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Moonray Healthcare has acquired Lexum, a provider of ophthalmology in Czech Republic and Poland.
The deal will see a phased transfer of ownership from current investors ARX Equity Partners and founder Professor Martin Filipec, who will remain with the group.
Lexum operates 10 hospitals across Central Europe including the European Eye Centre, a new 2,500 square metre flagship eye hospital in Prague.
Moonray Healthcare intends to combine the group with Optegra, its UK based eye hospital group which operates 11 specialist hospitals across England and Germany. Together the group will annually perform more than 40,000 surgical procedures and be one
Baird, an employee-owned international financial services firm, and Axis Capital, the investment banking subsidiary of Axis Bank, have formed an alliance for investment banking services, with an initial focus on cross-border mergers and acquisitions between India and Europe, and India and the US.
Through the alliance, the two investment banks will enhance their respective M&A offerings by leveraging each bank’s knowledge of M&A and capital markets and specific industry sectors, as well as their deep corporate relationships within those sectors.
The alliance between Baird and Axis Capital is on an exclusive basis. While the initial focus is cross-border M&A, the
Venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) has set up its first remote liaison office in West China in Chengdu Tianfu Software Park.
This office, connected to KPCB’s Beijing and Shanghai offices by an advanced Polycom video system, aims to build a bridge between local entrepreneurs and KPCB investors to broaden local talents’ learning scopes and to provide local startups more funding opportunities.
"In recent years, Chengdu has seen a growing entrepreneurial scene with a large number of startups successfully promoting their products in China and abroad. In fact, we have seen for quite some time a large
Silverfleet Capital, the European private equity firm, has acquired La Fée Maraboutée, a French wholesaler and retailer of women’s fashion, for EUR65m.
The founder of the company and its joint-chief executives are also making a significant investment alongside Silverfleet Capital.
Founded in 1996 in Roanne, which is located west of Lyon, by its founder and current head designer, Jean-Pierre Braillard, La Fée Maraboutée is a women’s fashion brand that is distributed by 1,700 French and international wholesale partners, as well as a store network of 90 outlets including 35 own and affiliate stores and 55 franchise stores (37 of
Social investor and worldwide cooperative Oikocredit has appointed David Woods as its managing director with effect from 1 January 2013.
Woods’ appointment follows the pending retirement of Ben Simmes, who has been with Oikocredit for 16 years across a number of key roles.
Woods has extensive international business and leadership experience, having held senior positions in the banking sector and as an advisory board member to the European Institute of Interdisciplinary Research in Paris.
Oikocredit board president Salome Sengani says: "Mr Woods brings a wide range of skills and experience to the organisation and we believe his diverse background across
UK start-up firms and small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are set to get a GBP1.1m innovation boost to help them develop new ideas, improve processes and target new markets.
A second wave of Innovation Vouchers is being made available through the Technology Strategy Board. The extra funding is for Innovation Vouchers for businesses who want to use public open data to commercialise their ideas and develop products and prototypes.
The Innovation Vouchers scheme was launched in September providing GBP5,000 to businesses who wanted to develop ideas applicable to agri-food, built environment and space. As well as the additional funding
Cortland Fund Services has been chosen by Singerman Real Estate to administer the firm’s private equity real estate fund, Singerman Real Estate Opportunity Fund I (SRE Fund I).
Cortland will provide fund accounting, investor servicing, and other middle and back-office support and service for the Chicago-based investment firm’s fund.
SRE Fund I is an opportunistic real estate fund focused on maximising risk-adjusted returns through investments in both debt and equity with a national footprint.
“Cortland’s experience and expertise working with real estate funds is proving to be a valuable resource to the SRE team and our investors,” says SRE’s chief
Elizabeth Conway, tax partner, Linklaters on the recent Swedish Administrative Court decision that carried interest should be deemed employment income…
The private equity industry could be forgiven for wondering whether the Swedish Administrative Court’s decision last week on carried interest marks a turning point. The Swedish court held that carried interest earned by certain Swedish executives should be taxed as employment income (rather than at materially lower capital gains rates). Given the wave of new tax rules across a number of European jurisdictions designed to coerce private equity houses in to de-levering their structures, and in the wake of the
Blue Sage Capital, an Austin, Texas-based private investment firm, has held the first and final closing of its oversubscribed second fund, Blue Sage Capital II.
Capital commitments totalled USD150m, above the USD100m target size.
Blue Sage received strong support from existing investors as well as new limited partners. Blue Sage’s investors include a diverse group of limited partners such as large financial institutions, private equity fund of funds, prominent family offices, endowed trusts, government entities, and the partners of Blue Sage, who represent the largest commitment to the fund.
Blue Sage is led by founding members Peter Huff (pictured) and
Samuelle Thevenet and Charlotte Metaireau have joined Activa Capital as finance director and marketing and communications manager, respectively.
Thevenet, 36, previously worked for two years as company secretary at CM-CIC LBO Partners (a subsidiary of Credit Mutuel – CIC) and three years as chief financial officer at Actem Partners – Natixis Group. She was in charge of the financial and administrative management of these entities.
Metaireau, 27, worked for three years at Mazars, international audit and advisory services group, where she was successively communication officer and press relations officer. Initially, she will be working alongside Sophie Cardoso, Activa’s current
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