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One of Peak Ridge Capital’s venture capital funds, the Peak Ridge AgTech Fund, has made its first equity investment in agricultural technology company Rapid Diagnostek.
The initial investment is a USD4m series B syndicated investment, of which the AgTech Fund was the lead investor.
Rapid Diagnostek is a privately-held diagnostics company based in Hudson, Wisconsin and focused on the use of proprietary microelectronic biosensor technology for initial use in animal and food diagnostics.
The testing device is a handheld instrument that can read a specimen sample and determine the presence of a given target bacteria or illness. Results are generated
Growth investor General Atlantic has agreed to make an equity investment in Markit, a financial information services company.
The companies say the addition of General Atlantic as a shareholder positions Markit for long-term growth and adds an investor in financial sector innovation to Markit’s existing shareholder base.
General Atlantic will assist Markit in developing its growth strategy further and executing value-creating acquisitions.
Lance Uggla (pictured), chief executive of Markit, says: "We are delighted to welcome General Atlantic as a shareholder in Markit. GA is one of the leading investment firms in financial services and having them as a partner
The market in 2009 offered distressed debt investors plenty of opportunities to cherry pick amongst troubled over-leveraged businesses and companies in distress, according to a report by Debwire.
Opinions gauged from respondents to this year’s European Distressed Debt survey, produced in association with Cadwalader, FTI and Rothschild, indicate that although there is light on the horizon, the challenge for distressed investors will be to find value in a rapidly moving market where surging debt prices and poor liquidity are both prevalent factors.
The majority of respondents expect European restructuring to peak during the first half of 2010, with covenant resets/amendments
The Central Valley Fund, a private investment fund focused on middle market California Central Valley companies, has made a mezzanine investment of USD3.75m in Quest Discovery Services.
The capital was used to refinance Quest’s previous subordinated debt holder and to provide funds for acquisitions.
Founded over 40 years ago, Quest offers outsourcing solutions for medical and public records acquisition, including process serving, document acquisition, copying and deposition reporting. The company primarily operates in California, but offers nationwide services to national accounts.
Ed McNulty, a partner with The Central Valley Fund, says: "We are pleased to be business partners with the
A large portion of alternative investment firms may be hindering their capital raising efforts by not providing investors with access to online reporting systems, according to a survey by Netage Solutions.
The survey also revealed that limited partners and their advisers overwhelmingly agree that such systems increase transparency.
The survey of 31 institutional investors, family offices and advisers conducted in the fourth quarter of 2009 found that nearly 87 per cent of respondents either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement, “online reporting systems provide much needed transparency in the alternative assets industry”.
Further underscoring the importance of investor portals
Azad Zangana, European Economist at Schroders, cautions against expectations of a swift UK recovery.
Preliminary estimates of GDP growth for between October and December 2009 showed the UK economy grew by 0.1%, ending the longest and deepest recession since the Second World War.
The 0.1% rise in GDP growth in Q4 was far lower than city consensus of 0.4%, though preliminary estimates only have about 40% of the final information required to produce a final estimate, and are subject to revisions.
The latest estimate provides end-of-year annual growth. The worst performing sectors of 2009 was the manufacturing sector,
Investor confidence rose fractionally by 0.2 points to 104.5 in January from a revised December level of 104.3, according to the State Street Investor Confidence Index.
The mood was upbeat in North America, where confidence showed an increase of 4.4 points over December’s reading of 103.5 to settle at 107.9.
In Europe, by contrast, institutional investors were more wary, and their confidence fell 5.6 points to 98.9 from the December level of 104.5.
Amongst Asian institutional investors, confidence rose slightly to 98.1 from a level of 97.5 in December.
Developed through State Street Global Markets’ research partnership, State Street Associates,
Unigestion, a privately owned asset manager, has completed the first closing of Unigestion Secondary Opportunity II.
To date, commitments to the fund total EUR135m. Unigestion expects to reach the target size of EUR150m shortly. The hard cap is set at EUR200m.
The fund will purchase secondary stakes in funds through small to mid-sized transactions (typically EUR5m to EUR15m) benefiting from the discounts currently available in the secondary market.
Unigestion expects to complete 20 to 25 transactions over the next 24 to 36 months.
Hanspeter Bader (pictured), managing director of Unigestion’s private equity activities, says: “We are delighted to complete the
Special situation private equity fund Versa Capital Management has opened offices in Chicago and Los Angeles with the addition of Suzanne Yoon and David McReynolds.
Yoon joins Versa as director – Midwest US, based in Chicago.
Prior to joining Versa, Yoon was a senior vice president of CIT’s national restructuring group.
Previously, she co-founded LaSalle Business Credit/ABN Amro’s corporate restructuring group.
Yoon was formerly the co-chair of the American Bankruptcy Institute’s finance committee, and is an active member of the Turnaround Management Association and International Women’s Insolvency and Restructuring Confederation.
McReynolds joins Versa as director – Western US, based in
Asset Management Finance, an investment firm focused on the global asset and wealth management sectors, completed four new investments in December totalling approximately USD200m in invested capital.
These transactions bring AMF’s total capital invested to more than USD500m.
“We concluded 2009 with a flurry of exciting investments continuing our momentum at Asset Management Finance,” says Brian D. Finn, chief executive officer. “In a single month, we completed our first pure equity investment, our first investment in a private equity firm, our first European investment, and our first investment in a credit hedge fund manager. These new investments have not only
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