Private equity firm 8 Rivers Capital has opened an office in the historic Power House of Durham’s West Village in North Carolina. At the opening celebration, founders Bill Brown (pictured) and Miles Palmer committed to donate shares of stock worth five per cent of 8 Rivers to Duke University School of Law. Palmer and Brown are joined in their support of Duke Law by Lanty Smith, chairman and chief executive of Tippet Capital, an emeritus member of the Duke University board of yrustees, life member of Duke Law School’s board of visitors, and former chairman of the board at Wachovia.

Citigroup has transferred the management and certain proprietary interests in its fund of funds, mezzanine funds, feeder funds and co-investment businesses to StepStone Group and Lexington Partners. As part of the agreement, StepStone will provide ongoing management and advisory services for the CPE businesses’ USD4,000m fund of funds, feeder and co-investment funds. Lexington will acquire a portion of Citigoup’s proprietary capital investments in the various funds and provide oversight for the co-investment portion of the CPE businesses. The CPE businesses, which include investments in private equity funds, co-investments in buy-outs and mezzanine investments in middle market companies, are managed by

US venture capital investment in cleantech companies in Q3 2010 fell to USD575.6m in 53 financing rounds, a 55 per cent decrease in capital and a 22 per cent decrease in deals compared to Q3 2009, according to an Ernst & Young analysis based on data from Dow Jones VentureSource. These results come amidst a quarter of significant corporate engagement with the cleantech sector. "This quarter reflects the ongoing volatility in cleantech investment that we have observed over the past two years, depending on the presence of the very large transactions we see in cleantech," says Jay Spencer, Ernst &

Private equity firm Advent International has acquired BOS Solutions, a provider of drilling fluid treatment and recovery solutions to oil and gas exploration and production companies.  Along with the acquisition of equity from existing shareholders, Advent has also provided BOS with access to the necessary capital to execute on its growth and expansion strategy.  The current BOS management team, led by president and chief executive officer Glenn Leroux, will retain a significant ownership interest in and continue to lead BOS. Founded in 2001, BOS has operations in most major North American oil and gas regions. "Advent’s investment comes at an

National Fostering Agency Partnerships, a company backed by Sovereign Capital, has acquired Jay Fostering, the group’s fifth acquisition. Sovereign Capital led the institutional buy-out of NFA in December 2006.  Since then, Sovereign has backed the bolt-on acquisitions of five companies including The Foster Care Agency, Alliance Fostering, Child First Fostering Agency and Alpha Plus Fostering. Jay is a Leicestershire-based independent fostering agency. Established in 2003 by Joy Berry, a social work director, and her son Richard Berry, Jay has grown in the past three years expanding geographically into the West Midlands and opening a satellite office in Castle Donnington, Derbyshire. 

Climate Energy has acquired Suffolk based Solutions 4 Energy for an undisclosed sum, in a bid to expand its portfolio and strengthen its own market position. Climate Energy says the acquisition will allow it to create a more robust business in order to weather future changes in funding availability and improve its geographical reach. Climate Energy managing director Andrew Holmes says: “We are delighted to be purchasing a business which has at its core, a responsibility to reduce carbon emissions. We saw this as an opportunity to further consolidate our position in a very exciting but volatile sector. This acquisition

With the exception of the 20-year return which increased modestly, venture capital performance declined across most time horizons as of the end of the second quarter of 2010, according to the Cambridge Associates US Venture Capital Index, the performance benchmark of the National Venture Capital Association. While the deterioration was mild, it reflected ongoing challenges in today’s venture-backed exit market which continued to struggle to recover from the financial crisis of 2008. Still venture capital performance surpassed the public market indices for the quarter, three, five, 15 and 20-year time horizons. "While we have seen increased exit volumes in 2010,

Ailant Finance’s private wealth management division plans to launch a private equity fund which so far has USD100m in seed investment committed. The official marketing period of the natural resources-focused fund will begin in December and last six to eight months, or until it has hit its targeted maximum capital commitment. Ailant Finance private wealth management manages about USD550m for a client base of family offices and high net worth individuals. "We manage our funds within a disciplined risk management framework that has predetermined limits on the percentage of privates that can be held in a fund," Ferdinand Aracon, the

Competitive Companies is entering into an equity line financing facility in the amount of USD10m with Dutchess Opportunity Cayman Fund. During the 36-month term of the equity line facility, Dutchess will be required at the option of CCI to purchase up to USD10m of CCI common stock. Each drawdown will be priced based on the then-current stock price in accordance with an agreed-upon formula. CCI will control the timing and amount of any share sales to Dutchess. In accordance with SEC regulations, CCI will file an S-1 Registration allowing for the selling of the shares to Dutchess. William H. Gray,