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J.P. Morgan Private Equity, the London Stock Exchange listed private equity secondary fund, is increasing the frequency of the reporting and valuation of its private equity portfolio.
Since the company’s IPO in June 2005, J.P. Morgan Private Equity has updated the values of its private equity portfolio on a quarterly basis.
Beginning with the month that ended 31 January 2010, the company began valuing its private equity portfolio on a monthly basis.
The manager believes that reporting private equity valuations 12 times per year will enable the it to efficiently communicate its activity in the secondary market as well as
Global follow-on offerings total USD48.7bn for year-to-date 2010, an increase of 81 per cent compared to the same time last year, according to a report by Thomson Reuters Deals Intelligence.
Issuers in Japan and the US account for nearly 47 per cent of all year-to-date secondary offerings with USD12.1bn and USD10.7bn, respectively.
Offerings in the financial and energy and power sectors account for a combined 67 per cent of global activity this year.
European follow-on activity is up more than four times last year’s totals, bolstered by USD4.3bn in rights offerings, which account for 36 per cent of European
Sofinnova Partners, a European venture capital firm, has invested in OpenERP, a provider of open source software management.
Sofinnova’s investment is joined by Xavier Niel and Olivier Rosenfeld, manager and board member of Iliad, respectively.
In total, EUR3m has been contributed in the form of capital growth.
Founded in 2005 by Fabien Pinckaers, OpenERP has a community of more than 300 members and integrators in 26 countries. Its software offers more than 500 modules and is downloaded by more than 1,000 users each day.
The funds raised will be used to accelerate the company’s development strategy, which includes strengthening the
Benson Elliot Capital Management, a private equity real estate firm, has exchanged contracts on the acquisition of CBXII, Midsummer Boulevard, Milton Keynes.
The property has been acquired for GBP20.6m from the Caspar Fund, managed by Henderson Global Investors, reflecting an initial yield of ten per cent.
The acquisition, the first purchase for Benson Elliot in the UK, was made on behalf of Benson Elliot Real Estate Partners II and brings the total number of investments since its launch in 2006 to eight. The fund now holds a broad portfolio of asset types in France, Germany, Spain, Scandinavia, Central Europe
FedCap Partners, a private equity fund focused on the federal contracting industry, had its initial closing on 5 February 2010.
The objective of FedCap is to invest in and partner with small and middle market federal services and technology companies who are positioned in growing areas of the federal budget and whose owners desire growth capital and advice.
FedCap plans to make both minority and majority equity and debt investments and provide advice from industry experts to enable the fund’s portfolio companies to become attractive targets for acquirers.
Two primary factors have disproportionately adversely affected small and medium sized federal
New York based private equity firm Altitude Capital Partners has sold its portfolio company Saxon Innovations, an intellectual property licensing company, to Norman IP Holdings and RPX.
The sale includes Saxon’s entire portfolio of 180 patents.
Saxon was formed in August 2007 by Altitude to acquire the portfolio from Legerity which was formerly a spin out of AMD.
Prior to the sale, Saxon licensed its portfolio to many mobile handset manufacturers including LG Electronics, HTC, Nokia and Research In Motion.
Rob Kramer (pictured), the managing partner of Altitude Capital Partners, says: "It has been a wonderful experience being part of
Investcorp Technology Partners, the technology private equity arm of alternative investment manager Investcorp, has acquired a 29.8 per cent stake in OpSec Security Group, a maker of anti-counterfeiting protection technologies and services.
Investcorp’s investment includes a GBP7.6m subscription for newly issued preference shares and common equity, as well as a USD13m (GBP8.2m) shareholder note to fully refinance the company’s outstanding bank loan facilities.
"This investment allows us to invest in the high-growth market for global brand protection and ID and bank notes security technologies and solutions, which have significant barriers to entry," says Hazem Ben-Gacem, co-head of Investcorp Technology Partners.
Private equity firm BC Partners has acquired a 66 per cent stake in Spotless Group SAS, a manufacturer of laundry and cleaning products, from Axa Private Equity.
The transaction is valued at approximately EUR600m.
Both Spotless and AXA Private Equity are based in France, while BC Partners is based in the UK.
Phoenix Equity Partners, a UK mid-market private equity firm, has reached agreement for the sale of Nationwide Autocentres to Halfords Group for GBP73m.
Nationwide is a provider of automotive mechanical repair, servicing and MOT tests across the UK.
Operating from over 220 technical Autocentres, Nationwide has over 600,000 customers.
Phoenix acquired Nationwide in February 2006, following a direct approach made to the business 12 months earlier. The acquisition was made alongside a new management team recruited by Phoenix.
The senior management team grew Nationwide during the period 2006 to 2010: new Autocentres were opened and acquired; new products and
A consortium of venture capital firms has sold its stake in Intelliden, a provider of networking solutions, to information technology company IBM.
The consortium includes 3i Group, GGV Capital (formerly Granite Global Ventures), Matrix Partners, Telus Ventures and Westbury Partners.
Following the completion of the transaction, Intelliden technology will be integrated into IBM Tivoli Software.
The acquisition will further strengthen IBM’s service management portfolio by offering solutions for automation and optimisation of digital and physical assets, which includes full-service lifecycle management of network devices, IT, data centre and physical assets such as water mains, railway cars and door locks.
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