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MANAGER INSIGHTS
Randy Schwimmer, who heads up senior lending origination and capital markets at Nuveen affiliate Churchill Asset Management, outlines how he experienced the lending market throughout the global Covid-19 crisis and how it keeps evolving in 2021.
NEWS
Business-to-business social media marketing platform Oktopost has secured a USD20 million minority investment from London-based growth equity firm Expedition Growth Capital.
Oktopost plans to use the fresh capital to advance its product roadmap focused on B2B needs, improve its customer success function, accelerate marketing and sales, and explore strategic acquisitions. The company’s team is spread across Tel Aviv, London and Atlanta and plans to grow its workforce by 50 percent in the second half of 2021.
Oktopost provides an enterprise grade cloud platform built on a single code base, where B2B marketers can curate content, organise, and manage campaigns for
GUEST ARTICLE
By Elizabeth Weymouth (pictured), Founder and Managing Partner, Grafine Partners – There’s a quiet revolution happening among sophisticated institutional investors and large pools of capital that could eventually up-end one corner of the private equity universe. A growing number of LPs are starting to turn away from allocating to the largest managers and towards experienced dealmakers who are starting their own shops – many of whom are spin-outs from the giant firms.
NEWS
Bridgepoint has seen its share price rise to 440 pence on the London Stock Exchange today (21 July), a 26 per cent increase on the 350 pence per share set for its IPO, during Wednesday morning trading.
Based on the offer price, Bridgepoint’s total market capitalisation at the start of dealings on the main market of the London Stock Exchange was close to GBP2,881 million.
The private equity firm’s shares – whose investments include UK restaurant chain Itsu, Burger King’s France and UK branches and Wiggle – quickly rose 21 per cent during early trading hours and have continued
DEALS
Although private equity deal activity slowed down a bit in Q2 from the first quarter of 2021, the speed at which PE deals closed continued, leading to a massive uptick in deal value, according to Pitchbook’s latest European PE Breakdown report.
In the second quarter of 2021, around 1,800 deals closed at a total value of EUR169.6 billion, the report showed – which represents a year-on-year increase of 161.2 per cent and 137.3 per cent, respectively. This constitutes Europe’s second-highest quarterly numbers so far, driven by activity in the core middle market.
The lockdown of economies around the world reshaped
PODCAST
In this podcast, Private Equity Wire speaks to Randy Schwimmer (pictured), head of senior lending origination and capital markets at Churchill Asset Management, about capital markets, deal trends and the current private equity middle-market lending environment.
DEALS
DCVC and Temasek have led a USD430 million Series D funding into Pivot Bio, a nitrogen innovator in agriculture, bringing its total equity raised to more than USD600 million.
The capital will drive the company’s release of products focused on replacing the USD60 billion of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer sold each year to sustain corn, wheat, and rice.
Pivot Bio’s next stage of growth will focus on scaling its US business and expanding internationally. “Pivot Bio exemplifies the power of DeepTech solutions to create equitable and profitable outcomes for all stakeholders in immense industries like agriculture,” said Matt Ocko, co-managing partner
INFRASTUCTURE
US Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (pictured) announced on Thursday that a procedural floor vote in the Senate on President Biden’s USD1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill will take place next Wednesday. As Democrats are also asked to back a larger USD3.5 trillion budget blueprint, what will the much-debated upcoming US infrastructure bill – of which nearly USD600 billion would be new spending – mean for PE infrastructure mandates in the country?
“The most exciting thing happening now is that the state and federal policy is transitioning from supporting clean electrons to comprehensive zero emission targets,” Adam Bernstein, Boston-based partner at
NEWS
Sweden-based investment firm EQT’s infrastructure division has agreed to acquire Covanta Holding Corporation, whose business focuses on sustainable waste processing and advancing transitions to a circular economy in North America.
Events
12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
PRIVATE DEBT
Consultants see continued drive towards ‘alternative’ private debt, including regulatory capital and direct lending strategies
PRIVATE DEBT
Consultants see continued drive towards ‘alternative’ private debt, including regulatory capital and direct lending strategies