Latest News
Leon Kraig will join venture capital firm IGNIA as General Partner and Managing Director. Kraig leaves behind a career of 25 years at Mars, a USD30 billion private company, where he started as R&D Manager and ended up as Regional President for Petcare for Latin America.
"In the wake of my departure from Mars, I set out to join a talented team, with an inspiring mission, a clear agenda of innovation and transformation, and the willingness to push boundaries in order to realise its full potential," says Kraig. "IGNIA’s team meets this criteria and I am very excited to begin
SEMAEB, CDC, Safidi (subsidiary of EDF), Crédit Mutuel Arkéa and Crédit Coopératif have teamed up to form EILAÑ, a company dedicated to investment projects in Brittany, France, with a focus on projects of renewable energy equipment manufacturing or infrastucture production, particularly wind and biomass.
EILAÑ focuses on technically matured middle-sized projects that require investments ranging between EUR3m and EUR10m.
With an initial capital of EUR3m, EILAÑ will use EUR4.7m in the next three years and intends to progressively increase its capital in order to support a dozen projects by 2016. The financial leveraging will lead to investments amounting to EUR100m
Franco-Chinese private equity investor Cathay Capital has made an equity investment in fine chemicals manufacturer Minafin.
Born out of the take-over, in 2005, of SEAC assets in Beuvry-la-Forêt by Frédéric Gauchet, Minafin group has grown rapidly through acquisitions and now boasts four manufacturing sites (Beuvry la Forêt and Dunkerque in France, Leuna in Germany, and Memphis in the USA).
With the advanced pharmaceutical ingredients (API) market going through a period of consolidation, the group is looking to pursue a further acquisition strategy to establish itself as a worldwide leader servicing major pharmaceutical companies.
Cathay’s involvement will help Minafin achieve its
Buy & build activity by European private equity backed businesses is driving greater integration between companies across Europe.
A detailed analysis by Silverfleet Capital, in conjunction with mergermarket, of buy & build activity for European private-equity backed companies reveals that while the majority of add-ons, 66% of the total in Q3 2011, were domestic or regional deals, almost 25% of the total were add-ons of businesses located elsewhere in Europe. The remaining transactions were purchases by European platform companies of businesses outside of Europe.
In contrast to the second quarter of 2011, European buy & build activity in the third
Aligned Asset Managers, a portfolio company of private equity firm GTCR, has completed its investment in The Townsend Group.
Townsend, established in 1983, is the largest global specialty real estate advisory and investment firm, with over USD100 billion of total advised assets. Townsend allocates real estate capital on a discretionary and non-discretionary basis for over 85 leading institutional clients from offices in Cleveland, London, San Francisco, and Hong Kong.
Led by Terry Ahern and Kevin Lynch, Townsend has a focused real estate platform of 70 employees.
In the Townsend transaction, Aligned purchased a majority equity interest in Townsend. An expanded
The Greenwich Roundtable has released a white paper describing how investors can manage complexity of alternative investments to improve their returns.
The Greenwich Roundtable is a leading not-for-profit research and educational organization comprised largely of institutional investors overseeing collectively USD2.2 trillion in assets.
The research paper focuses on understanding the many and varied risks involved in hedge funds and private equity, and describes the best practices and due diligence steps that investors need to pursue to manage those risks. The white paper also explores the complexity of volatility, leverage, and liquidity and how these factors together can compound risk.
Fund administrator Kaufman Rossin Fund Services (KRFS) has introduced a new service designed to assist SEC-registered investment advisers of private funds in meeting their Form PF obligations.
Form PF was adopted as part of a new rule which was unanimously approved by The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on 26 October, 2011. This new rule will require certain advisors to private funds to report specified information about the funds they advise to the SEC on Form PF. This information will be used by the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) in monitoring risks to the US financial system.
KRFS is prepared
Niagara LaSalle Corporation (Niagara LaSalle) has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by strategic buyer Optima Specialty Steel, Inc.
Pursuant to the merger agreement, Optima Specialty Steel will acquire 100% of Niagara LaSalle, a portfolio company of US private equity firm Kohlberg & Company. Harris Williams & Co is acting as the exclusive advisor to Niagara LaSalle.
The transaction is being led by Mike Hogan, Ned Valentine, John Arendale, Dave Kennedy and Doug Kinard from the firm’s Richmond office along with Jeremy Eberlein from the firm’s Cleveland office.
Niagara LaSalle is North America’s largest independent manufacturer of high
A private equity sponsor group led by JH Partners and the Highland Consumer Fund, is acquiring a majority interest in J McLaughlin. The existing management team, which includes co-founders and brothers Jay McLaughlin and Kevin McLaughlin, as well as Steven Siegler, CEO, will continue in its current role and will retain a minority interest in the business moving forward.
Headquartered in Brooklyn, New York, clothing retailer J McLaughlin, which only sells its own designs, currently has 52 stores in 18 states across the Eastern half of the United States.
"We are delighted to make this investment in J McLaughlin. Its
Baird Capital Partners (BCP), the US-based buyout fund of Baird Private Equity, has acquired Digi-Star Holdings, Inc, an international manufacturer of agriculture scales and weighing equipment.
Senior financing for the transaction is being provided by The PrivateBank and US Bank National Association with Fifth Street Finance Corp providing the mezzanine. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
Digi-Star is headquartered in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, with an additional facility in Panningen, The Netherlands. The company’s customised weighing systems and software are incorporated into mobile farm equipment to provide precise control over input costs, monitor resource utilisation, enhance yield management
Special Reports
Featured
Events
12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
