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Preqin looks in detail at investors’ allocations to real estate to assess how they are changing, and how, in light of current investor sentiment, these allocations may be impacted in the coming years.
Institutional confidence in real estate has increased significantly in 2014. The Preqin Investor Outlook: Real Estate, H2 2014, Preqin’s most recent study of institutional investors in real estate, demonstrates that many investors plan to increase their allocations over the longer term as a result of increasing satisfaction with returns.
Allocations
Investors’ average current and target real estate allocations have slowly increased, with the average current allocation increasing from 6.7% of total assets under management
Twelve Capital has closed the latest transaction in its insurance investing business operation – a EUR20m private debt transaction for Alpha Insurance A/S of Denmark, providing Solvency II / Tier 2 compliant capital.
The transaction was facilitated by JLT Advisory Ltd.
The debt instrument is a listed, unrated note with a 10-year-maturity.
John Butler, partner and head of sourcing for Twelve Capital, says: “We are pleased that our private debt product is clearly meeting the capital needs of good quality smaller and mid-sized (re)insurers in our target markets of both Europe and the US. In addition we were
More insurance companies across the EMEA region see themselves as sellers of business units rather than buyers over the next three years, according to a survey by Towers Watson and Mergermarket.
More than 60 per cent of respondents said they expected to divest operations before 2017, up from just 20 per cent who said the equivalent just a year ago.
Meanwhile, the percentage of organisations saying they expect to make an acquisition in the same three year timeframe has fallen from over two thirds (69 per cent) to well under half (42 per cent).
Fergal O’Shea, EMEA life
Palamon Capital Partners has strengthened its team with the appointments of Ali (Alexandre) Rahmatollahi as associate partner and Christian Beck as a member of the firm’s board of advisors.
Rahmatollahi joins Palamon from Morgan Stanley where he spent nearly eight years in its investment banking division, most recently as an executive director with responsibility for financial sponsor coverage. Prior to this he was an engagement manager at McKinsey & Company in its general strategy consulting and private equity practices.
Beck is a highly experienced entrepreneur who has been chief executive of several growth businesses including Banqsoft ASA, Sakhalin Petroleum
European Senior Secured Loan Programme (ESSLP), a joint venture between affiliates of Ares Management and GE Capital, has reached a total of EUR1 billion in commitments since inception in 2012 with the completion of its 10th transaction.
ESSLP’s investments are made through the Ares European direct lending team, Ares Capital Europe, and GE Capital, primarily in the form of unitranche loans.
The GBP120 million refinancing of Notemachine, a portfolio company of Corsair Capital and an owner and operator of ATM machines across the UK and Germany, was the first credit facility upsize for the ESSLP. In January 2014, the
Piper, a specialist investor in consumer brands, has invested GBP6 million in Hickory’s Smokehouse.
Hickory’s is an American style, family friendly smokehouse and BBQ restaurant chain. Meats are slow cooked for up to 12 hours on smokers specially imported from Memphis, Tennessee.
Hickory’s is the brainchild of Neil McDonnell, who founded the business in 2010 following extensive research into the smokehouse sector in the US. The chain operates from large 5,000 sq ft sites and has three units in Chester, West Kirby and Rhos-on-Sea. Hickory’s plans to open a further 10 restaurants over the next three to five years.
Piper is investing GBP6m to support the roll out – the fifth investment from
Arma Partners has acted as exclusive financial adviser to Momondo Group, an online travel metasearch company, on the sale of a majority equity stake to Great Hill Partners.
Great Hill Partners has made a GBP80m cash investment in Momondo Group, valuing it at more than GBP132 million.
With offices in London, Copenhagen and Boston, Momondo Group provides online travel search to over 17.5 million visitors per month – plus seven million travel newsletter subscribers – across more than 30 core international markets, via its Momondo and Cheapflights brands.
Following the investment by Great Hill Partners, Momondo Group aims
Glennmont Partners has bought a portfolio of wind farms from developer and operator Sorgenia France, part of Sorgenia Green Group.
The acquisition comprises two wind farm sites of 16 MW and 6 MW located in the Haute Normandie and Nord Pas de Calais regions in France respectively. The sites are located in one of the strongest wind resource areas of the country.
The two projects are ready to be built, having obtained all building permits and secured all land leases for 40 years. Power purchase agreements with EDF have been signed for both projects, which will benefit from the
Risk management, cost and changes in fund structuring are the key issues for managers and investors arising from the initial impact of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD), according to Crestbridge.
Launched at a special Crestbridge Forum, attended by over 100 highly influential fund sector specialists in Luxembourg on 2 October, the IFI Global ‘Impact of AIFMD’ report examined opinions on the impact of the introduction of the Directive in the last few weeks before the transition period for its implementation expired.
Featuring a dynamic line-up of panellists from Luxembourg and abroad, the event explored the initial findings from the
Mailcloud has successfully completed a seed funding round led by enture capital investors Octopus Investments, with Bessemer Venture partners, that takes total funding to USD2.8m.
The round also includes Xavier Niel’s Kima Ventures, an early backer of Square, Nest and other high profile startups. Seedcamp London have also invested from their new USD50m growth fund. The company has attracted a number of high profile angel backers including Barry Smith, co-Founder of Skyscanner, Irish tech entrepreneur Ray Nolan, Frederic Court, Partner at Advent Ventures and Daniel Malhery founder of Deezer.
Founded in November 2013, Mailcloud is a unique service where
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