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Partners Group, a Switzerland-based alternative assets manager, has closed Partners Group Secondary 2008 at its hard cap of EUR2.5bn.
The programme saw strong demand from existing and new investors and closed significantly above its target size of EUR2.0bn.
Capitalising on the attractive investment opportunities available over the past quarters, the fund has selectively invested throughout the market crisis, purchasing a number of assets at prices that can now be seen as among the historic lows.
For instance, Partners Group acquired a portfolio of assets from a bank at a discount of over 70 per cent to net asset value
Earth Capital Partners has completed the first close of its renewable energy infrastructure fund, ECP Renewable Energy Fund One, targeting up to EUR750m of investment.
The fund will invest in solar, biogas and biomass projects in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.
Earth Capital has recently appointed E.ON Climate & Renewables to play a key role as the fund’s primary industrial service provider, providing technical skills and industrial experience, particularly in project development, operation and maintenance of assets, as well as potentially contributing to the fund’s investment opportunities.
Ben Cotton, partner of Earth Capital, says: “The fund provides a
Investors are looking forward to 2010 as a year of moderate economic growth, benign inflation and solid returns in global equities, according to the BofA Merrill Lynch survey of fund managers for December.
Optimism about the economy strengthened this month. A net 80 per cent of respondents expect the world economy to grow over the next 12 months, compared with a net 69 per cent in November.
Two thirds of investors expect equity markets to return to traditional growth levels or better.
Expectations for corporate profits are at their highest level since December 2003, supporting demand for greater capex.
RLJ Equity Partners has acquired a significant ownership interest in LAI International, a manufacturer of precision engineered components for a variety of industries including power generation, aerospace and defence, and healthcare.
The announcement, in partnership with Spell Capital, comes five months after the close of RLJ Equity Partners Fund I with USD230m of committed capital in June 2009.
Further details of the transaction were not disclosed.
"RLJ views LAI as a perfect fit with its investment strategy to back strong, entrepreneurially-minded management teams of businesses that have sound, differentiated, value-added products or services where we can leverage our relationships to
The partners at law firms Lovells and Hogan & Hartson have decided to merge the two firms.
The new firm will be called Hogan Lovells and will have approximately 2,500 lawyers operating out of more than 40 offices located around the world.
Subject to regulatory clearances, Hogan Lovells will come into effect from 1 May 2010.
David Harris, partner at Lovells, says the new firm will offer clients a high quality transatlantic capability with extensive reach into the world’s financial and commercial centres; particular strengths in the areas of dispute resolution, regulatory, antitrust, corporate, finance, intellectual property and real estate;
Colony Capital and Eurazeo have welcomed the decision of Accor’s board of directors to approve the plan to separate the group’s two businesses, hotels and prepaid services, into two independent listed entities.
Each entity will have its own strategy and benefit from the resources necessary for its own development.
Eurazeo and Colony Capital have said they will provide lasting support for the two companies.
They have decided, provided that the separation of the two Accor businesses is completed, to extend the provisions of the May 2008 shareholders’ agreement between them to the shares of the two companies until 4 May
Partners Group, a Switzerland-based global alternative asset manager, has made two senior management promotions as well as some organisational changes.
The firm has promoted the following two members of the management team from senior vice presidents to managing directors: Roland Käslin, head finance, and Denis O’Malley, head Guernsey.
Partners Group has made some changes in the organisational structure of the firm, which will take effect as of 1 January 2010.
Following the successful development of the private real estate business to become a global asset management practice, it has become an independent department reporting directly to the executive board.
The
Maven Capital Partners, joint manager of the Capital for Enterprise Fund, has made a GBP2m investment in Monumental Games, a provider of massively multiplayer online games.
The GBP75 million Capital for Enterprise Fund is a government initiative launched earlier this year to help small and medium size enterprises in the UK gain access to the financial support required to bridge the funding gap caused by the credit crisis.
The investment in Monumental is one of the first investments to be made by the fund and will support Monumental’s growth and development plans to become a leading worldwide provider of MMO
Characterised by election fever, 2010 will see changes to the flow of funds, an increase in the use of Ucits wrappers by hedge funds and an opportunity for growth with defined contribution pensions, according to Tom Brown, European head of investment management at KPMG.
Brown says there is a risk of some substantial falls in asset prices in some markets this year.
Since the trough of March 2009, there have been huge price rises, often 50 per cent or more. As the government takes its foot off the gas in terms of support, Brown says prices may take a tumble.
Edhec-Risk Institute has launched a risk and investment management programme after a survey found that further education was needed to close the gap between real-word practice and research.
The Executive MSc in Risk and Investment Management will provide experienced practitioners with a 17-month part-time programme.
It builds on the results of an Edhec-Risk Institute survey of 229 financial institutions, which found that investment professionals were aware of research advances but that only a minority of institutions actually used advanced techniques and more often than not in ways inconsistent with sound risk and investment management.
The survey identified major inefficiencies in
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