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Société Générale Asset Management has acquired a 34 per cent shareholding in Opalia Pharma, a generic pharmaceutical company based in Tunisia, by SGAM AI Kantara.
The fund will also provide EUR2m of new funding to support the growth of the business.
The Kantara Fund will be represented by three directors on the board of Opalia Pharma and has appointed Dr Negad M Shaarawi, former chairman and managing director of GlaxoSmithKline in Egypt, and Alain Chevallier, formerly a senior finance executive with Sanofi Aventis France and presently a partner of the life sciences consulting firm AEC Partners.
The EUR115m private equity
Apax Partners, one of the world’s largest private equity firms, has appointed Sandeep Naik and Shashank Singh as co-heads of the India office.
Naik (pictured) and Singh both joined the firm in 2004 in the New York and London offices, respectively, and relocated to co-found the India office in 2006.
They will be replacing Neeraj Bharadwaj, who is leaving the firm to join a US growth capital firm.
Apax Partners opened its Mumbai office in 2006 and made its first direct investment in the region in 2007 with the acquisition of a significant minority stake in Apollo Hospitals, India’s largest
Sometrics, which helps developers and brands monetize the social web, has closed a series B round of financing led by Steamboat Ventures.
Concurrent with the investment, Beau Laskey, a managing director at Steamboat Ventures, has joined Sometrics’ board of directors.
Original investors, including the Mail Room Fund and Greycroft Partners, also participated in the round.
“Sometrics’ market-leading monetization platform is transforming the way consumers use virtual currency and opening new doors for online publishers and developers to increase their revenue through the virtual economy,” says Laskey. “Sometrics has experienced significant growth over the past year and is well positioned to
Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man have announced that they plan to work together to review their fiscal arrangements after it was made clear to the three crown dependencies by the UK government that their ‘zero-10’ corporate tax strategies are considered to breach the spirit, if not the letter, of the European Union’s Code of Conduct on Business Taxation.
The three territories aim to develop new corporate tax regimes “broadly similar to each other that remain competitive, yet also within international standards.” The unspoken message is that the days of zero corporate tax rates are over.
The EU Code
American Capital has completed the sale of its portfolio company Imperial Supplies to W.W. Grainger.
American Capital received USD66m in proceeds and realised a loss of USD5m during the fourth quarter from the transaction, subject to post-closing adjustments.
Its compounded annual rate of return, including interest, dividends and fees earned over the life of its investment was nine per cent.
The proceeds received by American Capital were greater than the second quarter 2009 valuation of the investment by USD16m, or 34 per cent.
"We are very pleased with the results of our equity and subordinated debt investments in Imperial Supplies,"
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission have issued a joint report identifying areas where the agencies’ regulatory schemes differ and recommending actions to address those differences, where appropriate.
In June, the White House released a white paper on financial regulatory reform calling on the CFTC and SEC to “make recommendations to Congress for changes to statutes and regulations that would harmonize regulation of futures and securities.”
The report includes 20 recommendations to enhance enforcement powers, strengthen market and intermediary oversight and improve operational coordination.
“In this report, our agencies rose above the usual challenges and
Emerging markets registered a decline in both new capital commitments and private equity investment activity during the first six months of 2009, but captured a larger share of global private equity activity than ever before.
A total of 84 emerging market funds raised USD16 billion through June, down 55% from a half-year high of USD36 billion raised by 132 funds in 2008 and a departure from the record-breaking USD66.5 billion raised in 2008, according to new research from the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association (EMPEA). Mid-year investment totals fell by 52% relative to the same period in 2008, with
Following an uptick in the second quarter, investments in US venture-backed companies have stalled in the third quarter, putting 2009 on track to be the worst investment year since 2003, according to new data from industry tracker Dow Jones VentureSource.
Venture capitalists invested USD5.1 billion in 616 deals in the third quarter of 2009, down 6% from the USD5.4 billion put into 595 deals during the second quarter of this year.
This quarter’s total is down 38% from the USD8.2 billion invested in 663 deals during the third quarter of 2008.
"The slow recovery we’ve seen for venture capital has
Investment firms NDF Administration and Defined Returns Limited, which marketed products backed by the ill-fated Lehman Brothers, were placed into administration last week. NDFA and DRL specialise in structured products for the retail market, with concerns being raised by the UK’s FSA about the adequacy of their marketing literature for investors.
Andrew Wilkins (pictured), Executive Director of Catalyst Investment Group, which specialises in the design and distribution of investments backed by alternative assets, in particular life settlements, comments: "Lehmans has cast a long shadow over the sector and there will be lingering concern in the market that NDFA is the
Kleinwort Benson’s future is secure after RHJ International (RHJI) agreed to acquire the UK and Channel Islands private bank and wealth management group from Commerzbank AG, in a cash deal worth GBP225m.
Robert Taylor, CEO of Kleinwort Benson has welcomed the conclusion of the sale process and is delighted that the historic brand is ‘here to stay’.
“From the very outset of this process, the Kleinwort Benson management team sought to identify a parent committed to the private banking and wealth management arena for the longer term, so we were delighted in the potential RHJI saw for further growth in
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