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Biotech company Biocartis has closed a series B equity financing round which raised EUR30m (USD41.3m) from its current shareholder base of life science investors and two new investors from the pharmaceutical/diagnostic industry.
The new investors are the Debiopharm Group (Switzerland) and Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, which have each obtained a minority stake in Biocartis.
The financing round was also underwritten by Aescap, Biocartis’ original lead-investor (The Netherlands), Biovest (Belgium), Advent Venture Partners (UK), several Biocartis employees and Benaruca, the family investment vehicle of Biocartis’ co-founder Rudi Pauwels.
Biocartis has developed and licensed a series of new technologies to build
Abris Capital Partners, a mid-market CEE-focused private equity group, has signed an agreement to purchase Masterlease Polska, a Polish auto fleet management business.
Abris and its syndicate members have partnered with the company’s management to acquire the business from GMAC, the US-based financial services group part-owned by the car manufacturing giant General Motors.
The price has not been disclosed.
Prime Car Management, later operating under Masterlease brand, was established in 1995 by business partners Grzegorz Waluszewski and Jerzy Kobyliński, initially to provide vehicle leasing services to a rapidly expanding number of international and domestic corporate clients in Poland.
In
Deutsche Bank is launching a private equity fund of funds business within its asset management division following the closing of the Sal Oppenheim Group acquisition.
The bank will combine three existing businesses under the new group entitled DB Private Equity: the private equity group of Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management, the secondaries private equity team of Rreef and Sal Oppenheim Private Equity Partners (Sopep).
According to a report by Datamonitor, Chris Minter has been named global head of DB Private Equity reporting to Kevin Parker, global head of the bank’s asset management division and a member of Deutsche Bank’s group
Alimera Sciences, a US-based ophthalmic pharmaceutical company, has set the price band for its proposed initial public offering of six million shares of common stock between USD15 and USD17 per share.
The company is seeking to list its common stock on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol ALIM.
To the extent that the underwriters sell more than six million shares of common stock, the underwriters have the option to purchase up to an additional 0.9 million shares from the company at the IPO price less the underwriting discount.
Venture capital firms Scale Venture Partners (formerly BA Venture Partners), Domain
Moelis Capital Partners, the private equity business of Moelis & Company, has appointed Ted Yun as a managing partner.
Yun, who will be based in New York, brings 20 years of investment experience and expertise in building and managing private equity firms.
Yun has particular experience in the healthcare services, business services and consumer/specialty retail sectors, and has served on the boards of directors of more than 15 portfolio companies.
He spent 11 years at J.W. Childs, where he was a partner and chairman of the investment committee.
After his time at J.W. Childs, he was a founder and managing
Richard Buxton (pictured), Head of UK Equities, Schroders, examines the impact of the UK general election on stockmarket sentiment.
If there is any consensus amongst investors, strategists and financial commentators, it is that in the run-up to polling day sterling will weaken further, gilt yields will rise and the equity market will fall.
The prospect of a hung parliament is a central scenario for many and, with it, the prospect of ineffective government and a crucial inability to take decisive action to rein in Britain’s fiscal deficit.
As this outcome looms ever closer, so investors will sell sterling,
Gresham, a UK mid market private equity firm, has completed an investment of GBP12.3m in Lanes Assistance Services.
The investment will buy-out existing shareholder Lanes Group plc and provides capital to develop LAS’ infrastructure and personnel to drive future growth.
Gresham provided 100 per cent of the funding.
With offices in Manchester and Birmingham, LAS provides an outsourced claims management service for the insurance industry. Its clients include a number of top UK insurers.
Andy Marsh, partner at Gresham, says: “We have been looking to invest again in this market for some time now. The key for us has been
European private equity houses who wanted to create value in their portfolio through add-on acquisitions in 2009 saw their efforts mostly thwarted, according to an annual study by European private equity house Silverfleet Capital.
Silverfleet Capital’s European Buy & Build Monitor, published in conjunction with mergermarket, found that the number of European add-on acquisitions fell dramatically in 2009 by almost 50 per cent to 203, the fewest since 2004.
Total value dropped too to a shade over GBP3bn, well down on the GBP23.4bn recorded in 2007 and the lowest since 2003.
While these numbers reflect the fall in M&A activity
Law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld will open an office in Geneva on 1 May 2010, expanding its international footprint further into Western Europe.
Charles C. Adams Jr. will head the new office and will be joined by partners Jonathan Ivinson and Michael J. Stepek, along with a team of four other lawyers.
The office has experience in the prosecution and defence of major claims brought in international arbitrations, international civil litigation matters before various national and international courts and institutions, corporate and commercial law, and tax optimisation for multinational corporates and high-net-worth individuals.
The group joins Akin
Private equity firm 3i has made two senior appointments to its fund investor relations team.
Jennifer Dunstan (pictured) transfers from 3i’s buyouts team as partner to lead 3i’s London based fund investor relations team and further develop 3i’s investor relations capabilities in Europe and Asia Pacific.
James (Jim) Rutherfurd joins 3i from Veronis Suhler Stevenson as a partner responsible for fund investor relations within North America.
Both Dunstan and Rutherfurd work with Paul Waller, managing partner of 3i’s global fund investor relations team and a member of 3i’s management committee based in London.
Waller says: “In an increasingly demanding market,
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