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NorthEdge Capital, a private equity firm focused on the North of England, has backed the management buyout of home furnishings group Belfield Furnishings.
Founded in 2002, Belfield is the UK’s largest white label manufacturer of home furnishings and one of Europe’s largest manufacturers specialising in the wholesale and distribution of products including upholstered furniture, soft furnishings, mattresses and curtains.
The company, which is headquartered in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, works with a range of blue chip, high street retailers including M&S, Next, Ikea, John Lewis and Furniture Village. Belfield reported turnover of GBP132 million in the 12 months to December 2015.
Private equity firm Mid Europa Partners has appointed Thierry Baudon, its founder and managing partner, as executive chairman.
Robert Knorr and Matthew Strassberg will take over as co-managing partners on 1 August 2016.
As executive chairman, Baudon will continue to chair Mid Europa’s investment committee and focus on the firm’s medium term strategic development.
With their appointment as co-managing partners, Knorr and Strassberg will assume overall management responsibility for the business and steer Mid Europa’s investment strategy. Knorr and Strassberg joined Mid Europa in 1999 and 2002, respectively. They have served on the firm’s investment and management committees for a
Hermes Investment Management’s infrastructure team has acquired a 25.6 per cent stake in Energy Assets Group on behalf of clients in consortium with investment funds managed by Alinda Capital Partners.
The Alinda funds acquired the remaining 74.4 per cent stake in Energy Assets. Prior to this Energy Assets shares were listed on the main London Stock Exchange.
Headquartered in Livingston, Scotland, Energy Assets is the largest independent provider of industrial and commercial gas metering services in the UK (by number of meters owned and managed) and is a major provider of multi-utility network metering and data services. As at March
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published its advice regarding the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) passport to non-EU AIFMs and AIFs in 12 countries.
Currently, non-EU AIFMs and AIFs must comply with each EU country’s national regime when they market funds in that country.
ESMA’s advice relates to the possible extension of the passport, which is presently only available to EU entities, to non-EU AIFMs and AIFs so that they could market and manage funds throughout the EU.
For each country, ESMA assessed whether there were significant obstacles regarding investor protection, competition, market disruption
Santander InnoVentures, the London based fintech venture capital fund of Santander Group, has secured a further USD100 million in funding from the group’s balance sheet.
Launched in 2014, the fund is now set to deploy a total of USD 200 million (up from the USD100 million originally allocated) in minority stakes in financial technology start-ups.
This new commitment highlights Santander’s goal of remaining at the forefront of innovation in the financial services industry, and builds on the bank’s ‘Fintech 2.0’ philosophy of collaboration and partnership with small and start-up companies.
Ana Botín, group executive chairman of Banco Santander,
Maven Capital Partners and NVM Private Equity have made a joint GBP5 million investment in Rockar, a technology-based motor retailer.
The investment, which is split equally between Maven and NVM, will enable Rockar to partner with more major automotive manufacturers following its initial success with Hyundai, launch more digital stores in high footfall shopping centres and continue to develop its technology platform.
Rockar was established in 2012 with the aim of revolutionising the car buying experience. The result is a disruptive new retail proposition where customers have access to all the services of a traditional dealership online, or at
OpenGate Capital has reached the final closing for its first institutional private equity vehicle, exceeding its target of USD300 million.
OpenGate Capital Partners I and affiliated partnerships, closed on USD305 million in total commitments.
The firm has already completed four investments in the first half of 2016. It has signed an agreement for a fifth, due to close later in the year.
Andrew Nikou, founder, managing partner and CEO at OpenGate Capital, says: “I am incredibly proud of the hard work and commitment from everyone at OpenGate. The team stood their ground while we built this firm, had
Sabinal Energy, an independent oil and natural gas company headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas, has received a USD300 million equity commitment from Kayne Private Energy Income Fund and members of the management team.
Sabinal is a private exploration and production company formed to pursue the acquisition and development of large, long-life producing oil and gas assets primarily in the Rockies, Mid-Continent and Texas where members of management have extensive operational and development experience.
Sabinal is led by president and CEO Bret Jameson. Jameson most recently served as chief operating officer for privately held and South Texas focused Lewis Energy,
Pelican Energy Partners has closed its latest private equity fund, Pelican Energy Partners II, with total committed capital of USD210 million targeting investments in control buyout and growth investments in energy services and equipment companies.
According to founder and managing partner Mike Scott, Fund II continues Pelican’s successful strategy of investing in companies in the energy sector that have significant growth potential as well as resilience to industry cycles.
“Our investment track record resonated with investors,” says Scott. “Since starting Fund I in 2012 near the peak of the last cycle, we have been patient and disciplined in deploying
An affiliate of middle market private equity firm Charlesbank Capital Partner is to acquire Polyconcept from Investcorp.
Equity for the transaction will be provided by Charlesbank and management, Partners Group and certain other investors.
Additional terms of the agreement have not been disclosed.
Polyconcept is a value-added supplier in the USD30 billion promotional products industry. Sourcing products from hundreds of manufacturers, the company then customises them on behalf of its 35,000 reseller customers and ships the products to end-consumers (typically businesses) located in the US, Europe and across the world.
Polyconcept offers one of the industry’s broadest assortments,
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