Monthly Archives: December 2017

Almi Invest sells software company input port to Addnode Group

Almi Invest

Almi Invest makes an exit and sell its stake in software company input port to Addnode Group, together with the other owners. Inport develop logistical solutions for ports, terminals and shipping companies. The company is the leading supplier in its market segment with sales of about 25 million.

Inport headquartered in Karlstad has expanded greatly in recent years and the customer list has grown to include important logistics hubs such as Copenhagen and Stavanger. The company has its own software suite PORTIT used by more than 90% of the Swedish port companies. Through the development of digital services has hmarknadspositionen strengthened.

– Almi Invest invested in 2014 and has, through active Board work contributed to a change in strategy with increased digitization of InPort services, says Ulf Green, Fund Manager at Almi Invest. This has resulted in increased competitiveness and strong growth. The success is largely due to the staff and management of the company as well as to develop services in close cooperation with customers. With multiple sales multiple on invested capital will free up risk capital for further investments in early growth.

– Our ports play a socially critical role in view of its importance for modern sustainable logistics chains and the proper functioning import and export business. With input port on board strengthens Addnode Group’s position as the leading provider of software solutions for sustainable cities and communities, says Andreas Wikholm, head of Addnode Group Process Management.

– It feels great to pass the torch to the Addnode Group, says Ulf Green. It is an experienced and qualified buyers who means stability and increased resources for InPort customers.

Addnode Group acquires, operates and develops the entrepreneurial company that provides software and services to markets in which Addnode Group has, or can take a leading position. Addnode Group is listed on the Nasdaq Stockholm.

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GSO to Launch New Direct Lending Business; Announces Transition Plan for FS Investments Funds

Blackstone

New York, December 11, 2017 – GSO Capital Partners LP (together with its credit-focused affiliates “GSO”), Blackstone’s (NYSE: BX) credit platform, today announced that it will launch a new, fully integrated, internal direct lending business – combining the firm’s superior origination and investment capabilities in this area with its industry-leading institutional and retail distribution channels.

Bennett Goodman, Co-Founder of GSO Capital Partners and Senior Managing Director of Blackstone, said: “Given the evolution of our firm, moving ahead independently to control our own destiny in this area was the right decision for our business. Bringing together our direct lending investment expertise with our strong institutional and growing retail distribution capabilities represents an extremely powerful combination. Our shareholders will also now receive a much larger share of the value we create through managing these types of portfolios.”

Concurrently, GSO will be concluding its investment sub-advisory relationship with FS Investments’ funds (the “FS Funds”) effective April 9, 2018. During the interim, GSO will continue to provide investment services to the FS Funds and help ensure a smooth transition. In consideration of such services and GSO’s partnership with FS Investments in the FS Funds’ business over the last decade, GSO will receive payments totaling $640 million from FS Investments, substantially all of which are expected to be paid in 2018. Blackstone anticipates utilizing those cash proceeds for the benefit of its shareholders and will provide additional details on those actions early next year.

The $640 million in cash proceeds represent approximately three years of revenues from the FS Funds.  In addition, GSO expects to begin its new direct lending business and generate additional revenue in 2018. GSO anticipates that its internal direct lending business will fully replace, and ultimately exceed, the current revenues and earnings to Blackstone shareholders from the FS Funds.

Goodman added: “We thank FS Investments for their partnership over the years and wish them the best going forward. We are proud of the investment performance and portfolio construction of the funds and are committed to working with FS to make sure there is a smooth transition.”

From the formation of the GSO and FS Investments partnership in 2008, the direct lending FS Funds have generated strong performance, exceeding substantially all of the relevant market benchmarks. For the FS Investment Corporation (FSIC) fund, the oldest fund in the complex, annualized net returns have been 12.4 percent since inception.


About Blackstone
Blackstone is one of the world’s leading investment firms. We seek to create positive economic impact and long-term value for our investors, the companies we invest in, and the communities in which we work. We do this by using extraordinary people and flexible capital to help companies solve problems. Our asset management businesses, with over $385 billion in assets under management, include investment vehicles focused on private equity, real estate, public debt and equity, non-investment grade credit, real assets and secondary funds, all on a global basis. Further information is available at www.blackstone.com. Follow Blackstone on Twitter @Blackstone.

Contact:
Matt Anderson
+1-212-390-2472
matthew.anderson@blackstone.com

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Henrik Blomquist leaves the board of directors of Lauritz.com Group A/S

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Bure

Henrik Blomquist has decided to resign from the board of directors of Lauritz.com Group A/S, effective immediately.

“I and two other board members have different views on how the company should be governed and managed, which caused us to make a decision today to leave the board effective immediately,” says Henrik Blomquist, CEO of Bure Equity AB.
Bure Equity AB (publ)
For more information contact:

Henrik Blomquist, CEO
Tel. +46 (0)8-614 00 20

Categories: People

EDF Invest announces an investment into real estate property Ecowest

EDF Invest

EDF Invest announces an investment into Ecowest, a real estate property located in Levallois-Perret mainly rented to the luxury division of L’Oréal. This brand new 59,000 sqm office building with 1,085 parking lots, delivered in June 2017, benefits from both « BREEAM » and « HQE exceptional » environmental certifications.

About EDF Invest

EDF Invest is the unlisted investment arm of EDF’s Dedicated Assets, the asset portfolio which covers its long-term nuclear decommissioning commitments in France. EDF Invest manages a portfolio of over €5bn equity investments through three asset classes: infrastructure, real estate and private equity.

 

Accueil

Categories: News

CapMan has established a MEUR 86 fund focusing on growth investments

CapMan has established a MEUR 86 growth investment fund that focuses on minority investments in unlisted companies with strong growth potential. The investors of the fund are, among others, successful entrepreneurs who want to support Finnish entrepreneurship in a new way. The investor demand for the fund has exceeded our expectations and the fund was clearly oversubscribed.

The successful fund raising demonstrates the investor appetite for active minority investments. CapMan Growth Equity team’s track record is strong, as demonstrated by strong value creation in eight portfolio companies and several successful exits. The newly established fund aims to invest MEUR 2-10 to the target company and develop it for 2-5 years together with the entrepreneur. Minority investing is a good option e.g. in a situation where there are ownership changes in the company or when the growth of the company can be accelerated by additional capital. Minority investing is targeted typically into companies that have passed the start-up phase.

In conjunction with the establishment of the fund CapMan sells its shares in six growth companies to the fund for MEUR 26.6 and makes a corresponding equity commitment into the fund. The sales price is based on the fair values of the investments and does not have a profit impact.

Juha Mikkola and Antti Kummu are two experienced private equity professionals who are responsible for the new fund’s investment activity. Mikkola has 25 years of experience in private equity. During his career he has helped to build dozens of successful companies. Kummu has extensive experience of both operative management and minority investments in growth stage and industrial companies. Kummu has previously acted as CFO of Touhula Varhaiskasvatus and as Director in Finnish Industry Investments.

“Minority investing is a new way to use external know-how to accelerate the growth of a company. We in the CapMan Growth Equity team closely co-operate with the entrepreneur and we also have support from a broad group of fund investors that possess unique know-how of developing and growing companies,” says CapMan Growth Equity team’s Managing Partner Juha Mikkola.

“Minority investing differs from traditional private equity investments as the entrepreneur maintains the majority ownership and decision-making power in the company, but still receives the know-how and financing from the investor that helps to grow the business further,” explains Antti Kummu, partner in CapMan Growth Equity team.

“I am very proud of our newly launched growth investment fund and of our Growth Equity team. We at CapMan create new products and investment strategies, which resonate with the market demand and meet the needs of our clientele in the best possible way,” says Joakim Frimodig, CEO of CapMan.

For further information, please contact:
Juha Mikkola, Managing Partner, Growth Equity, CapMan Plc, tel. +358 50 590 0522
Antti Kummu, Partner, Growth Equity, CapMan Plc, tel. +358 50 432 4486
Joakim Frimodig, CEO, CapMan Plc, tel. +358 50 529 0665 

CapMan
www.capman.com
twitter.com/CapManPE

CapMan is a leading Nordic investment and specialised asset management company. As one of the Nordic private equity pioneers we have actively developed hundreds of companies and real estate and thereby created substantial value in these businesses and assets over the last 28 years. CapMan has today 110 private equity professionals and manages €2.7 billion in assets. We mainly manage the assets of our customers, the investors, but also make direct investments from our own balance sheet in areas without an active fund. Our objective is to provide attractive returns and innovative solutions to investors and value adding services to professional investment partnerships, growth-oriented companies and tenants. Our current investment strategies cover Buyout, Growth Equity, Real Estate, Russia, Credit and Infrastructure. We also have a growing service business that currently includes fundraising advisory, procurement activities and fund management.   

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Dame Amelia Fawcett proposed to be elected Chairman of Kinnevik

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Kinnevik

Kinnevik AB (publ) (“Kinnevik”) today announced that its Nomination Committee will propose the election of Dame Amelia Fawcett as new Chairman of the Board at the Annual General Meeting 2018.

Dame Amelia Fawcett has been a Director of the Board of Kinnevik since 2011 and has served as Deputy Chairman since 2013. She succeeds Tom Boardman who has decided not to stand for re-election at the Annual General Meeting 2018.

Cristina Stenbeck, Chairman of the Nomination Committee, commented:

“I am delighted that Amelia has accepted to be nominated for the role as Chairman of Kinnevik. Since her election in 2011, Amelia has been an active member of the Board. She has contributed her experience from leading global companies across multiple industries, including financial services, media and telecommunications. She also has led for many years the work of Kinnevik and its investee companies on governance, risk, compliance and remuneration, as a Board member and Chairman of relevant Board committees. I look forward to working even closer with Amelia in her role as Chairman.”

Cristina Stenbeck continued:

“On behalf of the Board and the Nomination Committee, I would like to extend our deepest gratitude to Tom Boardman for his significant contribution during his seven years on the Board of Kinnevik and his leadership during his last two years as Chairman.”

Dame Amelia Fawcett has been a Director of the Board of Kinnevik since 2011 and was appointed Deputy Chairman in 2013. She is also Chairman of the Standards Board for Alternative Investments, a Board Director of State Street Corporation in Boston, USA and Chairman of its Risk Committee, and a member of the Board of the UK Treasury. Dame Amelia is Deputy Chairman and a Governor of the London Business School, Chairman of The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Foundation and a Trustee of Project Hope UK. She held managerial positions within Morgan Stanley during 1987-2006 and was Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer of its European operations during 2002-2006. She was a Board Director of the Guardian Media Group during 2007-2013, and Chairman during 2009-2013. In 2010 she was awarded a DBE (Dame Commander of the British Empire) by HM Queen Elizabeth II for services to the financial services industry. She has a Law Degree from University of Virginia, USA, and a BA in History from the Wellesley College in Massachusetts, USA.

The Nomination Committee’s complete proposals will be announced in the notice convening Kinnevik’s Annual General Meeting to be held on 21 May 2018. The Nomination Committee comprises Cristina Stenbeck appointed by Verdere S.à r.l., Wilhelm Klingspor appointed by the Klingspor family, Edvard von Horn appointed by the von Horn Family, James Anderson appointed by Baillie Gifford, and Ramsay Brufer appointed by Alecta.  The five shareholder representatives on the Nomination Committee jointly represent approximately 60 percent of the votes in Kinnevik.

This information is information that Kinnevik AB (publ) is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out below, at 12.00 CET on 8 December 2017.

For further information, visit www.kinnevik.com or contact:

Torun Litzén, Director Investor Relations
Phone +46 (0)70 762 00 50
Email press@kinnevik.com

Kinnevik is an industry focused investment company with an entrepreneurial spirit. Our purpose is to build the digital consumer businesses that provide more and better choice. We do this by working in partnership with talented founders and management teams to create, invest in and lead fast growing businesses in developed and emerging markets. We believe in delivering both shareholder and social value by building well governed companies that contribute positively to society. Kinnevik was founded in 1936 by the Stenbeck, Klingspor and von Horn families. Kinnevik’s shares are listed on Nasdaq Stockholm’s list for large cap companies under the ticker codes KINV A and KINV B.

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Arachas makes second acquisition since being backed by Sovereign

Sovereign Capital

Sovereign Capital, the UK private equity Buy & Build specialist, is pleased to announce that portfolio company Arachas Corporate Brokers (“Arachas”), a leading insurance brokerage operating in Ireland, has acquired Kidd Insurances (“Kidd”). This is the second acquisition Arachas has made since Sovereign backed the management buy-out of the business earlier this year and makes the group the third largest commercial insurance broker in Ireland. Sovereign will continue to work with the management team to further grow and develop the business through a strategy of Buy & Build. The transaction is subject to approval from the Central Bank of Ireland.

Kidd Insurances is one of Ireland’s longest established Insurance brokers serving both the retail customer and broker community with its specialist affinity insurance product range. The transaction closely follows Arachas’ acquisition of Capital Cover Group. The combined group will employ approaching 230 staff across its offices in Dublin, Cork and Waterford.

Neil Cox, Partner, Sovereign Capital commented: “We are delighted to have supported Arachas’ acquisition of Kidd which is a high quality, long established operator.  The transaction both develops the Group’s product offering and further consolidates its position in the Irish market. We look forward to working with the management team to further expand the Group.”

Donal Cronin, CEO of Arachas said: “We are delighted to have acquired Kidd. They mirror our philosophy of providing the very best in customer service and focus on niche Insurance solutions with their unique product range. In partnership with Sovereign, we will continue to develop the business through strong organic growth and further acquisitions of like-minded brokers.”

Other portfolio investments held by Sovereign in the financial services and insurance sectors include Kindertons, the nationwide provider of outsourced accident management services for motor insurers and insurance brokers. Since being backed by Sovereign, Kindertons’ revenue has tripled to over £150m.

For further information please contact: Julie Sieger, Sovereign Capital, on +44 (0)20 7340 8800 or email:juliesieger@sovereigncapital.co.uk

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Partners Group acquires 4 million square feet of US office space valued at over USD 1 billion

Partners Group

Partners Group, the global private markets investment manager, has acquired a total of 4 million square feet of office space in the US on behalf of its clients since the start of the year. This US office portfolio has a total acquisition value of over USD 1 billion.

In May, Partners Group acquired 100 Peachtree, a 33-story and over 622,000 square foot office tower located in Atlanta, Georgia. In June, the firm acquired Burns and McDonnell Plaza, a Class A office building in Houston, Texas, while in October, it acquired Island Center and Waterford Plaza, two Class A office buildings in Tampa, Florida. Most recently, Partners Group completed its acquisition of a 26-story, 403,000 square foot office tower located in Buckhead, Atlanta’s leading office submarket.

In addition, Partners Group recently completed the acquisition of a 2.2 million square foot portfolio of Class A office properties located in select suburban markets in Dallas, Chicago, Washington D.C., Austin and Boston via a tail-end liquidity transaction.

Partners Group will draw on its long track record of experience in real estate asset management to execute value-added business plans for the acquired properties in conjunction with local operating partners. Value creation initiatives will vary but will typically include increasing the buildings’ occupancy to market levels, renewing leases and upgrading amenities and common areas to meet the changing demand of current and future tenants.

Ron Lamontagne, Managing Director and Head of Private Real Estate Americas at Partners Group, comments: “In the US, our sourcing efforts in the office sector have been concentrated on finding properties in secondary CBD markets that are benefitting from corporate relocations, job growth and associated infrastructure improvements. These investments are in line with our over-arching strategy of acquiring high-quality assets in strong locations that could benefit from a repositioning, or other active property management and value creation initiatives to drive net operating income.”

Marc Weiss, Partner and Head of Private Real Estate Secondaries and Primaries at Partners Group, adds: “This substantial US office portfolio has been built by Partners Group’s ‘one team’ approach to real estate investing, which encourages dialogue between our direct, primary and secondary team members. Our approach emphasizes the importance of proprietary sourcing through our network of local asset owners, GPs and operators, in order to avoid the highly competitive auction processes that tend to characterize transactions in the core space and traditional secondaries market.”

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HTL-Strefa strengthens Board of Directors with Rick Cook

eqt

HTL-Strefa is a fast-growing global med-tech company and pioneer in the medical sharps’ industry. The company is going through an exciting phase – transforming its commercial profile and execution capabilities, which has led to higher demand from customers. In order to fulfill the increased demand and to support the implementation of new investments in production, Rick Cook, former Global Head of Operations at Becton Dickinson, will join HTL-Strefa’s Board of Directors.

EQT V portfolio company HTL-Strefa is a global leading provider of proprietary capillary blood sampling and hypodermic injection devices. Global demographic megatrends, such as a growing number of insulin users and increasing need for safe point-of-care blood tests, underpin a solid underlying market growth for years to come. During EQT’s ownership, HTL-Strefa has embarked on a transformation journey from being a local manufacturer to a fully-fledged international medical device player.

Since the appointment of CEO Mikkel Danvold in January 2017 and the strengthening of HTL-Strefa’s management team, the top-line growth and earnings trajectory have been reinvigorated. The improved performance is the result of changing the commercial approach ensuring that customers and end-users are at the center of all decision-making. This approach has already led to a large number of new customers, an ongoing repositioning in the value chain, as well as implementation of multiple initiatives to ensure state-of-the-art commercial excellence and product innovation.

To meet the increased demand from both existing and new customers, HTL-Strefa is scaling up its organization and production capacity significantly. To support management in the implementation of the new expansion projects, Rick Cook will join HTL-Strefa’s Board of Directors. Rick has more than 30 years of experience in manufacturing and operations for Intravenous solutions and medical devices at all levels, from floor supervision to global operations leadership.

“As former Global Head of Operations at Becton Dickinson, Rick has a long track-record from leading large-scale projects within production and operations in the med-tech industry. Rick brings impressive experience which will be highly valuable to HTL-Strefa’s ongoing transformation. Supporting Mikkel and his team in implementing excellence in quality, service and cost from operations will bring competitive differentiation and enhanced value for customers”, says Gerard Van Odijk, Chairman of the Board of Directors at HTL-Strefa.

“I am honored to be asked to serve on HTL-Strefa’s Board of Directors. I look forward to helping Mikkel and the Operations team build upon the existing strong foundation and create a manufacturing culture and capability that will serve global customers of HTL with excellence in the exciting years ahead”, says Rick Cook, new Board Member of HTL-Strefa.

With the new commercial agenda being implemented, HTL-Strefa is uniquely positioned to further accelerate execution on the many top-line growth initiatives. The plan includes among other things a rapid channel expansion and launch of numerous new innovative products with distinct end-user benefits.

During EQT’s ownership, HTL-Strefa’s revenues have been growing at high single-digit rates and EBITDA margins have increased. With accelerated investments in product innovation and the implementation of an enhanced commercial strategy, growth has improved further to solid double-digit rates and are expected to continue to rise.

 

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Blackstone Acquires a Majority Stake in Leading Data Classification Provider TITUS

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New York, New York, December 7, 2017 – Blackstone (NYSE: BX) today announced that funds managed by Blackstone Tactical Opportunities have acquired a majority share in TITUS, a leading provider of data classification and categorization solutions headquartered in Ottawa. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Viral Patel, Managing Director at Blackstone Tactical Opportunities, said: “We are excited to combine Blackstone’s flexible capital and experience with TITUS market-leading solutions to continue to transform data-centric security. With data breaches at an all-time high, each day brings another example of the importance of protecting information.”

“Digital transformation and the cloud mean information increasingly travels outside of the corporate perimeter, and information security must now be based around the data itself,” said James Socas, Blackstone Executive Advisor. “TITUS solutions are a critical component of data-centric protection.”

Titus

TITUS is a leading provider of data classification and categorization solutions, with millions of users in over 70 countries worldwide. Its platform-agnostic solutions enable organizations to bridge multiple data security solutions prevalent in most large organizations to ensure documents and files are protected. TITUS solutions empower and enable employees to understand the value of critical data and how it must be handled. This is particularly important as compliance regulations, such as GDPR and NIST, raise the bar on data protection standards. TITUS has over 950 enterprise customers, including 3 of the top 25 global financial institutions and government and military organizations in 5 of the G7 countries.

“Since our inception in 2005, we have focused on data-centric security working with leading organizations around the world,” said Tim Upton, CEO and co-founder of TITUS. “Partnering with Blackstone will allow us to expand our geographic reach and to accelerate our innovation strategy with the backing of one of the world’s leading investment firms.”

TITUS was founded in 2005 and was bootstrapped until this investment by Blackstone.

AGC Partners served as financial advisor and Gowlings WLG served as legal advisor to TITUS.  Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP served as legal advisor to Blackstone.


About Blackstone
Blackstone is one of the world’s leading investment firms. We seek to create positive economic impact and long-term value for our investors, the companies we invest in, and the communities in which we work. We do this by using extraordinary people and flexible capital to help companies solve problems. Our asset management businesses, with over $385 billion in assets under management, include investment vehicles focused on private equity, real estate, public debt and equity, non-investment grade credit, real assets and secondary funds, all on a global basis. Further information is available at www.blackstone.com. Follow Blackstone on Twitter @Blackstone.

About Tactical Opportunities
Tactical Opportunities (Tac Opps) is Blackstone’s opportunistic investment platform.  The Tac Opps team invests globally across asset classes, industries and geographies, seeking to identify and execute on attractive, differentiated investment opportunities.  As part of the strategy, the team leverages the intellectual capital across Blackstone’s various businesses while continuously optimizing its approach in the face of ever-changing market conditions.

About TITUS
TITUS solutions enable organizations to discover, classify, protect, analyze and confidently share information. Organizations can use TITUS products to meet regulatory compliance requirements by identifying and securing unstructured data – on the desktop, on mobile devices, and in the cloud. Millions of users in over 120 countries around the world trust TITUS to keep their data compliant and secure. Its customers include Safran Morpho, United States Air Force, NATO, Pratt and Whitney, and Canadian Department of National Defence. Additional information is available at TITUS.com.

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Blackstone:
Paula Chirhart
+1-212-583-5011
paula.chirhart@blackstone.com

TITUS:
Sheri Zelle
+ 1 613-857-1725
sheri.zelle@titus.com

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