Latest News
Silverfleet Capital, the European mid-market private equity house, has increased the size of its investment team in Paris with the appointment of Frédéric Chiche as an executive.
Chiche joins the team from Providence Equity Partners where he worked as a senior associate, based in their London office.
Prior to Providence Equity, he worked in M&A at Morgan Stanley and Rothschild & Cie, both in Paris.
Neil MacDougall, managing partner, says: “Frédéric’s appointment underlines the importance to Silverfleet Capital of mid-sized buyouts in France. We are very pleased with the strong performance of our French portfolio company Histoire d’Or and
Octopus Ventures, an investor in early-stage and expanding companies, has invested GBP1.355m into GetOptics.
This investment facilitates the acquisition of GetLenses and PostOptics, creating GetOptics.
The combination of the two companies under the new brand GetOptics creates the UK’s largest online contact lens and eye care product business. The newly combined company has over 100,000 existing customers, pro forma sales of GBP6m and a white label online contact lens contract with one of the UK’s largest retailers. The company has projected growth of 33 per cent for the year following completion.
The UK eye care market is worth
The hedge fund and private equity industries contribute EUR9bn (GBP7.9bn) in tax revenues to European Union governments, according to a survey by independent think tank Open Europe.
Open Europe said the EUR9b tax contribution would be enough to fund the EU’s entire overseas aid budget for 12 years. The tax contribution also matches the value of the EU’s Cohesion and Aid Programmes for Poland and is just short of the subsidy that France receives each year under the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, according to Open Europe.
“Alternative investment fund managers provide investments and create growth, jobs and more efficient markets
London West End-based agency broker Hoare Capital is expanding its credit, ABS and inflation teams as it gears up into quarter three.
Among those joining is Richard Gathercole, who will head the corporate credit sales team concentrating on high yield and distressed debt. Gathercole has 27 years of experience and joins from the Bank of Scotland where he held a similar capital markets role.
Sergio Marques joins as a senior credit sales specialist for France and Iberia, after a sales role at Bank of America in London.
Mark Rogers has joined Hoare Capital as head of ABS sales. He has
Denver Investments, a USD7bn asset management firm, and GRT Capital Partners, a multi-strategy alternative investment firm, have formed Denver Alternatives.
As the new alternative asset division of Denver Investments, Denver Alternatives will serve pension funds, endowments, family offices and other institutional investors.
"The two ingredients for success in the alternatives space are talent and discipline," says Todger Anderson (pictured), chairman of Denver Investments. "GRT’s strategies are managed by professionals with decades of experience at leading institutions and strong historical track records – all backed by excellent research. This relationship allows the firm’s current investment teams to stay 100 per cent
A group of investors in Wind Hellas Telecommunications’ subordinated notes have formally organised a bondholder committee representing the interests of investors holding approximately EUR500m of debt in both the EUR and USD tranches.
The committee has gained significant traction in recent days as increasing numbers of investors with interests in the subordinated notes have identified themselves and have expressed an interest in participating in the group.
The committee has appointed advisers, including Jones Day and PWC, and is being co-ordinated by Michael Hodges of Aladdin Capital Management UK.
The committee intends to discuss with Wind Hellas and its appointed adviser
The UK business failure rate has fallen to its lowest level since September 2008, according to figures from Experian, an information services company.
The business failure rate had been on an upward trend since 2007. However, Experian’s new monthly Insolvency and Distress Index, shows that 0.09 per cent of UK businesses failed during August this year, a slight increase on the 0.08 per cent recorded in August 2008, but significantly lower than the 0.11 per cent recorded in July and the lowest rate so far this year.
The total number of business insolvencies during August 2009 increased by 11.3
Voyager Capital, a West Coast venture capital firm, has appointed Bruce Chizen, former chief executive of Adobe Systems, as a venture partner.
Previously serving on Voyager’s advisory board, Chizen (pictured) is expanding his role to bring his strategic insight and leadership experience to technology entrepreneurs offering innovative solutions in digital media and software.
"Bruce possesses a rare combination of valuable market insight and senior business experience," says Bill McAleer, managing director at Voyager Capital. "His strong industry reputation, connections and background in digital media and software will benefit our ventures as new applications and services redefine how businesses and consumers
Rutland Partners, a UK private equity partnership, has completed the acquisition of the CeDo group of companies from Delton for GBP52.2m.
The transaction was announced on 29 July 2009 and was conditional on merger control clearances which have now been received.
CeDo is a manufacturer of household disposables, manufacturing both own-label and proprietary products such as refuse sacks, bin liners and other speciality kitchen and household disposable products including nappy sacks, cling film and aluminium foil. It holds strong supply relationships with the majority of Europe’s largest supermarkets and discounters.
The business has a strong focus on the UK, German,
Private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts has increased its investment in Aricent, following the completion of an agreement between KKR and CPP Investment Board with Flextronics to purchase certain securities.
The transaction, valued at USD255m, closed on 16 September 2009.
“We are pleased to invest further in a company that has just reported its highest annual revenue in its history and continues to grow its customer base. This investment reflects our belief in management and the company as they continue to grow Aricent at this very important time in the communications industry,” says Sanjay Nayar, chief executive of KKR India.
Special Reports
Featured
Events
12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
