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UK Thai restaurant group Giggling Squid is to accelerate its growth following a GBP6.4m investment from BGF (Business Growth Fund), a provider of growth capital to UK-based small and mid-sized businesses.
Giggling Squid, which has 13 sites across the South of England, will use the BGF funds to add further locations to its portfolio of successful restaurants. BGF has taken a minority equity stake in the business. BGF has also introduced Simon Kossoff, Chairman and former CEO of Carluccio’s, to the company. Kossoff has joined the board as non-executive Chairman and Jon Simon, Investor at BGF, has also joined the
A new report from Goldman Sachs, produced in partnership with the British Business Bank and the Enterprise Research Centre with support from Scale-Ip Institute and Said Business School, details the critical role UK SMEs can play in addressing the UK’s ‘productivity gap’, a deficit identified in the UK Government’s Productivity Plan (July 2015).
The report, Unlocking UK Productivity – Internationalisation and Innovation in SMEs, finds that smaller businesses have the potential to contribute to UK economic growth in three key ways: stimulating innovation; spurring competition, and; accelerating job creation.
UK smaller businesses are key contributors to UK growth, with around 10,000 high growth
Aurelius Group has acquired Colt Managed Cloud (CMC), the managed cloud business of Colt Group SA (Colt), which will now be integrated with another Aurelius portfolio company ICT services provider Getronics Group.
In addition a long-term strategic business partnership has been agreed between Getronics and Colt which will allow Getronics to provide managed cloud services to Colt’s customer base and utilise Colt's network, voice and data centre capabilities.
France, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Romania and India) and employs a skilled workforce across operations, transition and engagement, pre-sales, service management and support functions. CMC retains a strong
London-based private equity firm Agathos has invested in EAT Communications to help fund the firm’s acquisition of a property marketing agency.
With the financial backing, EAT Communications has extended its portfolio of companies which includes Inhabit, with the acquisition of AP Marketing, a London-based creative marketing agency which delivers creative marketing campaigns and one-off solutions for clients in the property arena. Inhabit, with offices in London and Uckfield, is a strategic brand and communications agency for clients in the technology and built environment.
“Agathos has helped us unlock a new growth opportunity”, says EAT Communications’ Managing Director Joanna Allen.
Ahead of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders Meeting on 18 and 19 November, Asia Pacific CEOs have expressed a number of concerns and believe prospects for business growth over the next 12 months are dimming fast.
That’s according to PwC’s fifth annual APEC CEO Survey, which reveals that volatility in the financial markets this summer took a toll on CEO confidence with just 28 per cent of business leaders now 'very confident' their organisation will see revenue growth over the next 12 months. That's down from 46 per cent a year ago, and it is the lowest level
Ultroid Technologies has retained Armor Capital Management to provide M&A advisory services on all aspects of acquisitions, sales/divestitures, private equity transactions and finance raising, as Ultroid looks to expand its operations in the US and global markets.
The company’s flagship product is the Ultroid Hemorrhoid Management System, a non-invasive, low cost treatment Hemorrhoidal Disease (HD). Physicians perform the painless, 15 minute procedures in their office, without anesthesia, and experience exceptional patient outcomes.
Osaka-based asset manager, Nippon Capital Asset Management J-LLC is moving onto the international stage with the opening of a new office in China.
Nippon Capital provides customised portfolio management services covering equities, fixed income, hedge funds and private equity.
The news comes just days after China’s securities regulator moved closer to a normalisation of market functions when it announced it was removing the ban on new IPOs it had imposed four months ago at the height of this summer’s stock market collapse.
Nippon Capital provides customised portfolio management services covering equities, fixed income, hedge funds and private equity.
Private equity firm Keensight Capital has invested in Vision-Box, a specialist in Automated Border Control (ABC) and electronic identity solutions.
Created in 2001, Vision-Box designs, develops and assembles biometric-based systems, which allow for a greater fluidity of border control processes in airports throughout the world. The company’s product portfolio includes ABC solutions, such as its flagship automated gates solution, and identity management products, such as its live biometric capture units. These two business lines rely on a unique know-how in both hardware and software design.
The company has grown substantially over the past few years, and has to date
Inflexion Private Equity is to carve out GfK’s animal and crop health business, a provider of agricultural data and market information, from the Frankfurt-listed global market research organisation.
GfK’s animal and crop health business delivers innovative, data driven market information to the agriculture and animal health markets, providing detailed insights into their customers’ key growth requirements. The business, led by its Global Director Stephen Hearn, has grown rapidly since inception and delivered sales of USD40 million in 2014. Employing around 220 people in 18 countries, GfK’s animal and crop health business serves a wide range of long standing, blue chip,
Fossil Group is to acquire Misfit, a specialist in wearable technology and connected devices. The acquisition will enable Fossil Group to expand its addressable market, offering consumers both traditional timepieces and fashionable connected accessories.
Misfit brings to Fossil Group a scalable cloud and app platform, a world-class software and hardware engineering team, a native wearable technology brand and a pipeline of innovative products.
"We have a significant opportunity to add technology and connectivity across our platform of watches and accessories," says Kosta Kartsotis, chief executive officer of Fossil Group. "With the acquisition of Misfit, Fossil Group will be uniquely
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