Historically home to one of Europe’s most buoyant venture capital communities, the Nordic region is now facing the same shortage of funding as elsewhere on the Continent as limited partners rein in their commitments.
When the Hamburg and Munich-based venture capital manager Earlybird missed the fundraising target on its latest fund in August, it seemed to speak volumes about investors’ scepticism towards venture capital in Germany.
Close Brothers Private Equity has sold BWA Water Additives, a chemicals company based in the UK and the US, to United International Bank, a Bahrain-headquartered investment bank. The sale has generated a return of 3.5x from Close Brothers, which backed an MBO of BWA from Chemtura in May 2006, supporting chairman and CEO Dr David […]
French buyouts firm AXA Private Equity has made a partial exit of Saur Group, a water and waste management provider for local authorities, through an agreement with CUBE Infrastructure, an investment fund belonging to the Natixis Group. AXA is selling a 3% stake for an undisclosed sum. The deal also sees fellow shareholder Caisse des […]
Despite a dearth of debt available for leveraged buyouts, expansion capital abounds, but is still misunderstood by many SMEs. Scott Collins, managing director Summit Partners, makes the case for growth equity.
The $33 billion Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System, finding itself 3 percentage points above its target allocation, has re-upped with three general partners. However, it slightly scaled back the level of its commitments. The pension fund is committing up to $50 million to First Reserve Fund XII LP; up to $20 million to Morgenthaler Venture […]
The $154.5 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund disclosed commitments totaling $310 million in July, including $250 million to a buyout fund and $10 million to an emerging mezzanine manager. The limited partner re-upped with Lindsay Goldberg LLC, more than doubling its $100 million pledge to the firm’s previous vehicle by committing $250 million […]
The $16 billion San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System approved a commitment of $30 million in mid-August to TowerBrook Investors III LP, marking its first commitment to the buyer of mid-sized and large companies in Europe and North America. It’s unclear how the predecessor fund performed, but the one before that hit a home run. Towerbrook […]
The Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System embarked on a new relationship in mid-August when it committed up to €150 million ($221 million) to Nordic Capital Fund VII LP, earmarked for Scandinavian-based companies. Stockholm-based Nordic Capital seeks €3.7 billion for Fund VII, with a hard cap of €4.3 billion. As of March 2008, the firm […]
UK VC Oxford Capital has sold human resource software specialist Infobasis to US peer Salary.com for approximately £2.7m. Based in Abingdon in Oxfordshire, Infobasis was set-up in 2001 and provides online training and performance measurement software for employers. Among its clients are Microsoft, Norwich Union, Safeway and the NHS. The business will now become the […]