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Houlihan Lokey has appointed Laurens van Asselt as a managing director, based in Amsterdam.
He will be responsible for supporting the firm’s power and utilities, environmental, and infrastructure coverage efforts in the Benelux region and across continental Europe.
Van Asselt (pictured) joins from Rabobank, where he was a managing director in the corporate finance advisory group, responsible for the utilities, infrastructure funds, construction, and real estate sectors. Prior to Rabobank, he was a director at NIBC and Kempen & Co covering M&A and merchant banking. He began his career in 1995 at JPMorgan.
“With more than two decades
Inspired, a schools organisation in Europe, Australia, Africa and Latin America backed by private equity firm Oakley Capital Investments (OCL), has acquired the International School of Europe Group (ISE), St Louis School and St John’s International School.
Oakley Capital Private Equity and Oakley Capital Private Equity II both hold indirect interests in Inspired via their key shareholdings in Educas.
The additions of ISE, St Louis and St John’s will expand Inspired’s global network to a total of 23 schools, providing an outstanding education to over 15,000 students. As part of Inspired’s family of international schools, students and staff at
NVM Private Equity has invested GBP4 million of development capital in Customs Connect and Customs Connect Europe, which minimises the customs duty paid by importers.
The funding will be used to support Customs Connect’s expanded service offering in the UK and its expansion plans across mainland Europe.
The business is well positioned to provide advice on the potential duty implications of Brexit to importers in the UK and manufacturers and processors who have import operations throughout Europe.
The management team includes the two founders, Neil Sheppard and James O’Neill, both experts in Tariff Classification and the EU’s Duty Suspensions
International law firm McDermott Will & Emery has appointed Robert Goldstein as a partner in the firm’s corporate and transactional practice group in New York and head of the New York office’s private equity team.
Goldstein joins McDermott from another Am Law 100 firm, where he was chair of the private equity practice.
“McDermott’s global platform will be a great asset as I continue to expand and cultivate my longstanding client relationships in the private equity arena,” says Goldstein. “I expect my years of experience in middle market private equity to provide the perfect complement to McDermott’s existing client service
Lewis & Clark Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on Series A and B stage investments, has raised USD20 million of new capital to drive agriculture innovation.
Founded in 2015, Lewis & Clark Ventures has raised a family of venture capital funds to support the highest potential start-ups in the Midwest US.
The funds focus on sectors such as agricultural technology, enterprise software, healthcare technology and financial technology.
With a total of USD124 million raised to date, Lewis & Clark Ventures has invested in companies including OneSpace, Adarza Biosystems, and SpringBuk.
The new commitment augments the USD104
JZ Capital Partners, a London-listed fund that invests in US and European micro-cap companies and US real estate, has closed the sale of its minority stake in Winn Group.
The stake was sold to a major financial institution for EUR20.8 million (USD23 million) following the receipt of regulatory approval.
Founded in 2002, Winn is a Newcastle-based UK legal services firm specialising in personal injury cases.
The announcement marks the completion of the two-phase transaction to sell JZCP’s stake in six European investments held through EMC 2010 to the same financial institution, which was originally announced in February 2016.
Private equity firm Golden Gate Capital has acquired Tronair Parent from Levine Leichtman Capital Partners.
Tronair will remain headquartered in Holland, Ohio and will continue to be led by its current senior management team, including president and CEO Harley Kaplan.
Terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.
Founded in 1971, Tronair specialises in the design, manufacture, and sale of ground support equipment (GSE) for business, commercial and military aircraft.
Its GSE product lines – comprised of over 1,000 SKUs – are used by over 300 unique aircraft platforms. It serves aircraft OEMs such as Bombardier, Gulfstream,
Despite a backdrop of political and economic uncertainty surrounding the EU Referendum, small business lending hit an all-time high over the past 12 months, increasing by 29.8 per cent to GBP20.7 billion.
That’s according to the National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers (NACFB) latest annual figures, which are based on business written by NACFB brokers between July 2015 and June 2016.
Over the past year, lending to SMEs has exceeded the pre-recession high of 2007. It’s also the seventh consecutive year that total lending to small businesses has grown.
However, while traditional forms of lending, such as commercial
Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) has appointed Graeme Eadie as senior managing director and global head of real assets, a new investment department that brings together the real estate investments department with the company’s existing infrastructure and agriculture groups.
The group says the change will create a better alignment with its Strategic Portfolio.
Eadie has been with CPPIB since 2005, and was most recently senior managing director and global head of real estate investments.
Shane Feeney has been appointed senior managing director and global head of private investments. Feeney will also join CPPIB's senior management team.
Private equity investment firm Thoma Bravo has completed fundraising for Thoma Bravo Fund XII, its most recent flagship fund, with USD7.6 billion in commitments.
Thoma Bravo has completed more than 140 software and technology-enabled service acquisitions, representing about USD30 billion in enterprise value.
"Over the past 15 years we have been able to help software and technology companies realise their growth and profitability objectives while launching them into their next phase of innovation," says Orlando Bravo, a managing partner at Thoma Bravo. "We thank all of our investors for giving us the opportunity to continue to implement our model
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