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Blue Oak Capital has launched and completed the first close of a USD100m fund to invest in mid-market companies in China.
The fund has been launched in partnership with a division of the Xi’an government, and is structured to allow it to repatriate funds back to Western investors.
UK mid-market private equity firm LDC is a major investor, contributing USD20m.
In contrast to the Western world, where markets continue to suffer the fallout of the banking crisis, China’s buoyant economy and strong renminbi have made the country increasingly attractive to private equity investment. Evidence of this can be seen
Third-party funding of litigation is gaining ground in the UK, but its success will depend on the degree to which the concept is embraced by both the legal profession and the investment community, and the appetite for risk and reward among both litigants and investors, according to partner Gavin Foggo (pictured) and associate Molly Ahmed from the litigation department of City law firm Fox Williams.
“For all the talk of litigation funding as an emerging asset class, investors have yet to be convinced that [third-party funding] is going to be a compelling alternative investment. ” This is one of the
Albion Ventures has invested GBP4.35m in Oakland Care Centre to set up a specialist dementia care facility in Chingford, Greater London.
Oakland has acquired a freehold site on which it will develop a facility catering for the needs of up to 45 residents suffering from dementia.
The facility is due to open in November 2011 and will employ approximately 50 staff under the supervision of an experienced care management team.
Emil Gigov, partner, Albion Ventures, says: “There are more than 800,000 people living with dementia in the UK and the long term demographic trends indicate that the demand for
Jimmy Delshad, Mayor of Beverly Hills, California, has joined Pacific Capital Group as vice chairman and managing director.
Pacific Capital Group is an investment group based in Los Angeles.
Gary Winnick, chairman and chief executive of Pacific Capital Group, says: "Jimmy Delshad is an internationally recognised authority on the use of advanced ‘smart’ technologies in city management and law enforcement to dramatically improve life, services and safety in the community. Beverly Hills has implemented Mayor Delshad’s smart-system innovations, pioneering a path to achieving efficiencies that can be applied to government at every level. We are happy that one of the
Summit Materials, a building materials company, has concluded the acquisition of RK Hall Construction, Buster Crushed Stone and associated companies, based in Texas.
RK Hall is an aggregates, asphalt production, paving and construction business with operations in northeast Texas, southeast Oklahoma and southwest Arkansas.
RK Hall will become part of Summit’s western platform that was first formed through acquisition of Harper, Kilgore and Altaview companies in Utah. The existing management team, headed by Robert Hall and Mark Buster will remain in place and partner with Summit leadership to run and grow the business.
Tom Hill, chief executive of Summit, says:
Mark Spinner (pictured), a partner in the private equity team at law firm Eversheds, comments on the news that London-listed private equity group Electra’s deal pipeline is back to 2007 levels and it has announced plans to raise GBP 100 million using convertible bonds, to fund new investments.
Like Electra Private Equity, Eversheds has also seen activity levels returning. If all of the transactions that we are currently being instructed on come to fruition we could easily surpass the number of deals that we completed in the heady days of 2007!
The increase in transactional activity is being fuelled
Vespa Capital, a private equity company founded in 2008, has completed its first exit as with the sale of James Villa Holidays to Wyndham Exchange & Rentals.
Established in 1984, James Villa Holidays is a villa tour operator in the UK. It offers accommodation in over 50 destinations across the Mediterranean and beyond.
James Villa Holidays sells direct to its customers via its website, telephone and Bluewater store.
Vespa Capital supported the management buy out of James Villa Holidays in March 2008 when the business was acquired from its founder.
Tony Wheble, chief executive of James Villas, says: "From the
Collas Day in Guernsey and Crill Canavan in Jersey are to merge in the spring of 2011.
The combined law firms will be know as Collas Crill.
The combined firm creates a new 15 partner Channel Island firm.
The merger is intended to build on the strengths each firm has, in particular corporate and banking, investment funds, property, trusts and dispute resolution.
Collas Day’s associated fiduciary business, the Guernsey Trust Company, will continue to service the Guernsey market. Collas Day IP Management will become Collas Crill IP Management, and Collas Day’s London office will support the combined legal practices.
Chris
Glencoe Capital, a Chicago-based private equity firm, has sold its Toronto-based artisan bakery business, ACE Bakery, to Weston Foods (Canada) for CAD110m.
The ACE transaction was the fourth realisation of Glencoe Capital’s third private equity fund, Glencoe Capital Partners III, which has invested in a variety of sectors ranging from educational services to specialty chemicals.
Glencoe Capital and its affiliated private equity funds, which have aggregate capital of over USD600m, invest in direct lead-sponsored acquisitions and make growth equity investments in lower middle-market companies with transaction values between USD25m and USD125m.
ACE Bakery develops and markets a range of breads
Quarterly data published by Silverfleet Capital, a European private equity firm that specialises in buy and build, suggests the number of buy and build transactions completed by private equity backed companies across Europe during first three quarters of 2010 was up almost one third (32 per cent) on the same period in 2009.
The research, produced in conjunction with mergermarket, reveals that there has been a modest but sustained increase in buy and build during 2010 – activity which had slumped dramatically in recent years, with the number of buy and builds completed in 2009 down 48 per cent on
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