Rembrandt Venture Partners has closed a second fund in the amount of USD160.5m. It will be invested in early-stage companies with ground-breaking technology offerings. The fund was oversubscribed, exceeding its initial target by USD10.5m. Rembrandt has been a participant in several recent successes in the high tech space, including Cavium, Good Technologies (acquired by Motorola), Ironport (acquired by Cisco), LGC Wireless (acquired by ADC Communications), and MetaLincs (founded by Rembrandt, acquired by Seagate). "The success of our first fund paved the way for us to raise a significantly larger amount this time around, despite the capital crunch," says Douglas Schrier,

US venture capital firms raised USD3.6bn in the first quarter of 2010 from 32 funds, according to Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association. This level marks a 31 per cent decline, by dollar commitments, compared to the first quarter of 2009, and a 44 per cent decline by number of funds. It also represents the slowest opening quarter since 1993. "There is no question that the bar has been raised for venture capital fundraising," says Mark Heesen, president of the NVCA. "Over the last two years, alternative asset allocations have declined and the exit market has suffered, putting

Angelo Gordon’s Net Lease Group has acquired the headquarters and sole North American distribution centre of Claire’s Stores, located in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, for USD18.1m. Claire’s has been a portfolio investment of Apollo Management since 2007. Claire’s is a mall-based retailer of value-oriented fashion accessories and jewellery with two brands: Claire’s and Icing. It offers a mix of accessories and jewellery targeted to the lifestyles of kids, tweens, teens and young women. Teddy Kaplan (pictured), managing director and co-manager of AG Net Lease, says: "Claire’s has among the most loyal customer bases in the specialty retail space and remains an

Private equity firm Advent International has held the final close of its Latin American Private Equity Fund V at USD1.65bn. The fund, which was oversubscribed, is the largest private equity fund ever raised for Latin America. It is more than 25 per cent larger than Advent’s previous fund dedicated to the region. The fund will focus on control buyouts and expansion financings of companies across the region, investing mainly in Brazil, Mexico and Argentina. It will target high-growth sectors in which Advent has expertise, including financial services, airport services, business services, retail/consumer and education. The typical equity investment will be

Private equity firm Denham Capital Management has made an equity investment in Trans-Tasman Resources, which explores and develops iron sands deposits off the North Island of New Zealand. TTR holds a prospecting permit granting exclusive mineral rights over 6,319 square kilometres of seabed in two offshore areas. TTR’s initial prospecting work, backed by a mineral resource model derived from a magnetic survey and over 200 surface and core samples, suggests that its tenements could contain a very large and very low cost iron ore resource. TTR is considering an offshore dredge mining operation combined with an offshore beneficiation plant located

DX Group, the UK and Ireland’s largest independent mail and courier company, has agreed to a capital refinancing and a management buy-in led by Petar Cvetkovic and David Hoare. DX Group’s main shareholder, the private equity house Candover Partners, as manager of the Candover 2005 Fund, is to inject fresh equity of GBP15m. Cvetkovic and Hoare are respectively the former chief executive and chairman of Target Express, the express delivery business. Effective from 12 April, current chairman David Mitchell will hand over the reins to Hoare. Chief executive John Coghlan will resume his previous position of non-executive director and hand

New York-based private equity firm Hudson Ferry Capital has made an investment in Mason Dixon Energy, the largest provider of land services to oil and gas companies east of the Mississippi. Mason Dixon Energy provides the following land services for its clients in the exploration and production, pipeline and electrical power distribution industries: acquisition of leases, surface rights and rights of way as well as related title research, title abstracting and title curative services. The investment also marks the promotion of Asa Bowers, formerly vice president, to president of Mason Dixon Energy. In this role he will be responsible for

BNY Mellon Asset Servicing has been named custodian by The Ohio State University for its Long-Term Investment Pool. BNY Mellon will provide custody and accounting for more than USD1.9bn in endowment assets. It will also deliver its suite of performance and risk analytics services and complete administrative support for the university’s private equity programme to help officials manage and analyse alternative investments. The Ohio State University has more than 4,000 endowment funds that provide student scholarships, support outstanding teachers and researchers, fund new facilities, and sustain a myriad of other purposes. Endowed gifts to Ohio State are invested in the