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Alternative asset manager, Duet Group has made a significant investment into Dashen Brewery Plc. The investment will take the form of an equity injection from the newly formed Duet Beverages Africa Ltd, which will be managed by the Duet Africa Private Equity team, together with Vasari as the industrial partner. Proceeds of the investment will be used to expand the Company’s capacity and enhance distribution channels.
The Ethiopian brewery sector experienced significant M&A activity in 2011, with international operators paying more than USD400 million for three state-operated breweries. Duet believes this investment reflects the potential of the Ethiopian brewery sector,
GlobeOp Financial Services (LSE:GO.) has added a fourth office to its Mumbai network, increasing capacity to meet growing client service demand and to enhance business continuity planning.
A new 46,700 sq. ft. (4,339 sq. meter) hedge fund administration and data centre facility is now operational in Airoli, part of Navi Mumbai on the eastern side of the city. It is located in the same Airoli business complex as GlobeOp’s third Mumbai office, opened in 2009. The new 650-seat facility increases GlobeOp’s total Mumbai office space from 100,750 sq. ft. (9359 sq. meters) to 147,450 sq. ft. (13,697 sq. meters).
Hogan Lovells has advised long-standing client UnitedHealth Group (UHG) on the acquisition of medical services outsourcing specialist FrontierMEDEX from private equity house MML Capital Partners and the senior management of FrontierMEDEX for an undisclosed sum in a transaction that closed on 22nd December 2011.
UHG is a leading health care company, serving more than 75 million people across the globe. FrontierMEDEX provides medical, safety and security solutions worldwide.
The Hogan Lovells team advising UHG was led corporate partners John Basnage in London and Tim Aragon in Denver, supported by corporate associates Francesca Hazlett, Anthony Long and Jonathan Keyser. Tax support was
Jazz FM, Neopolitan Music and The Ingenious Entertainment VCTs has completed a GBP2 million investment into the UK’s first three day, outdoor, camping jazz festival, Love Supreme Jazz Festival, to take place in Brighton in the summer of 2013.
Launched this month, the Love Supreme Jazz Festival is set to play host to some of the world’s finest jazz musicians. The festival aims to champion the eclectic music scene found in its neighbouring Brighton, and is expected to attract thousands of music lovers in its first year.
Paul Bedford (pictured), Investment Director at Ingenious, says: “At a time when
The European Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (EVCA) has appointed Emma Thorpe as Head of Communications. Thorpe is responsible for the EVCA’s public relations and membership communications and will be based in Brussels and London.
During 2011, Thrope advised the EVCA on strategic communications and issues management. Additional clients in the financial industry included consultancies Patomak Partners and AT Kearney, and private equity house, Texas Pacific Group. For four years to 2011, Thorpe was Director of European Communications for private equity firm, The Carlyle Group, where she was responsible for European government affairs and public relations.
Prior to
Wermuth Asset Management (WAM) has launched the Tatarstan Cleantech Fund (TCTF) and WAM can now draw against the EUR110m committed by the co-founders of the fund. Additional fundraising is underway, as WAM targets a total fund size of EUR200m.
TCTF is the first ever international cleantech fund with a specific mandate to focus on the needs of the Russian Federation, and the Republic of Tatarstan in particular. The Fund will look to address climate change and other environmental issues by investing in the best cleantech companies that offer technology of relevance to Tatarstan, and that could benefit by selling into or
Former Skandia and Cofunds CEO, Brett Williams (pictured), has joined a newly established private equity firm as a Founder Partner.
The entrepreneurial hub, Lime Tree Investment Partners LLP (Lime Tree), invests in and facilitates the development of fast growth companies across the financial services, clean technology, real estate, biotechnology and entertainment sectors. The firm is designed to fully support innovative new businesses, including providing them with access to capital, a robust support and regulatory infrastructure, and, advice and guidance from a network of professional advisors and non-executive directors.
Williams will join Lime Tree alongside Tim Levy, Tim West and
Venture capitalists put EUR4.4 billion into 1,012 deals for European companies in 2011, a 14% decline in investment and 19% decline in deal flow from 2010, according to Dow Jones VentureSource. This marks the lowest annual deal count for Europe since VentureSource began tracking the region in 2000.
The fourth quarter was the weakest of the year in terms of deal activity as 194 deals collected EUR1.1 billion, a 43% drop in deals and 38% decline in investment over the same period in 2010. Weakness in the fourth quarter is notable as it is traditionally one of the most active
MMC Ventures has led an GBP850,000 investment round in home-swapping website Love Home Swap.
Love Home Swap (www.LoveHomeSwap.com) is an international holiday home exchange website founded by UK serial entrepreneur Debbie Wosskow. Love Home Swap launched in October 2011 to provide members with the opportunity to swap their homes for stylish and unique residences across 70 countries. Users are invited to sign up for membership, with the company generating revenue through member subscriptions. In addition to a home swap service, premium membership offers access to a dedicated travel team, personal concierge, travel guides and other benefits.
Love Home Swap has just agreed its
Ross Marshall, CEO Dunedin reviews 2011 and gives his predictions for the private equity market in 2012…
2011 was a year of two halves. Pre Summer the bond and debt markets were open and the PE market was very active; post Summer the debt markets seized up with the Eurozone crisis paralysing the banks – deals fell over because bank debt was not available.
We have seen a return to all equity deals, or the development of new solutions to ensure deal deliverability. We have used Dunedin’s DebtBridge solution in most of our recent deals that has given us
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