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The UK deals market is resurgent with Q1 deal volumes up 50 per cent on Q1 2014, according to PwC deals index. Total deal values increased by 96 per cent, driven by a number of 'mega deals' and the ongoing availability of capital.
Stuart McKee, PwC head of corporate finance in the firm’s UK Deals business, says: “Although headline numbers across all deal sizes showed a decline in this quarter, the market for larger deals was significantly more positive driven by the improving macroeconomic environment, increased market confidence, favourable debt markets and a strong UK/US deals axis.”
Though corporate activity
Private equity firm Keensight Capital has taken a stake in smartTrade Technologies, a financial software provider for trading desks.
Founded in 1999, headquartered in Aix-en-Provence and led by Harry Gozlan and David Vincent, smartTrade Technologies develops and markets software and technology for trading floors. Its liquidity management solutions enable financial institutions to develop high-performance trading platforms for every asset class and all trading protocols throughout the world. The company has developed a particular expertise in providing software solutions for currency and fixed-income trading, a market segment in which it has become a world leader. SmartTrade, whose teams are located across
A pool of banks composed by Banca IMI, Banca Popolare di Milano, Banca Popolare FriulAdria, BNP Paribas Italy, GE Capital Interbanca, IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG Italy, UniCredit e UniCredit Bank AG Italy, financed the acquisition and provided the necessary resources to refinance the group’s debt and support its daily operational activities.
Gattai Minoli Agostinelli & Partners assisted the buyer with a team composed by partners Bruno Gattai and Gerardo Gabrielli, senior associate Caterina Gianciotta and associates Eleonora Canonici and Michele Amisano.
Gattai Minoli Agostinelli & Partners also advised Clessidra and the companies in the financing, with a team composed
Lea Lazaric Calvert has agreed to join Evercore’s Private Capital Advisory business (PCA) as a Managing Director. Lazaric Calvert will be based in London where she will focus on advising leading financial institutional investors and fund sponsors on secondary transactions.
Lazaric Calvert, who will join Evercore in July, was most recently an Executive Director at UBS where she was a member of the Private Funds Group, responsible for the coverage of a number of institutional investors in countries including the UK, Germany and Switzerland. Lazaric Calvert has extensive fund placement experience, having advised a number of leading private equity general
In an extract from the Preqin Hedge Fund Spotlight | May 2015, Joseph McGee takes a look at the ‘USD1bn Club’, a group of the world’s largest hedge fund managers, and identifies the traits and characteristics that are unique to this distinguished group which controls a vast proportion of industry capital.
Over the past year, hedge fund industry assets have increased, surpassing the USD3tn mark as of December 2014. One notable group active in this space is managers with at least USD1bn in assets under management (AUM) – the ‘USD1bn Club’ – comprised of some of the largest hedge
Woodbridge International has opened a new office in Bologna, Italy. Woodbridge’s Italian office will serve sellers and buyers of middle market companies based in Italy. Leading the team in Bologna are three accomplished Senior M&A Advisors.
Roberto Dunatov is a Chartered Accountant and Registered Auditor whose previous positions include executive roles in auditing and corporate finance for PriceWaterhouse’s branches in several Italian cities. His responsibilities encompassed Practice Development, M&A, Technical Matters, Eastern Europe and Financial Institutions.
Mario Maestroni has worked with a number of high-tech companies in Italy, USA, Yugoslavia and the Far East. Mario has held executive positions at
Glennmont Partners, has completed the acquisition of an 18 MW operating wind farm in the North-East region of France. The wind farm is powered by Senvion turbines and was developed and built by German developer ENERTRAG.
ENERTRAG, which currently provides technical management and maintenance services for over 1,400 turbines, will continue to look after the technical and commercial operations of the wind farm.
This transaction takes Glennmont’s onshore wind portfolio over 210MW across France, Ireland, the UK and Italy. Glennmont continues to develop a diversified portfolio of renewable energy projects across geographies and technologies, to deliver robust and sustainable returns
Intralinks’ Todd Partridge (pictured) advises a multi-pillar approach to guard against cyber attack.
In light of high-profile hacking events, where the likes of JP Morgan, Home Depot, and, most notably, Sony suffered significant losses of information, it is incumbent upon organisations to think more holistically about governance. Enterprise must put in place a security framework that incorporates people, processes, and technology.
This is especially important for hedge fund managers, who share sensitive portfolio and investor information with various counterparties across external networks. These data-transfer channels are potential weak points for hackers to exploit.
Todd Partridge (pictured) is an executive
European private equity firm Cinven is to acquire Labco, one of the largest European operators of medical diagnostic laboratories, from a consortium of investors, for an enterprise value of EUR1.2 billion.
Labco, headquartered in France, operates in France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Belgium and the UK and conducts clinical tests; delivers results to prescribing doctors and patients; and provides assistance with the interpretation of clinical results through in-house laboratory doctors. Labco also operates a large portfolio of hospital outsourcing contracts in Europe, providing services to both ambulatory care and hospitals.
Established in 2003, Labco operates a network of more
The British Business Bank has invested GBP17.5 million in Passion Capital II LP, the GBP45 million second fund from one of the UK’s best known venture investment firms.
The commitment marks the 18th investment by the British Business Bank’s Enterprise Capital Funds (ECF) programme.
Passion Capital is a hands-on investor providing financial support and mentoring at a very early stage, helping to build companies and prepare them for accelerated growth. The new fund builds on the success of Passion Capital’s first fund, which was also supported by British Business Bank’s ECF programme, and backed the early development of high growth
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