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Private equity firm Arlington Capital Partners has acquired the Zemax division of Radiant Zemax, a provider of optical and illumination design software to design engineers.
Zemax becomes the sixth company with licensable software in Arlington Capital's current portfolio, joining Advanced Health, Compusearch, Iron Data, Novetta, and Quantum Spatial.
Zemax’s OpticStudio software platform allows users to design, tolerance and simulate sophisticated optical or illumination systems. The company’s installed base spans across 80 different countries and includes over 7,500 different companies, including global industry leaders in aerospace, defence, medical/life sciences, technology, and leading research and development units within the government.
Mid-market private equity fund Equistone Partners Europe has acquired a majority stake in independent leisure business Travel Counsellors for an undisclosed sum.
Founded in 1994 by David and Maureen Speakman, Travel Counsellors enables travel professionals to work from home whilst supporting them in all areas of their business.
The company has achieved 60 per cent growth over the past five years, with forecast global sales of GBP424m for the year ending 31 October 2014.
The Bolton-headquartered company employs 250 staff and has over 1,300 travel experts operating in eight countries worldwide, including Ireland, Belgium, South Africa, Netherlands, UAE,
Blackstone has partnered with a management team led by Matthew Rosenblum, the founder and chief executive officer at Solops, to create Onyx Renewable Partners.
As a new affiliate of Blackstone portfolio company Fisterra Energy, Onyx will be owned by funds managed by Blackstone on behalf of its private equity investors.
Onyx’s primary focus will be to develop, finance, construct and operate utility scale wind and solar renewable power projects in North America. Onyx will leverage Blackstone’s extensive greenfield infrastructure experience, which includes in excess of USD25 billion of projects over the past decade.
Led by Rosenblum, the Onyx
Assets under management of Luxembourg domiciled funds reached EUR3,006.76 billion at the end of September 2014.
This represents a 14.97 per cent increase since the beginning of this year and is mainly due to net sales.
Marc Saluzzi, chairman of the Association of the Luxembourg Funds Industry (ALFI), says: “Assets under management have steadily increased since September 2013, and whilst with volatile markets assets under management actually may drop, it is encouraging both that investors have confidence in investment funds generally and that fund promoters continue to choose Luxembourg as a domicile.
“Luxembourg remains the most prominent international
UK-headquartered international investment bank Altium has enjoyed a bumper third quarter, with the group’s deal values for the quarter exceeding GBP1bn.
During the third quarter, Altium has completed 15 transactions worth a total of GBP1.2bn. Significant deals for the group during the period include advising on the sale of online fashion retailer mytheresa.com to one of the world’s best known luxury department stores, US based Neiman Marcus in September; advising global private equity firm KKR on its acquisition of a stake in the online classified business, Scout 24; and advising on the sale of independent luxury watchmaker Ulysse Nardin to
UK mid-market private equity house LDC is to make a minority investment in Capital Economics, an independent macro-economic research company.
Capital Economics’ output spans global, regional and country research, including coverage of 56 emerging markets, and specialised analysis of financial markets, commodities and the consumer and property sectors, delivered across 23 different subscription services. In addition, it undertakes commissioned research projects.
Capital Economics, led by Roger Bootle, was established in 1999, and is headquartered in London. It currently has almost 100 employees, of whom about a half are economists working across offices in London, Toronto and Singapore.
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Atlantica Hotels International has been recapitalised with equity capital from Quantum Strategic Partners Ltd, a private investment fund managed by Soros Fund Management, Tao Invest, a private investment fund managed by Tao Capital Partners, and management.
Paul Sistare, founder and CEO of Atlantica, says: "This is a positive move for our clients, employees and business. We are delighted to partner with Soros and Tao, all long-term focused investors with strong track records of supporting growth companies. Our plans for growth remain in place."
As part of the recapitalisation transaction, global lodging industry veteran Doug Geoga has joined the investor group
PHD Equity Partners has launched its second private equity fund, PHD Equity Partners Fund No2 LP.
The firm is currently fundraising and expects to reach its target size of GBP25 million this year.
Fund 2 will build on the firm’s strategy of investing in smaller UK businesses, with valuations of less than GBP10 million.
PHD’s maiden fund, PHD Equity Partners Fund No.1 LP, is on target to deliver an IRR for investors (net of all fees) of 24.6 per cent.
Highlights of Fund 1 include the sale of Liberty Services to Capita plc for over nine times
Northleaf Venture Catalyst Fund (NVCF) has made a USD10 million commitment to Vancouver-based Version One Ventures II, an early-stage fund investing in high-potential internet, SaaS and mobile entrepreneurs.
“We are pleased to be an anchor institutional investor in one of Canada’s most promising venture capital funds,” says Ian Carew, director of Northleaf Capital Partners, the manager of NVCF. “The investment in Version One furthers NVCF’s strategy of investing in best-in-class Canada-based venture capital and growth equity funds. Version One’s founder Boris Wertz is one of the most well-respected early-stage technology investors in North America and has served as a local
Quadriga Worldwide, a provider of guest technology managed services for the hospitality industry, is merging with the SmarTV Company, a developer of interactive entertainment solutions for commercial and consumer markets.
The merged company’s mission is to maximise guest engagement and satisfaction, enhance the HSIA and entertainment experience, and strengthen on-property value through increased revenue and operational efficiencies for hotels.
Operating under the Quadriga Worldwide brand name, the company will focus initially on North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa where the group has existing sales and operational resources. SmarTV, which will rebrand as Quadriga Technology, will continue to
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