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First Republic Bank, a private bank and wealth management company, has hired Samir Kaji in its Sand Hill Road office in Menlo Park and John Cummings in the downtown Los Angeles office.
Kaji, who has 13 years of banking experience, works with venture capital and private equity clients in Silicon Valley. Prior to joining First Republic, Kaji worked for Silicon Valley Bank.
Cummings, who has more than 25 years of financial services experience, has extensive expertise in commercial lending. Prior to joining First Republic, Cummings worked for California Bank & Trust as senior vice president and commercial banking officer.
MVC Capital, a publicly traded business development company that makes private debt and equity investments, has closed the sale of SHL Group, a MVC portfolio company, to The Corporate Executive Board for USD660m in cash, subject to customary pre and post closing adjustments.
SHL provides workplace talent assessment solutions, including ability and personality tests, and psychometric assessments.
The fund first invested USD6.0m in PreVisor in 2006. In January of 2011, SHL acquired PreVisor and the fund received shares in SHL.
With the closing of the transaction, the fund anticipates receiving net proceeds that closely approximate the current carrying value of
UK M&A activity totalled GBP44.4bn in the first half of 2012, representing a 17.5 per cent increase in deal value compared to H1 2011.
In addition, the Q2 total of GBP28.4bn represented the best second three months of the year since Q2 2007 (GBP68.8bn), according to data released by MergerMarket.
Energy, Mining and Utilities was the most active sector valued at GBP14.3bn for 26 deals. This was a 55.7 per cent increase in deal value compared to H1 2011. The jump is largely due to GDF Suez’ acquisition of International Power for GBP6.8bn.
Foreign investment into the UK accounted for
Eoxis acquired a portfolio of 20 MW solar photovoltaic projects in Italy from SunEdison between Q1 and Q2 2012.
The portfolio includes four projects, which were connected by the end of 2011 and which are located in the regions of Puglia and Campania.
The assets will be monitored, maintained and operated by SunEdison under long-term agreements.
In a parallel transaction, SunEdison, with Eoxis, closed the financing of two of the projects included in this portfolio through a EUR24.9m non-recourse, long-term senior debt facility with Centrobanca (UBI Banca Group).
This facility was partly guaranteed by SACE, the insurance and
PsiOxus Therapeutics has closed a series B round of equity financing totalling GBP22m (USD34m).
The round included equal investments from existing investors Imperial Innovations Group and Invesco Perpetual together with new investments by SR One and Lundbeckfond Ventures.
The financing round will enable PsiOxus to advance the clinical development of ColoAd1, a systemically available oncolytic vaccine, through a series of phase I and phase II clinical trials for the treatment of colorectal and other forms of cancer.
PsiOxus was formed to commercialise technologies, generated in UK Universities, which were originally seed funded by Imperial Innovations and the Mercia Fund.
Markets are giving huge premiums to next generation internet and technology companies, while industry “gorillas” with gold standard business models and proven track records are being valued as failures, according to analysis by Magister Advisors, M&A advisors to the technology industry.
For example, next generation players such as LinkedIn and Facebook have price/earnings (PE) ratios many times higher than industry stalwarts Apple and Microsoft.
LinkedIn has a PE ratio of 711 and Facebook has a PE ratio of more than 70. Apple has a PE ratio of 14.5 and Microsoft has a PE ratio of 11. Other lofty PE ratios
Fund administrator HedgeServ has appointed Bill Kelly as global head of sales, responsible for building relationships with hedge fund managers, funds of hedge funds, private equity funds and institutional investment managers.
He will be based in HedgeServ’s New York office and will report to Jim Kelly, HedgeServ chairman and co-founder.
"Bill is a dynamic addition to the HedgeServ team and a knowledgeable industry veteran recognised for his expertise in helping asset managers build institutional infrastructure," says Justin Nadler, HedgeServ president and co-founder. "We are glad to welcome Bill to HedgeServ and feel his deep industry insight and reputation as a
Maven has completed the exit from Nessco Group via a GBP31m sale to RigNet, a Nasdaq quoted US telecoms business.
The sale generated a 3.7x return on Maven clients’ original investment.
Since Maven’s original investment in June 2008, Nessco’s annual revenues have increased to over GBP30m and earnings have grown by over 200 per cent to GBP3.5m.
Nessco is a provider of telecommunications services to the global energy and industrial sectors, including the design, installation, commission and maintenance of communications solutions, VSAT networks, and mobile communications products for sale or hire.
Since 2007 Maven has led 12 energy services related
Encore Housing Opportunity Fund, a private equity fund based in San Francisco, will launch is second opportunistic fund in July 2012.
Encore Housing Opportunity Fund II will focus on investing in non-performing residential and mixed-use real estate, primarily in California, Arizona, Florida, Nevada and Texas.
Fund II marks a geographic expansion from Fund I, which focused its investments in California and Florida.
Encore Housing Opportunity Fund I raised USD160m in equity commitments by its April 2011 closing and is fully committed with investments in 17 residential and mixed use projects throughout California and Florida.
Fund II will focus on
Private equity firms invested about USD1,848m across 102 deals during the quarter ended June 2012, according to a study by Venture Intelligence, a research service focused on private equity and M&A transaction activity in India.
The investment amount was 34 per cent less than that invested in the same period last year (USD2,798m across 126 transactions) and also 10 per cent less than that during the immediate previous quarter (which had witnessed USD2,050m being invested across 103 transactions). The figures do not include PE investments in real estate.
There were only four PE investments worth over USD100m (with one above
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