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As Europe’s private debt market continues to evolve, those managers well placed to offer direct lending strategies could benefit substantially as insurance companies, in particular, seek alternative yield-enhancing funds within their credit portfolios. Not only do direct lending strategies provide stable, consistent returns over a multi-year time horizon, they also allow insurers to make more efficient use of their Solvency Capital Ratio (SCR) under Solvency II regulation.
The capital charge is estimated to be 20 per cent. Factor in that these are private closed-ended investments, offering insulation from market volatility, and suddenly one begins to understand why direct lending is
Black Mountain’s Direct Lending Solutions are now offered via Software as a Service (SaaS). The firm’s clients include investment managers, credit funds, hedge funds, private equity firms, direct lenders and banks.
"We are excited to bring our leading best practice solutions to more clients with this new offering," says Kevin MacDonald, co-CEO of Black Mountain. "In addition to the deployment speed and cost benefits of the SaaS model, users will have access to new features and enhancements for Direct Lending as they become available."
The new offering comes pre-configured with industry best practices which allow users to manage all
Dutch law firm Van Doorne has boosted its corporate private equity team with the addition of corporate partner Jeroen Sombezki.
Sombezki will focus on cross-border M&A transactions (including public company takeover bids and joint ventures) in the Netherlands with a strong focus on mid-market private equity and venture capital transactions, and has a particularly strong track record in the TMT, (on-line) retail and consumer goods, healthcare and real estate sectors.
Van Doorne’s corporate team divides its time between the firm’s City office at Old Broad Street and the head office in Amsterdam.
The London team is delighted with
Octopus Investments (Octopus) has completed an investment in Anglo European Group Ltd (Anglo), one of the UK’s largest suppliers of specialist steel sections for window and door reinforcement.
Anglo was founded in 1990 and is managed by Paul and Chris Sullivan. Since 1990 it has grown to become a market leader in its specialist areas. Anglo’s ‘cut to size’ proposition, which helps window manufacturers to make significant savings on reinforcement, differentiates its offering and has enabled the business to establish a high share of its market. Anglo now works with approximately 400 customers and delivers exceptional levels of service to
Duane Morris has assisted European private capital group Metric Capital Partners (MCP) in its second investment in Spain, with the wine and foods company The Haciendas Company as it made three divestments.
The Duane Morris team was led by partner Piero Carbone and included corporate partner Ray Smyth, tax partner Jenny Wheater, and senior corporate associate Linda Zeman, all in the firm’s London office.
Metric has made a hybrid equity credit investment in the company, which owns some of the oldest wineries in Rioja Alta and a collection of wine estate in the Duero valley as well as the
John Thorpe (pictured), Business Line Manager for EIS at Octopus Investments, comments on new HMRC statistics showing that 2,770 companies raised a total of GBP1,529 million of funds under the EIS scheme during 2013-14…
As the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) celebrates its 21st birthday this year, these latest figures show EIS are now a mature, established asset class and a critical source of funding for many UK smaller companies. EIS fundraising is going from strength to strength, with the total amount raised last year up a significant 48 per cent on the previous year. Over the years our EIS investors
Q3 saw a typical decline in overall European private equity value due to the summer period, however, the overall trend on value in 2015 is positive over that experienced in the last couple of years.
That’s according to preliminary figures from the Q3 2015 unquote” European Private Equity Barometer, published by unquote” in association with SL Capital Partners, which suggests that more disappointingly, the number of European private equity-backed deals declined by 10 per cent, from 368 transactions to 330 transactions. This is a continuation of a trend that started in Q1 2015 and was impacted by a significant reduction
Radius Equity, a specialist provider of EIS and SEIS investments, has launched a GBP750,000 EIS-compliant investment into Up Estates, an new estate agency.
Radius Equity believes that online property portals are transforming the estate agency industry, and traditional agencies are losing market share to new low-cost competitors. Up Estates is a new breed of real estate agency which combines the comprehensive, low cost reach of online portals with the personalised experience of traditional real estate agencies.
Up Estates has established a strong regional foothold in Coventry, Nuneaton and Hinckley, and has seen significant success within the region. For example,
Smart Employee Benefits (SEB) has completed the first tranche of a private placement equity financing for gross proceeds of USD2,400,000 out of maximum aggregate proceeds of USD4,000,000.
The First Tranche financing consists of 6,000,000 units (the "Units") at a price of USD0.40 per Unit. Each Unit consists of (i) one common share of SEB and (ii) one common share purchase warrant of SEB (the "Warrants"). Each Warrant has a term of 24 months from the date of issuance and vests on December 31, 2016 at an exercise price of USD0.75 per share.
The financing is non-brokered and sourced from
Napier Park Global Capital, a global alternative asset management firm, has appointed Ned May as a director in the firm’s private equity group.
“We are delighted to welcome Ned to the firm,” says Manu Rana, managing director and co-head of Napier Park Financial Partners. “He has a deep understanding of the financial services industry and a strong track record of investing in this sector.”
“Ned shares our passion for identifying and partnering with innovative, high-growth companies,” adds Steve Piaker, managing director and co-head of Napier Park Financial Partners. “I am confident he will be a tremendous addition to our
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