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Forbion Capital Partners, an investment firm dedicated to the life science sector, has held the final closings of FCF I Co-Invest Fund and FCF II, raising a total of more than EUR190m (USD240m).
Forbion’s EUR54m Co-Invest Fund aims to invest alongside FCF I in a select number of late-stage FCF I portfolio companies.
FCF II has an investment strategy similar to its predecessor fund FCF I.
Forbion aims to invest the majority of the fund in Europe and the remainder in North America and Israel.
The investment focus is on private companies developing novel drugs, medical devices and diagnostics for
An affiliate of The Wicks Group, a New York-based private equity firm, has acquired Antenna Audio from Discovery Communications.
Antenna specialises in the production and delivery of educational content for use in multimedia and mobile tours for museums, exhibitions, historic sites and visitor attractions throughout the world.
Antenna operates in over 20 countries and in multiple languages at more than 350 museums and cultural sites. Last year, Antenna provided over 20 million audio and multimedia tours.
The Wicks Group will seek to leverage Antenna’s expertise and market position to expand into adjacent and untapped markets with an expanded suite of
Lombard Investments has sold a major portion of its stake in Somboon Advance Technology, a Thailand-based original equipment manufacturing supplier of auto parts.
Lombard invested in Somboon through its Thailand Equity Fund and realised a 3x return.
During Lombard’s holding period, Somboon grew its car and light truck parts business, expanded its production capabilities, and in response to the global economic crisis diversified into agricultural equipment parts.
The company’s primary products are axle shafts, brake components and springs. Its sales for the first six months of 2010 were approximately USD100mn.
Lombard is a private equity investment manager with offices in
Private equity firms Clayton, Dubilier & Rice and CVC Capital Partners have signed a definitive agreement for CD&R to acquire a 42.5 per cent ownership interest in Univar, a distributor of commodity and specialty chemicals.
The transaction values the company at approximately USD4.2bn.
Funds advised by CVC will retain a 42.5 per cent stake in the business. The remaining equity will be held by Univar management and other existing investors.
Univar operates a network of 179 distribution facilities and distributes more than 11,000 products and 110,000 SKUs to over 80,000 customers in more than 100 countries.
"Univar’s business profile fits
As traditional Hollywood studios struggle to assemble funding – MGM has been forced to postpone the 23rd film of the James Bond franchise because of debt problems – more and more financiers are looking to the independent film fund model for reliable returns, according to Guernsey-based tax expert Ben Tustin.
Investment opportunities in films range from pre-sales contracts to tax credits, direct equity investment, gap and bridge finance, completion funds, publicity and advertising.
Each stage has its own balance and level of risk and reward. Direct equity investment has been historically common but is not the most lucrative or
Brookfield Asset Management has appointed Chris Harris as client relations manager for the private funds group.
Harris will be responsible for Brookfield’s relationships with investors in the western US.
Prior to his appointment, Harris served a director in the private placement team at Macquarie Capital for three years, working on development of new funds and overseeing client investments in real estate, private equity and infrastructure.
Before that, he spent two years as director of institutional marketing at Citi Property Investors.
“We are delighted to welcome Chris as a senior member of our global relationship team,” says Leo van den Thillart,
CallMiner, a provider of enterprise speech analytics, has closed USD4m in series C financing from Sigma Partners, Intersouth Partners, Inflexion Partners and an undisclosed partner.
CallMiner plans to use the proceeds to fuel its growth and expansion activities.
Terry Leahy, CallMiner’s president and chief executive, says: “CallMiner’s industry leading speech analytics platform – Eureka – continues to gain rapid traction in the marketplace as evidenced by two consecutive years of triple digit marquee customer growth and corresponding revenue growth. As CallMiner enters 2011, we are poised to capture an even larger share of the market with our advanced enterprise speech
Crescent Financial Partners has purchased a minority stake in IT Trading’s proprietary quantitative trading software for USD3.2m.
The software, which has been under development for nearly a decade, employs a statistical arbitrage trading model.
“In the finance world, arbitrage is commonly known as the practice of taking advantage of a price difference between two or more markets,” said John Indelicato and Anthony Tuozzo, creators of the software. “Essentially what our software does is automates this process through the use of advanced sophisticated algorithms.”
Russell Armstrong, chief executive and managing director of Crescent Financial Partners adds: “We believe this algorithm is
John DelPonti has joined the valuation and financial risk management practice of Navigant Capital Advisors, a wholly owned subsidiary of Navigant Consulting, as a managing director in the Washington, DC office.
DelPonti will focus on providing strategy, operations and risk management services to mortgage banking clients.
“The mortgage industry is undergoing a unique transformation, and our clients are demanding insight into how to best position their business to address this change,” says Richard Hitt, managing director and leader of Navigant Capital Advisors’ valuation and financial risk management practice. “John’s combination of mortgage strategy, valuation, risk management, transaction and operational experience
Arsenal Capital Partners’ portfolio company Novolyte Technologies, a manufacturer and supplier of specialty electrolyte materials for lithium ion battery and energy storage applications, has created a joint venture with Foosung, a producer of specialty lithium salts for lithium batteries.
The joint venture platform will create an integrated producer of lithium battery electrolytes, a key component in the rapidly growing market for lithium batteries used in hybrid electric vehicles and consumer electronics.
The US-based joint venture entity will retain the Novolyte Technologies name and will be managed by Novolyte’s current management team from its existing Cleveland headquarters.
Concurrent with the formation
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