Aureos Capital, a private equity fund management company focused on small to medium-sized businesses in emerging markets, has signed up to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment. The principles were established in 2005 by 20 of the world’s largest institutional investors. There are currently over 700 institutional investors, investment managers and professional service partners who have signed up to the principles. Sev Vettivetpillai (pictured), chief executive officer of Aureos Advisers, says: “Our proactive approach to the consideration of environmental, social and corporate governance in portfolio companies and the communities in which they operate aligns commercial objectives with lasting development

Highgate Associates and Enterprise Corporate Finance’s EIS Fund, the HG Tech Fund, has reached the initial minimum funding target.  Further investment is anticipated during the final weeks of the tax year by investors looking to maximise their tax benefits. The fund has made its first high tech company investment in iVoucher, an early stage business that is developing a Software as a Service delivered SMS technology for the food and beverage industry. iVoucher has a technology and service proposition that is planned to launch later in Q2 2010 that will enable all bars and restaurants to communicate with their customers

Although public pension plans and their corporate counterparts were hit equally hard by the global market crisis, a study from Greenwich Associates shows they are responding to historic funding shortfalls in dramatically different fashions. With an eye toward constraints imposed by tougher accounting rules, companies that sponsor defined benefit pension plans are shedding risk from their investment portfolios and are apparently preparing for the inevitability of much higher cash contribution requirements. Public pension funds, meanwhile, are shifting money into riskier asset classes in what is looking like a “swing-for-the-fences” attempt to close shortfalls with future investment returns that far outpace

Eurazeo Group’s consolidated revenue was EUR3,785.4m in 2009, down 6.6 per cent as reported and down 5.9 per cent on a comparable basis. Revenue from private equity activity amounted to EUR3,707.3m, a decline of 4.9 per cent on a comparable basis. The real estate business increased 6.6 per cent in 2009 to EUR33.6m, reflecting continued growth in ANF rents. The consolidated net income group share amounted to -EUR199.3m compared to -EUR68.0m in 2008. This result includes EUR484.6m in adjusted EBIT from the integrated operating companies (ANF, Apcoa, B&B, Elis and Europcar) compared with EUR522.9m euros in 2008, a decrease of

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation has formed a partnership with Progress Investment Management to support and cultivate smaller entrepreneurial investment management companies. Under the terms of the partnership, the Kellogg Foundation will establish up to a USD100m diversified portfolio of emerging fixed income and equity managers to be managed by Progress. The programme’s goal will be to generate positive, market rate returns for the foundation while providing entrepreneurs in the investment industry with the resources they need to build their businesses, thereby helping further the foundation’s commitment to engender success and to support communities across the country. "By establishing the emerging

Water Street Healthcare Partners, a private equity firm focused exclusively on healthcare, has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its gastrodiagnostic device company, Sierra Scientific Instruments, to Given Imaging. Given Imaging, a provider of patient-friendly GI diagnostic and monitoring solutions, will purchase the business for USD35m in cash. The transaction is expected to close in early April. Water Street was instrumental in building Sierra Scientific into a provider of diagnostic devices for the clinical gastroenterology market. The firm merged Sierra Scientific with a division of its specialty diagnostic device company, Alpine Biomed Corporation, in 2009. Sierra Scientific offers a

TLG Capital has added Compaqnie Fluviale du Mekong, a river cruise company based in Cambodia, to its portfolio. This represents TLG Capital’s third company under management following its first two investments in Uganda and Ghana. CFM is the oldest company to offer river cruises along the Mekong River. Its current fleet of four ships offer tourists the opportunity to explore cities and remote villages on the Mekong in both Vietnam and Cambodia. Cambodia alone attracts close to two million tourists and is expected to more than double in the next five years with the UK, France, Germany, and Australia representing

Avaak, a provider of ultra low power wireless video networking technology, has raised USD10m in series B funding led by Qualcomm. Qualcomm joins Avaak’s existing investors, Trinity Ventures, InterWest Partners and Leapfrog Ventures, in backing Avaak’s wireless video technology being delivered in the Vue personal video network consumer product. The Vue system allows consumers to monitor their homes or businesses via the internet and access a live video feed through a mobile device. The system features a network of small, battery-powered cameras that can be placed anywhere. "Avaak has taken video monitoring to a new level of simplicity, allowing consumers