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Investment vehicles managed by Colony Capital LLC (Colony) have completed the acquisition of a portfolio of institutional real estate collateralised non-performing loans (NPL) from four German banks, including Eurohypo, Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen (Helaba), Berlin Hyp and Archon Capital Bank. These first ranking loans have a face value of EUR370 million and were utilised to develop properties primarily in Berlin and Frankfurt in the mid to late 1990s.
All loans in the portfolio were held by one borrower. Whole loans are the only loans related to the properties and will be sold together by the lenders. There are no senior, pari-passu or
Private equity firms often look to sell holdings on the public market in order to realise gains on investments and increase returns to their investors. Crowe Horwath LLP, one of the largest public accounting and consulting firms in the US, provides private equity groups with four recommendations to help them successfully divest of a portfolio company (portco) through an initial public offering (IPO).
"In recent months, we’ve seen an uptick in IPO activity, which is causing many private equity groups to revisit an IPO as a viable exit strategy for some of their holdings," says Tony Klaich, a partner in
LLR Partners (LLR) has made a USD24 million investment in VectorLearning, a leading online continuing education platform, to support the Company’s continued growth and acquisitions. The investment in VectorLearning, which operates under the brands RedVector and Care2Learn, is LLR’s second education investment within the past 12 months and its fourth overall.
Renowned for its superior online education solutions tailored to post-acute healthcare and design and construction professionals, VectorLearning will benefit from LLR Partners’ unique investment expertise in education and healthcare to build upon its success in the eLearning market. The Company will use this capital to drive organic growth in
The Sterling Group (Sterling), a Houston based private equity investment firm, has, through its affiliated investment fund, Sterling Group Partners III, completed the acquisition of the Stackpole International (Stackpole) business from Gates Canada (a subsidiary of Pinafore Holdings PV). The acquisition is Sterling’s second investment in its third fund, USD820 million fund raised in 2010, and is the twentieth corporate carve-out in its twenty-nine year history.
The acquisition was financed with equity from Sterling Group Partners III, LP, Current Capital LLC and several other co-investors. Senior debt financing was provided by RBC Capital Markets, BNP Paribas and UBS and
European venture-backed companies raised EUR2.2 billion through 447 deals in the first half of 2011; a 28% decline in deal activity from a year earlier, according to Dow Jones VentureSource. Capital invested remained flat.
Capital raised and the number of European venture-backed initial public offerings (IPOs) were up slightly on last year, reaching their highest six-month level since the first half of 2007. However, the nine flotations which raised a total of euro 611 million in the first six months of this year were still some way off the 27 IPOs that raised euro 723 million in the first six
Dental Technology, Inc, (d/b/a SmileCare), a portfolio company of Liberty Partners (Liberty), has been sold to strategic buyer Coast Dental Services, Inc (Coast Dental). Harris Williams & Co acted as the exclusive advisor to SmileCare.
The transaction was led by Todd Morris and Andy Dixon from the firm’s Healthcare & Life Sciences (HCLS) Group in San Francisco along with John Klim from the firm’s Richmond office.
“We continue to see strong M&A deal flow in the dental practice management market, with both strategic and financial buyers attracted to the industry’s solid fundamentals and long-term growth dynamics," says Todd
Advertising technology innovator EDO Interactive (EDO) has secured a Series B financing to fuel the growth of Prewards, EDO’s flagship digital deals and incentives platform. The financing was co-led by Baird Venture Partners and VantagePoint Capital Partners and included participation from EDO’s existing investors. The company will use the proceeds to accelerate the deployment of digital incentives to a large and growing base of consumers.
Prewards enables advertisers to offer digital deals and incentives that consumers can redeem by using their existing credit, debit or prepaid cards from participating financial institutions. To date, EDO has signed contractual arrangements with financial
FirstPEX, Europe’s first, interactive auction platform to trade privately-owned shares and investments is being launched in the UK by Swiss-based technology firm LPO Ventures
LPO Ventures expects trading volume to quickly increase from around EUR1-2 billion over the next 12 months or so to around EUR10 billion in 2015, based on analysis of the growth of similar markets in the US.
UK SMEs, family businesses and entrepreneurs can place their companies on the site, offer holdings in their firms to investors registered on the platform who can then trade these stakes online.
Private firms in other EU countries as well
In the first half of 2011, China-based companies with venture backing raised USD3.2 billion through 145 deals, a 1% decline in deal activity and 2% decline in capital invested over the same period in 2010, according to venture capital industry tracker Dow Jones VentureSource.
Initial public offerings (IPOs) of venture-backed companies were similarly in line with the previous year, as 54 IPOs raised USD9.2 billion in the first half of 2011 compared with 57 IPOs at USD10.1 billion in the same period in 2010.
"Through a continued focus on late stage deals, venture capitalists are able to bring their
Baring Asset Management (Barings), the international asset management firm, believes that even as the headlines focus on debt negotiations in Europe and the US, the underlying economic trends are deteriorating. Percival Stanion, Head of Asset Allocation at Barings, explains…
Global economic data continues to be both broadly weak and disappointing. The manufacturing strength that had powered the global economy out of recession appears to be petering out across north America, Europe and, most worryingly, Asia.
Barings believes the global weakness will continue for several months due to rising inventory levels, the continued fiscal retrenchment of governments, and anaemic job
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