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Although Africa still only makes up a small portion of the private equity market, interest is on the rise as a result of a burgeoning middle class and strong growth figures across the continent as a whole. Economic activity within West Africa tends to be dominated by oil-rich Nigeria, but other countries in the region are also showing promising figures. Preqin’s Funds in Market online service currently tracks 29 private equity vehicles that are seeking to raise an aggregate total of nearly USD80bn in capital for investment within West Africa, or as part of a wider geographical focus.
One country
The Annex IV report under AIFMD contains 38 specific questions for the AIFM and over 300 questions for each AIF being passported across the EU. To say that it is a complex beast is an understatement.
“AIFMD regulation is like an onion; the more you peel it back the more you want to cry,” is the candid response of Joseph Henkel, part of the Global Solutions team at SEI’s Investment Manager Services division in Dublin.
As AIFMs gear up to prepare their first filing by 31 January 2015, SEI is urging its clients, both EU and non-EU, to go
Global law firm White & Case LLP has advised leading European private equity group EQT on the SEK9.7 billion (around GBP820 million) tender offer for all of the shares in Sanitec by Geberit AG.
Switzerland-based Geberit is the European leader in the sanitary technology sector. It has a global presence through sales offices in 41 countries and generated a sales volume of CHF2.3 billion during 2013. Sanitec is the leading producer of bathroom ceramics in Europe with a portfolio of household name brands and sales during 2013 of EUR702 million. It has been a portfolio company of principal shareholder EQT
Confluence, a specialist in investment data management automation, has acquired Belgium-based data solutions provider Orfival.
The acquisition will allow Confluence to leverage Orfival’s product expertise and networks to provide an even more comprehensive Fund Analytics offering to the global asset management industry. Orfival was founded in 1999 and has built up its network amongst European asset managers, insurance companies and pension schemes by offering solutions for portfolio management and analytics, performance measurement and attribution, risk and investment compliance reporting services.
In the U.S., where Confluence is the market leader in mutual fund performance calculation, Confluence clients will now have
Miles Capita has expanded its Alternative Markets Solutions (AMS) services providing a holistic and accessible platform to help insurers allocate to alternative asset classes and strategies.
Miles Capital provides guidance, due diligence, objectives-based asset allocation, industry access, compliance, and practical delivery of alternative assets through a flexible approach. Miles Capital has provided this service to current clients but will now broaden the scope to allow insurers nationwide to take advantage of AMS benefits.
“We are excited to bring AMS to the broader market,” says Gregory Boal, CEO and CIO of Miles Capital. “This is a genuinely different approach to
European private equity firm Cinven has agreed the sale of all 245 ASK Italian and Zizzi restaurants to Bridgepoint for a consideration of GBP250 million.
This transaction represents Cinven’s complete exit from its investment in the Gondola Group (‘Gondola’ or ‘the Group’), the market leader in the UK casual dining sector, following the sale of the PizzaExpress and Byron restaurant brands separately for a combined consideration of approximately GBP1 billion. This sale brings the total sale proceeds to approximately GBP1.3 billion, generating a money multiple of 2.4 times.
In the UK, Zizzi and ASK operate 136 and 109 restaurants,
Maven Capital Partners (Maven) has racieved a 3.8x multiple return on its investment in control systems specialist EFC Group, via a secondary buyout to a consortium of private investor.
The exit from EFC represents the latest profitable disposal by Maven’s Aberdeen-based team. In recent years the team has overseen the sale of a number of high-growth energy services support businesses, including Nessco and Walker Technical for returns of 2.7x and 2.9x respectively.
Aberdeen-based EFC is a niche market leader providing monitoring systems and instrumentation to the oil and gas sector. Its specialist designed and engineered solutions are now used
Private equity investment firm HIG Capital has appointed Simon Laker as Principal and Head of European Asset Management of the firm’s real estate portfolio.
Laker will be based in HIG's London office and joins the firm from Evans Randall, where he actively managed real estate investments across several European jurisdictions.
HIG Capital’s real estate platform targets opportunistic real estate investments, with a focus on adding value, improving performance, and achieving attractive risk adjusted returns. The HIG European real estate team is active across a wide spectrum of real estate asset classes and has completed 11 transactions across multiple jurisdictions
semiconductor manufacturer Infineon Technologies is to acquire a 9.4 per cent stake in printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturer Schweizer Electronic.
The relevant contracts have been concluded, but both companies have agreed strict confidentiality on the terms of the deal.
By investing into Schweizer Infineon is looking to jointly develop technologies for the integration of power semiconductors into PCBs and to tap the chip embedding market for high-power automotive and industrial applications. Schweizer’s chip embedding technology will round out Infineon’s proprietary chip embedding packaging technology BLADE, used for example for direct current supply (DC/DC conversion) that is necessary for processors in
Africa-focused private equity firm DPI, along with other investors, is to sell Assur Africa Holding (AAH) to the AXA Group “AXA) for a total consideration of approximately EUR198 million.
AAH holds a 77% stake in Nigerian insurance company Mansard Insurance (Mansard). AfricInvest, DEG, FMO and PROPARCO were invested alongside the fund, which was the largest shareholder in AAH. The transaction is expected to close before the end of 2014.
Mansard offers a diverse range of life and non-life products to both institutional and retail clients. Mansard is listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange and is the largest listed insurer by
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