Brad Meikle

Amadeus Capital Partners has rounded up GBP20 million (ecu 30 million) from four major international investors in what must surely be one of the fastest closings yet seen for a first-time fund. Only a month elapsed between the issue of the memorandum and the first closing. Microsoft, which emerged as a cornerstone investor for Amadeus […]

SPEF, the merchant banking subsidiary of Groupe Banque Populaires, which has a 30% share of the French SME banking market, has launched a pre-IPO fund to capitalise on the leading market position and on SPEF’s close connections with Easdaq and specialist investment bank Quartz Capital Partners. The SPEF Pre-IPO European Fund held a first closing […]

HEP Investors Inc. is targeting $60 million (ecu 54 million) for a fund for private Hungarian businesses. By November, Hungarian Equity Partners (HEP) had rounded up $30 million. The fund, launched in October, has raised $8.5 million from the EBRD, $12 million from Private Equity Holding, a Vontobel group fund-of-funds, and $9.5 million from the […]

Croatia’s first private sector venture capital fund has been launched as the country embarks on a programme of rapid economic reconstruction. The Adriatic CCP Fund, which will invest both in existing private sector SMEs and in privatisations, is a joint venture between the EBRD, Zagrebacka Banka, one of Croatia’s leading commercial banks, CCP Capital and […]

The European Investment Bank (EIB), over the next three years will channel ecu 125 million from its annual surpluses into venture funds investing in early-stage technology companies in Europe. Dubbed the European Technology Facility, this initiative forms part of the EIB’s special growth and employment action programme. At its launch, which coincided with the European […]

The recent publication of a Centre for Management Buyout Research (CMBOR) study is timely in view of the number of UK private equity houses that have stepped up their activity in Continental European markets and the re-emergence of a strong US presence in both the UK and Continental Europe during the last year or so. […]

Advent International, which set an initial target of $625 million for its most recent international vehicle, Global Private Equity III (GPE III), is closing the fund on $1 billion (ecu 898 million). Director Will Schmidt said the $950 million cap set at the first closing was revised upwards “to accommodate additional interest from three or […]

Electra Fleming, which over the last two years has made a concentrated effort to expand its investment business into the major Continental markets, is now looking further afield in its bid for greater geographical diversification. The latest market to catch the group’s attention is Brazil, the world’s eighth largest economy, where it has joined forces […]

As most of its peers look towards Continental Europe, Murray Johnstone Private Equity (MJPE) has opted instead to take the less trodden path into Asian markets. Murray Johnstone, which already has a well-established group office in Singapore has joined forces with GK Goh Holdings, one of the largest stockbrokers in South East Asia, and BancBoston […]

The Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC), under its Commonwealth Private Investment Initiative (CPII) programme, has launched a fund which is aiming to raise $200 million for investment in South Asia. At its first closing in late Autumn, the South Asia Regional Fund, the third vehicle established under the CPII umbrella, had raised $119.5 million (ecu 107 […]