Global private equity firm The Carlyle Group has agreed to purchase OpenLink Financial, a software developer for the commodity, energy and financial services industries, from TA Associates. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter. Founded in 1992, OpenLink is a provider of cross-asset trading, risk management, and related portfolio management software solutions for the commodity, energy and financial services markets globally. OpenLink’s blue chip client base of more than 150 customers worldwide includes 12 of the top 25 largest commodity and energy companies by market capitalization, eight of the

An investor group led by General Atlantic and affiliates of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, in partnership with the management team of Tasc, have signed a definitive agreement to acquire 100 per cent of Tasc from Northrop Grumman in a transaction valued at USD1.65bn. Founded in 1966, Tasc today generates approximately USD1.6bn in revenue and has nearly 5,000 employees serving a range of intelligence, defence and civil agencies. “Today’s announcement is another major milestone in Tasc’s long history of leadership in serving the federal government and national security communities, and provides an exceptional foundation for our continued growth,” says Wood Parker, Tasc’s

China, technology and private equity are likely to drive IPO activity over the next 12 months, according to the Ernst & Young Institutional Investor IPO survey. Investors believed a handful of IPO markets worldwide would show recovery by the end of 2009. China (75 per cent of respondents), India (57 per cent) and Brazil (57 per cent) were highlighted as the most likely with the US (31 per cent) and Singapore (30 per cent) suggested as other possibilities. Ernst & Young’s quarterly data has shown that this trend has already started in Q3 2009 and is likely to continue in

Nigel Hugill and Robin Butler have established Urban&Civic, a UK real estate firm backed by private equity house GI Partners.  GI Partners recently closed its third fund, GI Partners Fund III, raising USD1.9bn. This fund will provide the investment capital for Urban&Civic. Sources close to the deal indicated that GI would be prepared to invest up to GBP150m. Urban&Civic will target strategic land and estate acquisitions of metropolitan or regional scale capable of sustaining new or improved places and environments.  The first investment being made by Urban&Civic is in the former Alconbury Airfield, covering 1,100 acres, 24 miles west of

Fortress Investment Group made a GAAP net loss of USD190m for the quarter ended 30 September 2009. The GAAP net loss attributable to class A shareholders was USD59m, or USD0.43 per diluted share, as compared to a loss of USD0.66 per diluted share for the quarter ended 30 September 2008. Excluding principals agreement compensation, third quarter GAAP net income was USD50m. For the third quarter, fund management distributable earnings were USD51m compared to USD63m in the third quarter of 2008. Pre-tax DE for the third quarter was USD57m, or USD0.11 per dividend paying share/unit, versus a loss of USD20m for

The Blackstone Group made a GAAP net loss of USD176m for the third quarter of 2009, compared to a GAAP net loss of USD340m for the third quarter of 2008. Total segment revenues were USD603.8m, up USD200.2m from USD403.6m for the second quarter of 2009 and up USD833.0m from USD(229.2)m for the third quarter of 2008. The year-over-year change was driven by net appreciation of the underlying portfolio investments in the corporate private equity and credit and marketable alternatives segments, as well as stabilization in the fair value of the real estate segment’s underlying portfolio investments. These increases were partially

The Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association, an independent, not-for-profit international organisation, has launched CAIA Hong Kong, its tenth global chapter. “Hong Kong, one of the world’s premier financial centres, is home to a very active, engaged and growing segment of our global membership,” says Craig Asche, executive director of the CAIA Association. “Over the past three years, the Hong Kong membership has increased dramatically and through their initiative has developed a dynamic local network, highlighted by several exceptionally well-orchestrated and oversubscribed educational and social events. It is therefore with great pleasure and pride that we welcome Hong Kong into our

NorthStar Equity Investors, a venture capital firm that specialises in creating and building early stage technology based businesses in the North East of England, has led a GBP850,000 investment round in The WorkCast Corporation.   The investment round was made to support the development of WorkCast’s webcasting technology and to boost sales and marketing. Running on WorkCast’s webcasting platform, Webcast Manager allows users to create, edit and distribute business webcasts from one solution. Customers can produce webcasts and webinars by recording a variety of elements such as web meetings, PowerPoint presentations, webcams and video conferences. The entire recording, including audio,

EMEA mid-market M&A activity was valued at USD12.2bn in October, down 12 per cent from September’s USD13.9bn and down 34.9 per cent from October 2008’s USD18.7bn, according to research by Thomson Reuters. The year on year average rank value to Ebitda has decreased by 16 per cent on average with only the real estate and materials sectors increasing. JP Morgan top the European mid-market M&A rankings YTD, up from third position for same period 2008 EMEA mid-market M&A from January to the end of October is down 49.6 per cent compared to same period last year, to USD110.2bn from USD218.8bn.