research and development partners to include GE’s early stage technologies in healthcare, transportation, energy, and big data.
Allied Minds receives an exclusive right of first refusal to license certain technologies, chosen by GE, which are of strategic interest to the companies.
GE will also have the
Octopus Labs has selected five businesses to join its new Fintech accelerator, which kicks off in October.
Over 80 applications were received to join the accelerator programme – with a shortlist invited to live pitch last week.
The panel of judges – which included ex-head of Google UK Dan Cobley, CEO of Dunelm John Browett and joint COO of St James’s Place Iain Rob Rayner – were looking for product-ready start-ups developing solutions specifically geared for financial advisers and their clients.
The successful teams will take part in a 12-week programme, which will see them given workspace in
Catapult Ventures, manager of the GM&C Life Sciences Fund, has made a GBP500,000 investment in Manchester-based SwabTech to further develop and commercialise its automated Surgical Swab-Washer, enhancing blood recovery and reuse during high blood loss surgical procedures.
The investment will enable SwabTech to finalise the product design, secure a CE mark and press on with UK and international product launches.
SwabTech's patented Surgical Swab-Washer automates a process currently performed by hand, recovering blood from swabs used in the hospital operating theatre. This blood can then be processed and transfused back into the patient, an established procedure used in a
Samir Sikka, former lead portfolio manager of the Pelican Value Equity team at Wells Capital Management, has teamed up with Estancia Capital Partners launch Sapience Investments, a private, independent investment management firm offering high conviction small and SMID cap value equity strategies.
Sikka (pictured) will serve as CEO/chief investment officer of Sapience Investments, in which employees have majority equity ownership, while private equity fund Estancia is a minority stakeholder in the new firm.
Sikka brings 20 years of investment expertise to Sapience. At Wells Capital Management since 2006, Sikka directed small and SMID cap value strategies currently representing approximately USD2.5
Highland Capital Management, a Dallas-based alternative investment management firm, has appointed Brad Eden as global head of marketing and investor relations.
Eden (pictured) brings to Highland more than 30 years of experience across a wide range of institutional investment leadership roles.
His experience includes growing Fund Evaluation Group, an independent institutional consulting firm that he co-founded, to one of the US's largest investment consulting firms by number of clients, and leading corporate development at a USD2 billion credit-focused asset management and private equity firm where he headed successful fundraising efforts around the firm's distressed strategies.
He was also
RiverRidge Recycling has become the second company in Northern Ireland to secure a major equity investment from BGF (Business Growth Fund), securing GBP10 million which will be used to support future growth.
RiverRidge Recycling treats over 400,000 mt of waste each year on behalf of local authorities, commercial businesses and individual households.
The current owners of RiverRidge acquired a small skip hire and landfill site in 2011 and led by managing director Brett Ross it has grown via organic growth and acquisitions into a fully integrated waste management business that employs over 200 people.
The organisation operates out of a
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