Palamon Capital Partners, a European mid market private equity firm, has sold Movie Park Germany to Parques Reunidos, an entertainment operator based in Madrid, for an undisclosed amount.  Movie Park Germany, Germany’s third largest theme park, is the remaining asset of the Star Parks Group, a holding company created by Palamon in 2004 to purchase seven large-format theme parks from Six Flags. In 2006, six of the seven parks were sold and the group turned its attention to the repositioning and turnaround of Movie Park Germany. With Palamon’s support, the Star Park’s management team embarked on an aggressive three year

HarbourVest Global Private Equity has placed 4,763,208 placing shares pursuant to the secondary placing announced on 13 May at a price of USD5.75 per share. This follows its recent admission to the Specialist Fund Market of the London Stock Exchange. J.P. Morgan Cazenove and Oriel Securities are the joint brokers. In connection with the secondary placing, the company has issued 4,763,208 put rights. The put right will entitle eligible holders to sell the number of shares acquired during the market put right offer period or pursuant to the secondary placing back to the company on 15 November 2011 at the

Origo Partners’ portfolio company R.M. Williams Agricultural Holdings, the Australian agricultural company focused on acquiring, developing and operating prime farmland, has raised further equity funding. In a series of recent transactions, R.M. Williams has entered into arrangements to place a total of AUD45m worth of common stock. The equity raised will be engaged to complete the acquisition of various properties in the Northern Territory of Australia. The transactions are expected to close in June.   R.M. Williams is also considering various other joint initiatives with key partners, including proposals to further cement the business as Australia’s premier agricultural operator across

Alpha PB, a division of SecureVest Financial Group, will use J.P. Morgan Clearing as custodian and clearing agent beginning 1 June 2010.  Alpha PB provides front-end execution, portfolio management and a risk management platform supporting a wide range of assets including equities, options, fixed income and futures products.  Alpha PB delivers services to small and mid-size private investment funds, family offices and separately managed accounts that need to become more proactive in managing market, execution and counterparty risk.  "There is a need for our clients to have access to the best risk and portfolio management tools," says August Cellitti, chief

Hercules Technology Growth Capital, a finance company providing venture debt and equity to venture capital and private equity-backed technology and life science companies, has received final agency committee approval by the US Small Business Administration for a second Small Business Investment Company license. Hercules expects that the SBIC license will be issued following final action by the SBA administrator. This additional license has a ten-year term and will provide up to USD75m of fixed-rate capital for investment. The SBIC programme represents a partnership between the SBA, Hercules, and the private sector economy. The new access to capital will fund needed

The Association of Investment Companies is now publishing enhanced venture capital trust data on its website. The new enhanced data now shows the following: – The last reported NAV, as published by the company – The date of the last reported NAV – The Morningstar adjusted NAV – Discount/premium data based on the Morningstar adjusted NAV – NAV total return performance with dividends reinvested based on the Morningstar adjusted NAV – NAV cumulative performance total return where cumulative dividends are simply added to the Morningstar adjusted NAV The data will be sourced from both the data provided by members to the AIC via the Monthly Information

MerchantBridge, a direct investment and private equity company focused on Middle East investments, has been awarded an existing cement plant contract under a 15-year lease in the Kerbala Governerate, 80 miles south west of the capital Baghdad. The contract was awarded by the Government of Iraq’s Ministry of Industry and Minerals. This transaction marks the largest privatisation and debt arrangement in Iraq (outside oil and gas), as well as the largest contract in the Middle East region so far this year. The plant will go through a complete rehabilitation programme via an investment of USD200m and it is expected the

Private equity is a hot topic for European family offices, with 57 per cent considering increasing their exposure to private equity this year, according to research by LPEQ, the group of European listed private equity companies. The study of 50 family offices across Europe shows they are looking to access private equity through a wide range of strategies and investment vehicles. Nearly all of the family offices that took part in the study, which was carried out by Scorpio Partnership, regard private equity as a key asset class for families, reflecting the fact that the majority of families have accumulated

As the world’s largest oil producer Saudi Arabia holds an immense amount of potential as it builds a broad-based economy and continues to liberalise and modernise its business climate, a private equity leader told participants at a conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Ahmed Heikal, founder and chairman of Citadel Capital, a private equity firm in the Middle East and Africa, said: “Our firm has long attracted private equity funds from the Riyadh, but today we are actively studying potential investments in Saudi Arabia.” Heikal was a participant at the Fifth Annual Euromoney Saudi Arabia Conference held in Riyadh on 18-19