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Vinson & Elkins has promoted seven lawyers to its partnership: Manuel Berrelez, Christopher Dewar, and Christina Tate in Dallas; Ryan Carney and Adam Larson in Houston; Jenny Doak in London; and Katy Gottsponer in Washington, D.C.
“The impressive work these lawyers have done on behalf of our clients has been notable and worthy of promotion to our partnership,” says V&E chairman Mark Kelly. “Each individual in this group has repeatedly demonstrated the ability to contribute substantially to the strategic objectives of their practice groups and the firm.”
The new partners span five of the firm’s key practice areas: complex
WyzAnt, an online marketplace for private tutoring, has secured a USD21.5m investment from Accel Partners, the global venture capital firm.
The funds will be used to drive product innovation and scale WyzAnt's technology platform as the company expands globally.
With over 500,000 tutors and one million students, WyzAnt is the largest tutoring marketplace in the US. Parents, students and others use WyzAnt to search for and hire qualified, pre-screened tutors in their city. Millions of hours of tutoring have been completed through the marketplace, and the website has over 850,000 tutor reviews and ratings. WyzAnt's tutor community covers more
Private equity firm Thoma Bravo has sold its portfolio company, digital identities and information specialist Entrust, to Datacard Group.
Financial terms have not been disclosed. The sale is expected to close by year-end.
“Thoma Bravo worked closely with Entrust management to grow the business into an industry leader through continued product innovation and execution of operational best practices,” says Thoma Bravo managing partner Scott Crabill. “We are proud of the work accomplished by everyone at Entrust to better serve the critical needs of customers while organically accelerating revenue growth and increasing profitability.”
With a capital injection and operational
KKR & Co and KKR Financial Holdings (KFN) have signed a definitive merger agreement where KKR will acquire KFN through a stock-for-stock merger that values KFN at USD2.6bn.
KFN is a specialty finance company with a portfolio of assets spanning a complementary range of strategies, principally leveraged credit through ownership of subordinated and mezzanine notes across a number of CLOs, special situations and private markets strategies including natural resources, commercial real estate and private equity. KFN is externally managed by KKR.
Under the agreement, which has been approved by the boards of directors of both KKR and KFN, in
Kester Capital has sold its interest in Chiltern in a deal which values the business at GBP135m.
The exit comes as Chiltern announces the consolidation of existing investors, led by Sir Douglas Myers.
The transaction has generated a return of over 2x capital and a 25 per cent IRR for Kester Capital funds.
Chiltern is a contract research organisation (CRO) with extensive experience in the management of Phase I-IV clinical trials across a broad range of therapeutic areas. Chiltern serves a diverse customer base and has conducted trials in over 40 countries. The business employs more than 1,600
Hot Rod Brands, an affiliate of private equity company Z Capital, has acquired MSD Performance Group (MSDP), a provider of vehicle aftermarket performance parts.
MSDP sells products under the MSD, Racepak, Powerteq, Edge and Superchips brands.
The transaction is scheduled to close this week.
The acquisition was part of a Section 363 Bankruptcy auction and was approved on 26 November 2013. MSDP filed a voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection petition on 6 September 2013.
"MSDP is now well positioned for the future,” says Ron Turcotte, chief executive of MSDP. "In recent years, we have expanded our portfolio
UK venture capital firm SEP has reported a sharp upturn in investment activity this year and strong operating performance across its portfolio of 40 high growth companies.
SEP, one of the largest venture capital groups in Europe, confirmed that investment is scheduled to total GBP60m in the current year to 31 December.
Companies added to the portfolio include l digital solutions provider Tryzens, email marketing company Pure360, and social analytics company SocialBro. SEP expects to complete another significant e-commerce investment within the next few weeks.
Aggregate revenues for the portfolio have grown 22 per cent in 2013 to almost
Maven Capital Partners has invested GBP5m for a majority equity stake in R&M Engineering, which provides integrated engineering and fabrication services to the North Sea oil and gas industry.
This investment is the sixth new deal Maven’s Aberdeen team has completed this year.
R&M operates out of purpose built premises in Huntly (Aberdeenshire) and is one of the few independent companies in the UK with the expertise and infrastructure to carry out large and complex projects including hydraulic, pneumatic and electrical work. The business undertakes all processes in-house including design, machining, welding and final fabrication.
R&M has enjoyed
There’s plenty of value to be found in European microcap shares for investors in 2014, according to veteran European small cap investors Philip Best (pictured) and Marc St John Webb at Geneva-based Argos Investment Managers.
Despite an outstanding 2013 for the duo’s Argonaut fund, which has risen by 39.2% since 1 January, they believe that many European stocks in their universe remain significantly undervalued.
“While 2013 has been a good year for Argonaut, our numerous ‘boots on the ground’ trips into the heartlands of industrial Europe still reveal plenty of deeply undervalued quality small businesses whose prices have yet to
Gaw Capital Partners USA has appointed Ashish Gupta as senior vice president for acquisitions.
Gupta (pictured) will be based in the soon-to-be opened New York City office and is responsible for US investments for the firm, with a focus on projects located on the east coast and other select knowledge- and innovation-based markets such as Austin, Texas.
Most recently, Gupta was a senior vice president at Lehman Brothers where he was responsible for overseeing the restructuring, asset management and monetisation of a portfolio of debt and equity positions collateralised by approximately 30 million square feet of office space across several major US markets. Through restructurings
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