Latest News
Business Growth Fund (BGF), established to help Britain’s fast-growing smaller and medium sized businesses, has made a GBP4.8m investment for a minority stake in Wow! Stuff, a UK toy development company behind blockbuster toys such as the Air Swimmers and My Keepon, both of which were named in Hamley’s Top 5 toys for Christmas 2011 and Toys R Us’ USA Fab 15 list for 2011.
This is BGF’s third investment in 2012 and its fifth since launch, bringing their total capital committed to fund the expansion of fast growing companies to £26m.
Wow! Stuff was founded by dynamic entrepreneur Richard
The Comvest Group, a private investment firm focused on the lower middle-market, has closed its second private equity debt fund, Comvest Capital II (CVC II), with capital commitments of USD250 million.
The capital commitments in CVC II are from a diverse group of institutional investors and high net worth investors, including US and European global private equity investors.
This latest Comvest Capital fund will provide direct, flexible debt capital solutions to companies in the lower middle-market across a broad range of industries, including, but not limited to, healthcare, technology, transportation, financial services, media and manufacturing.
Robert O’Sullivan, Managing Partner of
Eric van der Kleij of Tech City Investment Organisation on Songkick securing a further round of funding from US start-up venture capital, Sequoia Capital…
Sequoia Capital’s USD10 million investment in Songkick is absolutely fantastic news, not only for the team at Songkick, but also for the London and UK start-up community. Securing funding from a top Silicon Valley VC firm is testament to the very high calibre team at Songkick, but also sends a clear signal that major international investors are increasingly recognising the UK and London’s ecosystem as a great place to headquarter high potential, venture-backed businesses.
Songkick’s founders,
Healthcare specialist Westhouse Medical Services Plc has sold its AST Ambulance Services business to a management buyout team for UK GBP2.75m.
The MBO team is led by AST’s current operations director, Stewart Lawson. AST Ambulance Services provides specialist transport and ambulance services for the NHS in the UK.
Jack Kaye, founder and CEO of Westhouse Medical says: “We wish Stewart and his team all the best in the future in taking the AST business forward.”
On 8 March Westhouse Medical announced that it intended to expand into US market by entering negotiations to acquire majority control of Sunridge International. The glaucoma
Guernsey continues to establish itself as a leading international film finance centre and this week held its second event in London to showcase “Guernsey Film”.
The event, held at Coutts in London attracted over 130 senior members of the UK film community and included presentations from both Guernsey and UK industry experts. It was hosted by Guernsey Finance – the promotional agency for the Island’s finance industry, in conjunction with Guernsey Film.
Guernsey Film was formed three years ago by finance industry professionals and representatives from the Guernsey Government to act as a centre of excellence for the collective infrastructure
Pareto Forvaltning, a Norwegian institutional asset management company, and Staur Private Equity, a Norwegian family-owned conglomerate have laucnhed Pareto Staur Energy, a global energy and energy services private equity fund.
Pareto Forvaltning is part of the Pareto group, the largest independent investment bank in the energy sector in Europe. It manages a series of funds and mandates including energy private equity funds.
The fund will implement a small mid-market buy-out strategy with active ownership, a process implemented with success by Staur over the last decade. Pareto Forvaltning and Staur Private Equity will be working as one team and act respectively
HIG Capital’s portfolio company Albertville Quality Foods, Inc (AQF) has acquired Sunrise Foods, LLC (Sunrise), a processor of protein-based products.
The Sunrise operation is highly complementary to AQF’s operation and will add over $100 million in additional revenues to the combined company. Like AQF, Sunrise’s value-added customized products are prepared to customers’ specific recipes.
The acquisition of Sunrise, based in Albertville, Alabama, significantly expands the profile and capabilities of AQF. The combined company will service a marquee list of foodservice, restaurant, and retail customers through its operation of three facilities and eight state-of-the art production lines.
AQF is also pleased
Stephanie Miller has joined JP Morgan Worldwide Securities Services as Global Head of the Alternative Investment Services business, reporting to Nick Rudenstine, Global Head of Investor Services for WSS.
In this new role, Miller will oversee strategy and direction for WSS’ Private Equity & Real Estate Services and Hedge Fund Services. This strategic new hire demonstrates an ongoing commitment to strengthening the alternatives business within WSS.
Prior to joining WSS, Miller was a Managing Director for Citco Fund Services (USA) Inc, which offers full Hedge Fund and Private Equity administrative services. At Citco, Stephanie was responsible for all operations
To date hedge funds have largely escaped the impact of the increasing scope and aggressive enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by the US Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission. However, Matthew Reinhard, a member at Washington, DC law firm Miller & Chevalier, argues that hedge fund firms must monitor two large FCPA risk areas: inbound investment into and outbound investment by the fund…
It is hard to ignore the increasing scope and aggressive enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by the US Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission. While some recent
Nautic Partners, a private equity firm with more than USD2.5 billion of capital under management, has acquired Superior Vision Holdings, Inc in partnership with the company’s existing management team.
Headquartered in Rancho Cordova, California, Superior Vision provides vision insurance coverage to approximately two million members across all 50 states. Superior Vision will continue to work as an independent vision plan in the marketplace exactly as they do today and the existing management team, led by Rick Corbett, will continue to operate the Company.
Founded in 1993, Superior Vision is one of the leading independent vision benefits companies in the United
Special Reports
Featured
Events
12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
