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Blackstone has appointed Peter Grauer to the firm’s board of directors. Grauer has been the Chairman of Bloomberg, the global business and financial information company, since March 2001 and joined Bloomberg full time as President and Chief Executive Officer in March of 2002.
Commenting on the appointment, Stephen A Schwarzman, Blackstone’s Chairman and CEO, said: “We could not be more pleased about the addition of Peter Grauer to our board of directors. He brings a deep knowledge of the financial industry as well as a broad perspective on global business that will be immensely valuable to Blackstone in the years
Lightyear Capital (Lightyear), a New York-based private equity firm focused on financial services investing, today announced that
Investment funds affiliated with private equity firm Lightyear Capital and the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments), are to acquire AIG Advisor Group, a subsidiary of American International Group (AIG).
Terms of the transaction, which is subject to customary regulatory and other approvals, have not been disclosed.
Advisor Group is one of the USA’s largest networks of independent financial advisors with more than 5,200 independent advisors and USD160 billion in client assets under administration. Advisor Group provides comprehensive broker-dealer services,
Global M&A activity in the insurance sector hit new highs in 2015, with EUR129.3 billion (USD143.5 billion) worth of transactions announced during the year, according to Towers Watson’s latest Insurance M&A Annual Report.
The reports says that this surge reflects a number of macro themes, including the continued availability both of cash on balance sheets and affordable capital in a post-financial crisis environment. Underlying these, there are some emerging themes that have been identified from our survey results:
The drive for top-line growth. Almost half of the insurers doing deals were seeking to enhance their market position and increase
Northleaf Venture Catalyst Fund (NVCF) has made commitments totalling USD30 million to two leading Canadian venture capital funds: iNovia Investment Fund 2015 and Information Venture Partners II.
These recent commitments are in addition to the commitments that NVCF has already made to a number of other top Canada-based/focused venture fund managers (including Georgian Partners, XPV Water Partners, Golden Venture Partners, VersionOne Ventures, Versant Ventures and Relay Ventures) and a number of direct co-investments in innovative, high-growth Canadian companies (including Wattpad, Silanis, eSentire, Vision Critical, FreshBooks, Scribble Technologies and Zymeworks).
“We are very pleased to be a lead investor in
Private equity firm Monomoy Capital Partners’ portfolio company, Katun Corporation has completed a successful USD52 million recapitalisation with HSBC and Comvest Capital.
The proceeds of the recapitalisation were used to repay Katun’s existing debt and to pay a substantial dividend to Katun’s shareholders.
Katun is one of the world’s leading providers of OEM-compatible imaging supplies, toner, photoreceptors, and parts for copiers, printers, and other imaging equipment. Today’s dividend returns all of Monomoy’s investment plus a substantial profit for Katun’s shareholders. Following the recapitalisation, Katun remains conservatively capitalised with the continued support of Monomoy, a private equity firm with over
Mid Europa Partners a private equity firm focused on buyouts in Central and Eastern Europe and Turkey, has promoted Dominika Kozlowska-Login and Viktoria Habanova to Associate Directors, Lukasz Wlodarczyk to Senior Associate and Bartosz Malecki, Can Karapence, Filip Kisdobranski and Tomas Vrba to Associates.
Additionally, Berke Biricik, Csanad Daniel and Ratko Jovic were promoted to Associate Directors earlier in 2015.
Thierry Baudon, Mid Europa's Managing Partner, says: "I am delighted to announce the promotions within the Mid Europa team. The new level of responsibility accorded to the team members recognises their considerable contributions to the Partnership to date and
Adams Street Partners has appointed industry veterans Bill Sacher and Shahab Rashid to establish and build a private credit platform. The pair will lead the firm's credit capabilities from a new Manhattan office.
Adams Street provides investors with access to high-quality private company securities, both directly and indirectly, through a full suite of private equity products across primary, secondary, venture/growth equity and co-investment markets. Sacher and Rashid will formalise the firm's efforts in the private credit space, which will focus on a broad array of opportunities in credit alternatives on a global basis.
Jeff Diehl, Managing Partner at Adams
Alternative assets fund managers hold a record USD7.4 trillion in combined assets under management (AUM) in 2015, up from USD6.9 trillion a year before, according to Preqin’s 2016 Global Alternatives Reports.
The private capital industry in particular has grown over the past year, as almost every constituent asset class saw its AUM increase. The industry as a whole added USD193 billion in AUM through H1 2015, more than the USD149 billion growth seen in the whole of 2014. The aggregate value of the portfolios of assets held by private capital fund managers is continuing to rise as GPs put more
BDC Capital has committed an additional CAD3 million to the early stage venture capital fund managed by Mistral Venture Partners, bringing its total commitment to CAD6 million.
The Business Development Bank of Canada subsidiary had made a first commitment of CAD3 million in June 2014. This increase will enable Mistral Venture Partners to augment follow-on investments in its best portfolio companies. Since its first closing in January 2013, the fund has made investments in 12 startups and may invest in as many as five more. Mistral's investment focus is on smart enterprise companies (mobility, cloud and Internet of Things).
BDC
Law firm Howard Kennedy and its regulated London Stock Exchange sponsor, Howard Kennedy Corporate Services, have advised Maven Income and Growth VCT 6 PLC on the launch of its 2016 VCT share offer.
The VCT is managed by Maven Capital Partners UK LLP, one of the largest VCT investment managers in the UK, which manages a further five VCT funds. The other five VCTs launched a joint fundraising offer in October 2015, which was fully subscribed and closed early. Following on from the success of the 2015 fundraising, Maven Capital Partners UK LLP is supporting Maven Income and Growth VCT 6 PLC
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