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Victory Park Capital (VPC), an asset management firm focused on middle-market debt and equity investments, is to invest USD100 million in Upstart loans over the next two years.
Based in Palo Alto, California, Upstart is a lending platform that goes beyond the FICO score to finance people based on signals of their potential, including schools attended, area of study, academic performance, and work history.
“Based on Upstart’s successful launch, innovative management team, and our experience in the specialty finance industry, we believe Upstart is well positioned for success as the platform scales over time,” says Tom Welch of VPC. “We
Topaz Energy and Marine has secured a USD75 million equity investment from Standard Chartered Private Equity (SCPE).
Under the terms of the investment, SCPE will inject USD75 million of equity in return for a 9.8 per cent stake in the business.
The funds will be deployed in support of Topaz’s long-term fleet expansion ambition in its core operational regions and entry to key growth opportunities.
“Joining forces with a private equity powerhouse like SCPE will enable Topaz to truly accelerate the realisation of our strategic plan,” says René Kofod-Olsen, CEO of Topaz. “We have now enhanced the foundation
Private equity firm Riverlake Partners has made a majority equity investment in Guerdon Enterprises.
Headquartered in Boise, Idaho, Guerdon is a producer of large multi-unit modular buildings.
The modular construction segment is projected to increase during the next few years and continue gaining acceptance in an estimated USD3 billion addressable market.
Guerdon has more than 300 employees and annual revenues over USD80 million.
Guerdon’s portfolio includes large apartment, condominium, hotel, office and workforce housing buildings in varying geographies, climates and working conditions.
“We’ve enjoyed strong growth during the past several years and we look forward to
Rcapital, the private London based investor, has made a material growth investment in Drum Cussac, a business risk consultancy.
The deal sees Rcapital take a majority shareholding in the business, backing the current management team of Jeremy Stampa Orwin, founder, Andrew Littlejohns, chief executive, and Craig Stoddart, chief financial officer.
Headquartered in Poole and London, Drum Cussac has 15 years’ experience of working with multinational corporations to mitigate and manage their business, security and operational risks in emerging or complex global markets. Drum Cussac supports a range of industry sectors from oil and gas to professional services.
The
BGF, established to help the UK’s growing smaller and medium sized businesses, has appointed Sarah Ledwidge as an investment manager, based in its Bristol office.
Ledwidge will be responsible for identifying investable local businesses in Hampshire, Berkshire, Wiltshire and the Thames Valley, and working with them to achieve their growth plans.
Her appointment brings BGF’s Bristol-based regional investment team to nine people.
It follows recent growth capital investments of GBP4m into Corsham and Farnborough-based Skyscape Cloud Services Limited, a provider of cloud infrastructure services to the UK public sector, in April 2014 and GBP2m into Abbey Pharma (trading
An anticipated rise in interest rates is accelerating the use of alternative investments by insurance general accounts, according to research from Cerulli Associates.
"Although they comprise a relatively small portion of total assets, large insurance companies have been known for their direct investments in private equity, real estate, and infrastructure," says Alexi Maravel, associate director at Cerulli.
"Much like other institutional investors, insurance chief investment officers and other investment professionals are using alternatives for diversification of investment risks, as well as seeking non-correlated sources of returns."
In their Insurance General Accounts: Opportunities in an Underserved Market report, Cerulli
Brookside Equity Partners has appointed Richard T Dell’Aquila as a managing director.
Previously, Dell’Aquila was a managing director at Parallel Investment Partners in Dallas, Texas, where he was involved in sourcing, evaluating, structuring, managing and exiting several private equity investments.
Before joining Parallel, Dell’Aquila was a principal at Southfield Capital Advisors and was also previously affiliated with Sasco Capital, Pangea and Bear Stearns, where he began his career in the investment banking group.
“We are delighted that an executive of Rich’s calibre has joined our organisation,” says Don Hawks, president of Brookside Equity Partners. “Rich brings with him
Private equity firm GTCR has completed the acquisition of Cole-Parmer Instrument Company from Thermo Fisher Scientific.
Cole-Parmer, headquartered in Vernon Hills, Illinois, is a manufacturer and distributor of specialty laboratory equipment, instruments and supplies to a diverse range of customers in pharmaceutical, biotech, healthcare, chemicals, food and other research-based or regulated markets.
GTCR is partnering with life science industry veteran Bernd Brust to carve-out the business from Thermo Fisher and position the business for future growth.
Brust, former CEO of Qualicaps and, previously, chief commercial operations officer of Life Technologies Corporation (acquired by Thermo Fisher in 2014), will
Sensata Technologies is to acquire the Schrader group of companies from private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners for a total enterprise value of USD1.0 billion.
Schrader specialises in tyre pressure monitoring sensors (TPMS).
The transaction provides TPMS and additional low pressure sensing capabilities that address large and fast growing sensing markets and adds to Sensata's industry-leading sensing position.
The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close during the fourth quarter of 2014.
Schrader is headquartered in Denver, Colorado and has sales and engineering offices in the US, the UK, Germany, China, Japan and
Accountancy firm Monahans has appointed Stephanie Hurst to the position of corporate tax manager.
Based at the firm’s Bath office, Hurst specialises in business and corporate tax, research and development relief, mergers, acquisitions and business restructuring.
Hirst qualified as Chartered Tax Advisor in 2013. She joins Monahans with almost 10 years of practice experience.
"Monahans is known for its high-calibre people and the great work it does in many industry sectors,” says Hurst. “I’m very excited to be joining the firm and working as part of the tax team across the practice."
Dominic Bourquin, corporate tax partner
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