Walter Energy’s bid of CAD11.50 for Western Coal of Canada values the 23 per cent equity stake in Western Coal held by funds advised by Audley Capital Advisors at some CAD730m. Audley paid a CAD80m entry price approximately five years ago. Audley says the dramatic change in Western Coal’s fortunes is likely to propel the European Opportunities Fund towards the top of the European event driven rankings (Eurohedge), a position it held for the two years to end-December 2007.  Mining will continue to be a key theme for Audley Capital. “We continue to see substantial investment opportunities in mining,” says

The UK Future Technologies Fund has committed GBP15m into Advent Venture Partners’ first life science focused fund, to be called Advent Life Sciences.  This is UK FTF’s third signature with the objective to support technology-based small and medium sized businesses since its launch in February 2010. Advent Life Sciences concentrates on early- to mid-stage UK and European companies that provide technologies or products in a range of sectors within life sciences, including new drug discovery, enabling technologies, med tech and diagnostics. “This investment is exactly why UK FTF was set up – to back venture capital fund managers that have

India Venture Partnership, an early stage venture capital firm, is investing INR100m in Your Kids ‘R’ Our Kids, a day care and education centre. The company has a capacity of serving more than 2,000 children in India across 12 centres today, and a growth strategy to create a network of 65 centres in the next three years serving more than 10,000 children in ten cities across India. The new infusion of funds will fuel YKROK’s pan-India expansion plans.   YKROK centres are in the process of getting certified and awarded with a gold seal by American Training Institute Teaching Strategies.

Advent Venture Partners has held the final close of a USD120m (GBP75m) venture capital fund, to be called Advent Life Sciences. The fund will be managed by general partners Shahzad Malik and Raj Parekh, and is the first life sciences-focused fund raised by the firm.   The fund will invest predominantly in early- and mid-stage life sciences companies in the UK, Europe and the US. Advent Life Sciences will back companies that have a first or best-in-class approach in a range of sectors within life sciences, including new drug discovery, enabling technologies, med tech and diagnostics.   Parekh says: “We

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

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