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Inflexion Private Equity has promoted Richard Swann from investment director to partner.
Swann joined the investment team in 2008 and has led Inflexion’s investments in Rhead Group, Phlexglobal, National Accident Helpline and FDM Group. He holds seats on all their boards.
John Hartz, managing partner at Inflexion, says: “We are delighted to announce Richard’s promotion. He has made a significant contribution to the team over many years and his promotion to partner is well-deserved.”
Swann’s promotion adds to the development of Inflexion’s senior team following the firm’s recent international appointments in Brazil, China and India.
Coller Capital, an investor in private equity secondaries, has held the final closing of Coller International Partners VI (CIP VI) with commitments of USD5.5bn.
CIP VI, which had a target size of USD5bn, will acquire private equity portfolios – positions in existing private equity funds and interests in privately-held companies – thus providing liquidity to the original investors in these assets.
Like its five predecessor funds, CIP VI will take a flexible approach. Advised by a multinational team based in London, New York and Hong Kong, the fund will target assets and sellers located anywhere in the world, and make
This week VAM Funds, the Luxembourg-based specialist fund manager announced it had expanded its Asian team with the appointment of Paul Bamber as sales manager.
Levine Leichtman Capital Partners, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm, has partnered with management to complete the acquisition of Mander Portman Woodward from Apollo Global, a subsidiary of Apollo Group.
Based in London, MPW represents LLCP’s first platform investment in Europe.
MPW is a provider of private education for students in their transition from secondary school into UK universities. It offers courses to over 900 students each year at its London, Cambridge and Birmingham campuses.
The investment in MPW was funded from Levine Leichtman Capital Partners IV, a USD1.1bn private equity fund.
Lauren Leichtman (pictured), co-founder and chief executive of
Blackstone has appointed Joe Baratta as head of global private equity.
Baratta (pictured) currently heads the private equity team in Europe and is a member of the firm’s executive committee. He will also join the firm’s management committee.
Baratta will be based in New York from September.
Tony James, Blackstone’s president, says: “Joe Baratta embodies the best of Blackstone – high integrity, strong investment acumen, a focus on the needs of our limited partners and a great developer of talent. He has been a key part of the leadership team at Blackstone and I look forward to having him broaden
RollUp Media has secured EUR1.2m in funding from venture capital firm Arts Alliance and other investors, bringing total funding since its founding to EUR2m.
The new investment will enable RollUp Media, which publicly launched in the UK and Australia in May, to continue expansion of its service to help niche and independent publishers grow their businesses profitably, by providing a bespoke suite of platform, tools and services.
“We decided to invest in Rollup Media because they have identified clearly the needs of both independent publishers and the advertising community. This, together with a team highly experienced in both publishing
Mid-market private equity firm Gresham is moving from its current offices in One South Place, EC2 to a new location at 1 Bartholomew Lane, EC2, just opposite the Bank of England.
The move to the newly renovated building, which is behind a listed façade, is planned for early September.
Since taking its lease on One South Place in 1997, when London was still the firm’s sole base, Gresham has opened offices in Birmingham, Manchester and Bristol.
Bichot & Associes, a law firm dedicated to M&A and private equity, has advised the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC) in the creation of a joint venture with EOSOL Energies Nouvelles.
The project was to set up a common holding between the two partners, designed to hold shareholdings in two companies operating photovoltaic powerplants with an aggregate capacity of 13MW and seven project companies applying to the tendering launched by the French Energy Regulator, for the construction of new powerplants for an aggregate capacity of 52MW.
Bichot & Associes’ team was led by Mathieu Odet (partner), Nicolas Bichot (partner)
Global private equity investment was down by 25 per cent to just USD93bn in the first half of 2012, according to TheCityUK’s Private Equity 2012 report, continuing the decline seen in 2011.
However, although the UK private equity firms saw a similar decline in investments in 2011, buyouts increased to GBP8bn in the first half of 2012, a 38 per cent increase on the second half of the previous year.
Chris Cummings, chief executive of TheCityUK, says: “The global private equity sector has seen a significant downturn in activity since the start of the economic crisis, which is concerning
Actis, the pan-emerging markets private equity firm, and the Government of Rwanda have confirmed the sale of Actis’s interest in Banque Commerciale du Rwanda (BCR) to Kenyan regional bank, I&M Bank, and French and German development finance institutions, Proparco and DEG.
Rwanda’s Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, John Rwangombwa (pictured), heralded the sale of the country’s second largest bank as a privatisation success story for Africa.
Actis acquired an 80 per cent interest in BCR in a 2004 privatisation, with the remaining 20 per cent interest retained by the Government of Rwanda. When Actis invested, Rwanda was a
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