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Environmental consultancy and service provider Cura Terrae has made a second bolt-on acquisition since UK mid-market private equity investor Palatine made an investment in the group earlier this year.
Ecus, one of three businesses within the Cura Terrae group, has acquired niche environmental consultancy Naturally Wild, which provides expertise for any project that may affect protected species.
Naturally Wild is based in Stockton-on-Tees and will work alongside Ecus’s existing teams in Sheffield, Basingstoke, Birmingham, Barnard Castle, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Exeter, and Manchester.
The deal grows Ecus’s team nationally to around 180 people.
Private equity collateralised fund obligations (PE CFOs) rated by Fitch Ratings have exhibited weaker performance over the last six months, with five of six transactions generating lower cash flows than in the prior period.
In three of the transactions meanwhile, leverage increased from the prior distribution period.
Private equity market exit activity in H1 2022 dropped to its lowest level since H1 2020. Nevertheless, Fitch expects that PE CFO ratings will remain broadly stable in 2023, as strong over-collateralisation levels, continued portfolio distributions and transaction amortisation schedules support performance.
Two PE CFO transactions came to market in 2022 – Astrea
Better Protection, a new commercial fire protection provider servicing fire detection, alarm and suppression systems, backed by private equity firm Abry Partners, has launched following the combination of Chicago-based Assurant Fire Protection, Complete Fire Pump Service, and Xtreme Fire Protection.
Abry is partnering with management to support the company’s organic growth initiatives, and to execute its targeted acquisition strategy.
Matt Palas founded Assurant Fire Protection (AFP) in 2017, and acquired Complete Fire Pump Services (CFPS) in 2020. Palas will continue to be a part of the management team of Better Protection. Xtreme Fire Protection was started in 2008 by
Private equity managers face a number of challenges relating to data – namely issues around aggregation, analysis, security and delivery. Smart deployment of technology solutions can help alleviate these pressures.
“Having access to time-saving and risk-reducing technology will continue to play an important role in the success of PE managers,” says Jill Calton, executive director of Alternative Investments at UMB Fund Services, Inc., “The most relevant services and solutions include onboarding investors, clearing regulatory hurdles related to AML efficiently and effectively, maintaining data in a secure and standardised format, and the ability to utilise that data for analytics and reporting.”
PE
Abingworth, an international life sciences investment group and part of global investment firm Carlyle, has appointed Joy Ghosh, PhD as managing director.
Ghosh will be based at the firm’s Boston office and will work with the transatlantic team to identify new investment opportunities and support existing investments in innovative private and public companies, including those focused on clinical co-development.
Ghosh has over 15 years’ experience in life science investing and portfolio company management and in corporate strategy and drug development. He joins from Eventide Asset Management where he was portfolio manager responsible for a portfolio of innovation-focused public and private
Pappas Capital, a global venture capital and commercial development firm, has appointed Richard Staub as Venture Partner. Staub currently serves as senior advisor to the Chairman and CEO of IQVIA, supporting several areas of the business, including strategic M&A, customer management and governance, leadership development, and business development.
He also serves as an advisor to the President of IQVIA’s Research & Development Solutions (R&D Solutions) global business unit, and other IQVIA leaders. He previously served as President of IQVIA’s R&D Solutions business unit, the world’s largest clinical research organization.
Prior to IQVIA, Staub was President and CEO of Novella Clinical, a
Private equity giant KKR & Co Inc has revealed plans to acquire Japanese drug developer Bushu Pharmaceuticals from BPEA EQT, a Hong Kong-based private equity firm, according to a report by Reuters.
Park Square Capital, and Goldman Sachs Asset Management, have received a binding offer from the Wienerberger Group AG (Wienerberger) for the acquisition of certain core businesses of pan-European roofing specialist the Terreal Group.
Middle-market private equity firm Wynnchurch Capital has acquired a majority ownership stake in Industrial Service Solutions from Edgewater Funds and JZ Capital Partners.
Kester Capital, a UK lower mid-market private equity specialist, has acquired a majority stake in DC Byte, a global market intelligence and analytics provider for data centre operators, developers, investors, advisers and suppliers.
The investment represents Kester’s third investment in the information & data sector, and the fifth investment from of its latest fund, Kester Capital II, which closed at its hard cap in 2020. The DC Byte investment follows two recent exits: Vixio, a high growth provider of data and information services generating a 4.8x return for Kester; and, Avania, the leading global medical technology CRO for 8.4x.
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