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Private equity firm Advent International has appointed Hanspeter Spek to its operating partner programme.
An executive with extensive operational experience in the global pharmaceuticals and healthcare industries, Spek (pictured) will advise and work closely with Advent’s healthcare team to identify attractive investment opportunities and generate post-investment value in the areas of pharmaceuticals and pharmaceuticals-related services globally.
Spek’s industry expertise spans several decades. Most recently he served as Sanofi’s president of global operations, having held a variety of positions since he joined the firm in 1985 as marketing director of Sanofi Pharma GmbH, the company’s German subsidiary. He progressed
International investment operation Prestige and specialist investment advisor Methexis Capital have launched the Commercial Finance Opportunities (CFO), a fund specialising in secured lending to private companies, in the UK.
The arrival of CFO follows quickly on the announcement on 12 August of the purchase by Prestige Fund Management of a significant equity stake in Methexis Holdings (Isle of Man), the parent company of Methexis Capital Advisors, a UK based FCA regulated investment adviser.
The new fund, structured as a Luxembourg-registered SICAV-SIF, invests in a diversified portfolio consisting of short-term commercial and industrial Account Receivables and is currently offered to
Scottish Equity Partners (SEP) and Hermes have acquired Zouk Capital’s shareholding in Anesco, a UK-based energy efficiency solutions company.
Zouk Capital, the private equity and infrastructure fund manager specialising in the clean economy, was a founding shareholder in Anesco in 2010 and has made a significant contribution to the growth of the company. The transaction was led by SEP.
Anesco was recently announced as national winner of the BVCA Management Team of the Year Award. The Reading-based company had turnover of GBP55.1m and a profit of GBP3.4m before tax.
With the ongoing support of SEP and Hermes,
Ironridge Global Partners, an institutional investor making direct equity investments in micro-cap public companies, has launched an initiative to fund Chinese public companies, including companies based in China whose stock is publicly traded on Nasdaq, NYSE MKT, OTCQX or OTCQB, as well as US public companies with Chinese facilities, operations or customers.
Ironridge Global closed a USD5m financing for L&L Energy, an American company whose stock is traded on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, in the business of producing, processing and selling coal in the People’s Republic of China. As part of the deal, Ironridge paid RMB25m to Guizhou
International law firm Taylor Wessing has advised Powa Technologies on a private placement of shares to raise an aggregate amount of approximately USD76m.
The transaction represents one of the largest investments in an early stage UK technology company in recent years.
Powa Technologies, which was set up by London based tech entrepreneur Dan Wagner in 2007 and only began trading two years ago, creates technology allowing consumers and businesses to make transactions through mobile devices. Its PowaPIN device allows credit and debit card payments to be taken on the go through a mobile phone app for iPhone, iPad,
Graham Wrigley has been appointed as the new chairman of the board of CDC, the UK government-owned development finance institution that invests in the developing countries of South Asia and Africa.
Wrigley (pictured) will take up the role in January 2014 and succeeds Richard Gillingwater who has been chairman since April 2010.
Wrigley comes to CDC with extensive experience of investing in developing and developed markets. He had a 17 year career with the one of the world’s largest private equity firms, Permira, and has served as chairman of Aureos, a major investor in small and medium sized
Pure Storage, the all-flash enterprise storage array company, has closed an oversubscribed USD150m series E funding round with institutional investors – the single largest private funding in the history of the enterprise storage industry.
Led by T Rowe Price, Tiger Global Management and other public market investors, with participation by its previous venture capital investors Greylock Partners, Index Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Samsung Ventures and Sutter Hill Ventures, the new funding brings the company’s total capital raise to USD245m and puts the all-flash storage pioneer on-track for a future initial public offering (IPO).
Pure Storage will use the new
Maven Capital Partners has made a further investment in existing portfolio business Fletcher Shipping.
Maven Client Funds, alongside the Scottish Loan Fund (SLF), which is managed by Maven, have provided a GBP5.5m package to part fund the acquisition of a fourth and fifth Platform Support Vessel (PSV), the FS Pisces and FS Sirius.
Established in 2007, employing around 100 people, Fletcher owns and operates PSVs in the North Sea. These vessels support the offshore oil and gas industry by transporting everything an oil rig needs to function 365 days a year including food, consumables, production/drilling equipment, replacement parts
Goal Group, a claims outsourcing provider and tax reclamation specialist, has appointed David Gilbert as global business development manager and Tania Dupoy as sales and relationship manager.
Both are to be based at Goal Group’s London office.
Gilbert has over 20 years’ experience, for the most part within the financial information industry. His most recent position was as regional sales director at Interactive Data, a provider of financial market data, analytics, and related solutions to financial institutions.
Various positions have led Gilbert to gain experience in generating sales and revenue, management, and direct involvement in major client
The Carlyle Group and The Townsend Group have partnered with Shanghai Yupei Group, one of the largest logistics warehouse developers in China, to invest in 17 modern warehouses in China.
Carlyle and Townsend will commit approximately USD200m to acquire equity interests in five warehouses owned by Shanghai Yupei Group and to build 12 new warehouses in the next two years.
Shanghai Yupei Group will also invest USD200m, bringing the total equity commitment of the strategic partnership to USD400m.
The 17 warehouses will be located in major logistics hubs across China, including the first-tier cities of Shanghai, Beijing,
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