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BaltCap, a private equity and venture capital investor in the Baltic States, has invested EUR1.4m in Riga-headquartered pan-Nordic concrete floors contracting company Primekss to obtain a significant minority stake.
This is the first investment by BaltCap Latvia Venture Capital Fund, which is part of the EU Structural Fund’s co-financed Jeremie Holding Fund managed by the European Investment Fund in Latvia.
Primekss, established 1997, has invested in research and development which has allowed the creation of patented technology for casting slender, tough, jointless concrete floors for heavy use.
The new PrimeComposite technology has already been widely adapted by customers
Investment firm Vision Capital has appointed Samer Cortas as principal.
Cortas has over 12 years’ experience in leveraged finance.
Cortas previously worked in the debt advisory and financial restructuring group of Houlihan Lokey in London.
Prior to this, Cortas was an executive director and founding member of the debt advisory firm Blenheim Advisors, which was founded in 2003 and acquired by Houlihan in September 2007. Whilst at Blenheim Advisors and Houlihan, Cortas executed numerous acquisition finance and refinancing transactions mainly for private equity clients and their portfolio companies.
Before joining Blenheim, Cortas worked in the leveraged finance team at CIBC
Deal activity in the financial services sector is showing signs of recovery as bank restructuring continues to accelerate and private equity firms start to play a bigger role in the sector again for the first time since the economic crisis.
According to the forthcoming European Financial Services M&A Insight report due to be published by PricewaterhouseCoopers, bank restructuring remains the central driver of financial services deal activity, accounting for EUR13bn of deals in the third quarter, up from EUR6bn in the previous quarter.
This increase in activity aided an overall surge in deal values across the sector to EUR17bn in
Insight Venture Partners, a private equity firm focused on technology companies, has made an investment in OverDrive, a distributor of eBooks, audiobooks and digital content services to retailers, libraries and schools.
The investment, subject to regulatory approval, will provide additional resources and capital to help fuel the company’s growth.
OverDrive has long-term partnerships with publishers including Random House, HarperCollins, Penguin, Hachette, McGraw-Hill and John Wiley.
OverDrive operates a secure digital content repository and fulfillment platform for eBooks, audiobooks, music and video for a network of more than 11,000 retailers, libraries, schools and other digital channels.
"We are particularly excited about
Actis, an emerging markets private equity firm, has sold its 95 per cent stake in Ceylon Oxygen, a Sri Lankan manufacturer of industrial and medical gases, to The Linde Group.
The Linde Group is a gases and engineering company with operations in more than 100 countries.
Actis’s commitment to Ceylon Oxygen began with an investment in September 2006, when it acquired the company from Yara International and, in so doing, executed the largest private equity investment and management buyout in Sri Lanka’s history.
Following its investment, Actis appointed Niran Pieris as chief executive, Sri Lankan professional Manju Haththotuwa as
Matrix Group, the privately owned UK financial services business, has appointed Simon Elvidge as group head of compliance and assurance.
Elvidge, who has over 20 years’ experience in senior compliance and control function roles, joins from Numis Securities where he was head of compliance and managed the compliance teams in both the UK and US.
Before this, Elvidge worked within Société Générale group and for Newedge Group, the joint venture between Société Générale and Calyon. Over a period of 8 years he held a series of senior roles with varied oversight responsibilities covering global, European and UK aspects of the
Silverfleet Capital, a European private equity firm, has added to its retail portfolio with the acquisition of the Schneider Group, a German catalogue and online retailer, in a secondary buyout from Barclays Private Equity.
Silverfleet Capital, a European private equity firm, has added to its retail portfolio with the acquisition of the Schneider Group, a German catalogue and online retailer, in a secondary buyout from Barclays Private Equity.
The parties agreed not to disclose details of the acquisition price.
Headquartered in Wedel near Hamburg, the Schneider Group sells products into the German, Austrian, Swiss, Dutch and Swedish markets
Private equity group MerchantBridge has launched an Iraq equity fund, the Mesopotamia Equity Fund.
The fund is an open ended fund that will capitalise on the expected long term growth of the Iraqi Stock Exchange. The market capitalisation of the exchange, which reopened in 2004, has doubled to USD3bn in the past five years and it currently has more than 90 listed companies, mostly untouched by foreign portfolio managers.
The fund will invest across all sectors in the ISX.
The ISX top 20 companies by market cap have outperformed most OECD and GCC indices since 2008 and are expected to
Politicians, officials and business leaders from Guernsey will be following in the footsteps of Commonwealth Games competitors when they visit India next week to enhance financial services links between the two jurisdictions.
Carla McNulty Bauer, minister for the commerce and employment department within the Guernsey Government, will lead a delegation to Delhi and then Mumbai between 18 October and 23 October.
The visit will include governmental engagements, meetings with regulators, industry associations and leading business introducers, as well as a series of networking opportunities through specific Guernsey events.
Guernsey established a representative office in China at the end of 2007
General Atlantic, a growth equity firm, has named Hans Morris, former president of Visa and a special adviser for GA over the last year, as managing director and head of GA’s global financial services sector.
William E. Ford, chief executive officer of General Atlantic, says: “We know Hans well and recognise how valuable his industry expertise and operating experience is to the financial services companies in which we invest. We consider the global financial services industry as particularly attractive and an excellent fit with our growth equity investment strategy. Hans will add a new dimension to our successful financial services
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