Almost five years after ABN AMRO Participaties took over Kiwa from the Dutch water companies through the ACTA investment company, it is about to step down as major shareholder in favour of a secondary management buyout supported by NPM Capital.   The documents for the intended transaction will be signed on 8 July 2011, and It is expected that the new ownership structure will be effected early September, after a few issues, including the consent of the Netherlands Competition Authority NMa, have been dealt with. Shield Group Nederland is also an independent organisation that belongs to ACTA and is entering

Firelake Capital, a California-based private equity firm, has selected Navatar Private Equity Cloud to manage its fundraising, deal flow, portfolio and capital calls/distributions. Navatar Private Equity provides out-of-the-box functionality and workflows essential for private equity firms. It runs entirely in salesforce.com’s cloud and is available for a low monthly fee. Its flexible reporting engine can be easily used by non-technical staff to generate reports. "We’re pleased that private equity firms around the world are choosing Navatar’s service," says Ketan Khandkar (pictured), Principal, Navatar Group. "Firms can now start using a fully built solution for their CRM and operations for one

Global Resource Solutions, Inc (GRS), a leading provider of mission and operational support solutions to the Department of Defense (DoD) and intelligence community, has received a minority investment from FedCap Partners, LLC. Founded in 2006, GRS has achieved significant growth over the last five years, winning key contracts within the DoD and intelligence community to support its customers’ missions. GRS has a bi-coastal presence with offices in Tumwater, Washington, and Alexandria, Virginia. GRS employs a significant number of Veterans and a vast majority of employees hold security clearances.  Recently the Company won a high profile contract within the intelligence community

The Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX), is to make an investment of approximately USD33 million in FINO Limited (FINO) for a significant minority stake in the firm. FINO is a pioneer in providing integrated technology solutions and physical network to enable financial inclusion in India. FINO is a channel with enabling technology platform for an end–to-end sourcing & servicing of micro customers in rural India on scale across a range of basic financial products and services. FINO works with most of the leading banks in the country across a comprehensive product suite – saving bank accounts, recurring deposits, loan products, remittances,

Cognetas LLP, an independent mid-market European private equity firm, has agreed to sell KSM Castings Group (KSM) to China’s CITIC Dicastal Wheel Manufacturing Co, Ltd (CITIC Dicastal), one of the world’s largest suppliers of cast aluminum wheels for the automotive industry. In 2005, Cognetas led the management buy-out of KSM Castings, formerly ThyssenKrupp Fahrzeugguss, from ThyssenKrupp AG. KSM is recognised as a technology leader in the global light metal castings industry and has an excellent customer base consisting of blue-chip automotive OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers such as Volkswagen Group, Daimler, Benteler, Bosch, ZF and TRW. Under Cognetas’ ownership, revenue

Private Equity firms invested about USD2,916 million across 112 deals in India during the quarter ended June 2011, according to a study by Venture Intelligence (http://www.ventureintelligence.in), a research service focused on Private Equity and M&A transaction activity in the country. The amount invested during the quarter was over 45% more than that during the same period last year (which witnessed USD1,988 million being invested across 70 deals) but 15% lower compared to the immediate previous quarter (USD3,361 million across 91 deals). The largest PE investment during Q2 ’11 was the Rs.2,250 crore (about USD500 million) commitment by Apollo Management to

PGL, the privately-owned financial services development capital group, has signed a definitive agreement to dispose of its majority stake in Origin Asset Management, LLP, (Origin) to Principal Global Investors, LLC, a leading global asset manager and a member of the Principal Financial Group (NYSE:PFG). Total consideration, including proceeds to other vendors, will be approximately GBP41 million. Origin is an established global equity specialist based in London.   Origin was founded in 2005 by a respected team of investment managers in partnership with IPGL, a private holding company. The firm now has approximately USD3 billion[1] in assets under management in Global and