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Mid-market private equity firm Palamon Capital Partners has agreed the sale of Espresso House to Herkules Private Equity III, a Norwegian private equity fund.
The terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.
In 2005, Palamon identified a gap in the Nordic markets for a quality, branded coffee bar offering and approached the founders of Espresso House about purchasing a majority interest and initiating a high-growth strategy. Beginning with 22 outlets in the south of Sweden in 2006, Espresso House purchased a 15 store chain in Stockholm to create a national brand with 37 outlets. From that base, the
Signia Wealth has appointed Ana María Harrison as a managing director.
Harrison is assigned to Signia’s private equity division and will work alongside Spencer Moulton.
She will be joining Signia from UBS, where she was executive director in global wealth management private equity. She has been with the company since 2007 and was responsible for UK client distribution covering 175 client advisers, 580 clients and over USD1bn of commitments in 29 private equity feeder vehicles.
Prior to UBS, she was director and head of global aftersales product management for alternative investments at Citigroup Private Bank. From 2001 to
Patron Capital, the specialist pan-European opportunistic and distressed asset investor, has raised over EUR880m, which includes a EUR100m dedicated discretionary co-investment pool, for its new fund Patron Capital IV.
The fundraising significantly exceeded expectations, creating one of the largest funds within the Patron Capital portfolio. Monument Group acted as the exclusive placement agent.
Fund IV attracted blue chip investors comprising many existing investors as well as over 40 per cent of new investors, including prominent universities, major institutions, private foundations and high net worth individuals located throughout Europe, North America, Asia and the Middle East.
Fund IV will
Foresight Group has appointed Dan Wells as director, US solar.
Based initially in the UK with the specialist infrastructure team, Wells will lead the development of Foresight’s solar business in the US, building on Foresight’s 100MW operating solar portfolio in Europe.
Wells joins Foresight with 12 years’ experience in finance and investment, specialising in sustainability and clean energy infrastructure.
Prior to Foresight he was based in Singapore, running the global corporate finance team at Sindicatum Sustainable Resources, where he helped raise and invest USD300m in clean energy over the course of five years.
Jamie Richards, head of infrastructure at Foresight,
Rutland Partners, a turnaround and restructuring investor, has appointed James Barrington-Wells as investment executive.
Barrington-Wells is a graduate of biological science from Edinburgh University who qualified as a chartered accountant with Deloitte in 2009 and subsequently worked in their audit and corporate finance divisions for three years. During this time he worked on a variety of buy-side and sell-side transactions in multiple sectors including consumer business, technology and manufacturing.
This appointment further develops the Rutland team which has included the recent recruitment of Michael Reynolds from Hawkpoint Partners in July. It brings Rutland’s investing team to a total of
Law firm Eversheds has advised Graphite Capital on backing the management buy-out of Explore Learning, a provider of after school tuition at primary school level.
Explore Learning has 62 tuition centres across the UK, providing key skills learning in mathematics and English to children of all abilities.
By acquiring a majority stake in Explore Learning, Graphite’s experience in the education sector is further strengthened. Explore Learning’s senior management team is also reinvesting a significant proportion of its sale proceeds.
The Eversheds team advising Graphite on this deal consisted of head of private equity Richard Moulton (pictured), principal associate Edward Waldron
Joey T Shabot has joined the law firm Greenberg Traurig as of counsel in its Tel Aviv office.
Shabot, the fourth attorney in recent months to move to Greenberg Traurig in Israel, focuses his practice on M&A, financing, and other corporate transactions.
He previously practiced with the New York firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz where he began his legal career in 2005, and just concluded one year as a visiting corporate attorney with the law firm of Meitar Liquornik Geva & Leshem Brandwein in Tel Aviv.
Shabot is admitted to practice in New York and New Jersey. He is
Bluebox, the recently launched advisory business that prepares businesses for sale using a highly structured pre-sale planning programme, has appointed Sam Archer as corporate executive.
Archer joins from Bridges Ventures.
Archer says: “With an estimated 70 per cent of business sales collapsing before they reach legal completion, the corporate finance market needs an offering to address this worrying trend. I was really impressed with the Bluebox proposition which actually identifies the root causes of businesses failing to sell and focuses business owners on the importance of pre-sale planning. Planning plays an essential part in enhancing value and improving the likely
Lyceum Capital-backed Access Group, a business software provider, has acquired French-based business intelligence specialist Prelytis for EUR4m.
The acquisition, which marks the first of a series of moves by Access into the software as a service (SaaS) marketplace, is the company’s sixth bolt-on since Lyceum Capital backed a GBP50m buyout of the group in March last year to support its long-term growth strategy. In July, it acquired Delta Software in a GBP5.4m deal
The transaction brings the number of deals completed by Lyceum Capital since the beginning of 2011 to 21, comprising 17 add-on acquisitions for portfolio companies and
Actis, the pan-emerging markets private equity firm, has appointed James Smith as director in the firm’s value creation group.
Smith will be based in the Johannesburg office and takes up his post with immediate effect.
Smith will work with Actis portfolio companies in Africa, seeking to add value by driving strategic and operational improvements. Smith has previous experience of working with Actis in his role as chief executive and co-founder of consulting firm Burlington Strategy Advisors.
Smith began his career at Palabora Mining Company before moving to Bain & Company in 1998.
The value creation group supports the Actis
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