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Runa Capital, a new Russian venture capital fund, has made its first investment of USD2m in OnAir3G, a voice-enabled mobile social networking platform.
Moscow-based OnAir3G is a start-up founded by online and mobile pioneer Andrey Vasilevsky who also co-founded SmartCom, a developer of navigation software for Symbian, Windows Mobile and J2ME.
It is Runa Capital’s first investment since launching in August 2010 with the goal of offering USD30m in seed financing to start-ups in rapid growth tech sectors. These include cloud computing, machine learning, virtualisation and mobile and internet applications.
"There is a huge amount of innovation happening in the
The M&A sector will continue to grow through next year creating an exceptional range of investment opportunities, says Paris-based hedge fund manager Bernheim Dreyfus.
“We believe the recent rebound in mergers and acquisitions is rapidly gaining momentum and we’re forecasting global deal activity to rise by as much as 36 per cent next year, by comparison to 2010,“ says Lionel Melka, portfolio manager and head of research at Bernheim Dreyfus. “This growth will take deal size up to USD3trn.”
Melka says the acceleration in M&A is exemplified by the recent deals such as Caterpillar/Bucyrus (USD7.2bn), EMC/Isilon (USD2.2bn) and Axa/Axa Pacific
Kingdom Zephyr Africa Management, the pan-African private equity firm, has exited its 11.65 per cent stake in CNIA Saada Assurance, Morocco’s largest auto insurer.
The divestment comes as part of CNIA Saada’s initial public offering on the Casablanca Stock Exchange.
Kingdom Zephyr made its USD27.5m investment in CNIA Saada via its Pan-African Investment Partners/Pan-Commonwealth Africa Partners Funds, alongside co-investor the FMO, in 2006. Since then, CNIA Saada’s operations have grown, helped by the merger of CNIA Assurance with Es Saada in 2009.
Kofi Bucknor, Kingdom Zephyr’s managing partner, says: “Our partnership with CNIA Saada has been very cordial, constructive and
The Dow Jones US Venture Capital Index measured 1,183.21 at the end of the second quarter 2010, down 18.29 per cent from 31 December 2009.
According to Sand Hill Econometrics, which co-developed the index’s methodology, there were two factors behind the decline.
One is several “disappointing exits” – companies that failed or were acquired for low values.
The other is the general decline in equity values during the quarter – the Dow Jones US Total Stock Market Index fell 11.52 per cent during the second quarter of 2010.
As Sand Hill notes, venture capital is not immune to a
Philippe Gougenheim, Head of Hedge Funds at Unigestion, says periods of sharp volatility in markets should lead to significant opportunities from Tactical Trading and Arbitrage strategies in the year ahead.
The financial downturn, subsequent deflationary climate coupled with historically rock bottom interest rates and an economic backdrop where 50% of global GDP is now being generated by emerging markets, has resulted in a unique trading environment.
Unigestion, the European privately owned asset manager with over USD 11 billion of assets under management, of which USD 3.6 billion is in its expanding funds of hedge funds investment activities, favours an
J.Crew Group, a retailer of apparel, shoes and accessories, has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by funds affiliated with TPG Capital and Leonard Green & Partners.
Millard Drexler will continue as chairman and chief executive and maintain a significant equity investment in J.Crew.
Under the terms of the agreement, holders of the outstanding common shares of J.Crew will receive USD43.50 per share in cash, or a total of approximately USD3.0bn. The price represents a premium of 29 per cent to J.Crew’s average closing share price over the last month.
A special committee of the J.Crew board of
Private equity firm PAI Partners has agreed to buy the Hunkenmoeller lingerie chain from Maxeda Retail Group.
Financial terms of the deal were not released.
According to the report by Reuters, Hunkemoeller has 500 stores in the Benelux, France and Germany.
Last week, Maxeda agreed to sell De Bijenkorf department stores to the Selfridges Group, owned by Canada’s Wittington Investments.
Maxeda, a unit of KKR, was formed in 1999 and took on the store chains of the former Vendex KBB group.
Affiliates of Bain Capital Partners have completed the acquisition of retail company Gymboree for USD65.40 per share in cash, or approximately USD1.8bn in the aggregate.
The definitive merger agreement was announced on 11 October 2010.
Pursuant to the merger agreement, Giraffe Acquisition, a corporation controlled by Bain Capital, commenced a tender offer on 25 October to acquire all outstanding shares of Gymboree at a price of USD65.40 per share, net to the seller in cash.
The tender offer expired at 11:59pm, New York City time, on 22 November and the depositary has advised that, as of the expiration time, 21,566,182
New York Life Capital Partners, the private equity arm of New York Life Investments, has appointed Alan Weinfeld as managing director and head of business development.
In this newly created position, Weinfeld will be responsible for managing and coordinating fund marketing and capital raising activities of the firm.
"We are delighted to welcome Alan to NYLCAP. His perspective, experience and energy will infuse another dimension of specialised expertise to the firm’s fundraising initiatives and contribute to the expansion of our investor base," says Thomas Haubenstricker, chief executive officer.
Previously Weinfeld served as director of business development for Darby Private Equity,
Arma Partners, a technology, media and telecommunications M&A advisory firm, has acted as exclusive financial adviser to Gigle Networks on its sale to Broadcom.
The transaction is valued at approximately USD83m.
Founded in 2005, Gigle develops system-on-a-chip solutions for home networking over power lines, coaxial cable and phone lines. Gigle provides solutions for multimedia home networking that can extend wired and wireless Ethernet everywhere in the home without the need for new wires. The solutions are targeted for applications such as internet protocol television, broadband TV, video on demand and voice over IP.
Gigle has R&D centres in Barcelona,
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