Monthly Archives: October 2019

Altor and Stordalen new owners of Vinggruppen

Altor

Yesterday, the new ownership trio of the Ving Group was presented, it consists of Altor Fund V (Altor), Strawberry Group, controlled by Petter Stordalen and TDR Capital. The ownership group ensures a strong and long-term Nordic majority ownership of the Nordic business, consisting of 2,300 employees. Early Thursday morning, the deal could be formally closed, which means that, as of today, the new Nordic Leisure Travel Group, formed by the owners, owns Ving, Spies, Tjäreborg and the Nordic airline, which has now changed its name to Sunclass Airlines.

“It is a fantastic business that ended up in a very unfortunate situation. The Ving Group is the market leader in the holiday business, thanks to its own hotel concepts such as Sunwing and Sunprime and has also been the leaders in the transition to online bookings. Through a financial restructuring, we, as new owners, together with other financiers, have secured about SEK 6 billion in liquidity and guarantees. It secures jobs for employees and vacation trips to all customers and it creates a stable base for future development” says Harald Mix, partner at Altor.

“I am extremely pleased that Altor, Stordalen and TDR will be our new owners. It secures the business, all booked trips and our employees’ jobs. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the employees who have worked day and night over the past few weeks to keep our business alive and to all the guests and partners who have shown us fantastic support. Of course, I would also like to extend a big thank you to the new owners. I am incredibly proud and happy that we are here today and I am convinced that our new owners will bring fantastic opportunities for us in the future” says Magnus Wikner, CEO of the Ving Group in the Nordic region.

About Altor
Since inception, the family of Altor funds has raised some EUR 8.3 billion in total commitments. The funds have invested in more than 60 companies. The investments have been made in medium sized predominantly Nordic companies with the aim to create value through growth initiatives and operational improvements. Among current and past investments are Dustin, Byggmax, Navico, Infotheek, Orchid, Wrist Ship Supply, Sbanken, Rossignol, Helly Hansen, SATS and Carnegie Investment Bank. For more information visit www.altor.com.

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Mesa Labs Acquires Gyros Protein Technologies

LAKEWOOD, Colo., Oct. 31, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) —  Mesa Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:MLAB) (we, us, our, “Mesa” or the “Company”), a diversified supplier of quality control instruments and consumables to highly regulated markets today announced the acquisition of Gyros Protein Technologies Holding AB (“GPT”).  GPT is headquartered in Uppsala, Sweden and is a leading provider of Immunoassay and Peptide Synthesis solutions that accelerate the discovery, development and manufacturing of biotherapeutics.  The acquisition deepens our commitment to biopharmaceutical quality control and will be the core of our new platform, Biopharmaceutical Development.  We acquired GPT from AP6 (Sixth Swedish National Pension Fund), Ampersand Capital Partners and various individual shareholders.

The acquisition price for GPT consisted of cash consideration of $180 million, subject to purchase price adjustments.  The acquisition is expected to add between $37 million to $40 million of revenues during the first 12 months (of which approximately 55% is recurring in nature), deliver double digit organic revenues growth over the next several years and excluding the impact of purchase accounting, generate gross profit margin percentages in the mid to high 60’s.   Additionally, excluding the impact of purchase accounting and integration expenses, we expect adjusted operating income as a percentage of revenues to be in the mid-teens for the first 12 months.  Revenues for the remaining five months of FY20 are expected to be $13 million-$15 million.

“GPT brings an innovative approach to protein analytics in biopharmaceutical quality control and process development.  The Gyrolab immunoassay solution is a proven, microfluidic driven platform that increases repeatability and throughput while minimizing sample size and manual handling.  The company also provides a leading peptide synthesis platform delivering the highest quality peptides in particular, for the longer and more complicated sequences that are of vital interest to many applications, including that of therapeutic peptides and neoantigen therapies. We believe that The Mesa Way approach to continuous improvement will help the GPT team to continue to rapidly scale both commercially and operationally” said Gary Owens, President and Chief Executive Officer of Mesa.

Dan Calvo, President of GPT, added “We are proud of the track record we have improving the processes for developing biotherapeutics.  Superior technology backed by deep customer intimacy has been the foundation of our success and we felt the same spirit of innovation at Mesa.  We look forward to working with the Mesa team to expand the applications we deliver and deepening our level of customer support.”

Jefferies LLC acted as the exclusive financial advisor to GPT.

For more detail, reference the Mesa Acquisition of GPT presentation in the Investor Relations section of Mesa’s website at mesalabs.com.

About Mesa Laboratories, Inc.

Mesa is a global technology innovator committed to solving some of the most critical quality control challenges in the pharmaceutical, healthcare, industrial safety, environmental and food and beverage industries.  Mesa offers products and services through five divisions (Sterilization and Disinfection Control, Biopharmaceutical Development, Instruments, Cold Chain Monitoring and Cold Chain Packaging) to help our customers ensure product integrity, increase patient and worker safety, and improve quality of life throughout the world.

Non-GAAP Financial Measure In this release, we refer to non-GAAP financial measure adjusted operating income (“AOI”) which is defined to exclude the non-cash impact of amortization of intangible assets, stock-based compensation expense, and impairment loss on goodwill and long-lived assets. We are unable to provide a reconciliation of forward-looking AOI because components of the calculation are inherently unpredictable and currently unknown.

Forward Looking Statements This press release may contain information that constitutes “forward-looking statements.” Generally, the words “believe,” “estimate,” “intend,” “expect,” “project,” “anticipate,” “will” and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements, which generally are not historical in nature. However, the absence of these words or similar expressions does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. All statements that address operating performance, events or developments that we expect or anticipate will occur in the future — including statements relating to revenues growth and statements expressing general views about future operating results — are forward-looking statements. In addition, forward-looking statements include statements in connection with the ability to successfully integrate the businesses, risks related to disruption of management time from ongoing business operations due to the acquisition of GPT, the risk that any announcements relating to the transaction could have adverse effects on the market price of Mesa Labs’ securities, the risk of any unexpected costs or expenses resulting from the transaction, the risk of any litigation relating to the transaction, the risk that the transaction and its announcement could have an adverse effect on the ability of Mesa Labs and GPT to retain customers and retain and hire key personnel and maintain relationships with their suppliers and customers and on their operating results and businesses generally, the risk that the combined company may not operate as effectively and efficiently as expected, the risk that the combined company may be unable to achieve synergies or other anticipated benefits of the transaction or that it may take longer than expected to achieve those synergies or benefits and other important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected.   Management believes that these forward-looking statements are reasonable as and when made. However, caution should be taken not to place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements because such statements speak only as of the date when made. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. In addition, forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our historical experience and present expectations or projections. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended March 31, 2019, and those described from time to time in our subsequent reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

For more information about the Company, please visit its website at mesalabs.com

CONTACT:
Gary Owens.; President and CEO, or
John Sakys; CFO, both of Mesa Laboratories, Inc.,
+1-303-987-8000

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CapMan Infra and Telia Company to accelerate roll-out of fibre networks in Finland

CapMan Infra press release
31 October 2019 at 09.00 a.m. EET

CapMan Infra and Telia Company to accelerate roll-out of fibre networks in Finland

CapMan Infra has agreed on a majority investment in a joint venture to be established with Telia Company to invest into and deploy fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) infrastructure in Finland. The joint venture will acquire Telia Finland’s existing Avoin Kuitu fibre assets and will be one of the largest FTTH network owners and operators in Finland.

One of the key goals in the Finnish Government Programme 2019 is promoting the construction of more extensive optical fibre networks throughout Finland to enable better digital infrastructure and fast broadband access across the country. Achieving this goal requires substantial investments and a reliable operator specialising in the fibre market. CapMan Infra and Telia are rising to the challenge by establishing a joint venture to accelerate the roll-out of fibre infrastructure. The joint venture will take over Telia Finland’s Avoin Kuitu existing FTTH business and increase the pace of investments to make fibre available across Finland. The business currently builds and operates fibre assets primarily in Finnish growth centres and surrounding areas, serving around 12 municipalities.

“Reliable and fast network connections are a core foundation for modern society. They improve quality of life by enabling living and working across the country. The efficient implementation of large investment projects is at the core of our team’s expertise, and the new ownership model with Telia allows us to make long-term commitments to roll-out fibre networks across Finland. We are delighted to work with a market-leading operator to establish a stand-alone open access fibre provider,” comments Harri Halonen, Partner at CapMan Infra.

Global trends and consumption patterns are increasingly driving the need for fast and reliable data connections. Video-on-demand, online gaming and the increasing number of connected devices require fast and reliable network connections, which 4G or even 5G networks are unable to guarantee in the long-term, given the exponential increase in the amount of data being transferred.

“I’m really happy that we have come to this agreement with CapMan Infra which fits very well with Telia Company’s strategy of having superior network connectivity while adding to our commercial success through convergence and great customer experience. The network roll-out will play an important role for Finland to maintain its position at the very forefront of digitalization. This new type of structure with a partnership ties well with our ambition of disciplined allocation where we, case by case and market by market, seek a good balance between the risk and reward and potential future technology shifts as well as short versus long-term thinking,” says Stein-Erik Vellan, Senior Vice President, Head of Telia Finland.

The transaction is expected to close in the beginning of 2020 with completion conditional on customary approvals from competition authorities.

CapMan Infra’s investment focus is core and core+ infrastructure assets in the energy, transportation and telecom sectors in the Nordics. CapMan Infra held the first close on its midcap Nordic infrastructure fund in October 2018, and the fund invested in the Norwegian ferry operator Norled earlier this year. The CapMan Infra team comprises 7 investment professionals and operates from Helsinki and Stockholm with a total of 70 years of sector experience. The team has also completed investments on a mandate basis in Nordic infrastructure opportunities.

For further information, please contact:
Harri Halonen, Partner, CapMan Infra, tel. +46 768 71 0062

About CapMan
CapMan is a leading Nordic private asset expert with an active approach to value creation. We offer a wide selection of investment products and services. As one of the Nordic private equity pioneers, we have developed hundreds of companies and real estate assets and created substantial value in these businesses and assets over the past 30 years. With over €3 billion in assets under management, our objective is to provide attractive returns and innovative solutions to investors. We have a broad presence in the unlisted market through our local and specialised teams. Our investment strategies cover Private Equity, Real Estate and Infra. We also have a growing service business that includes procurement services, fundraising advisory, and analysis, reporting and wealth management services. Altogether, CapMan employs 140 people in Helsinki, Stockholm, Copenhagen, London, Moscow and Luxembourg. www.capman.com

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Livingstone Technologies agrees to acquire Cloud Optics

Carlyle

Livingstone Technologies agrees to acquire Cloud Optics as part of its continued investment in the Software Lifecycle Management Space

London UK, October 31, 2019 – Livingstone Technologies supported by global investment firm The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) today announces that it has agreed to acquire Cloud Optics as it continues to invest in the Software Lifecycle Management market.

Equity for the investment will come from Carlyle Europe Technology Partners III (“Carlyle”) and reinvestment from the founders and Livingstone Management. Financial terms of the transaction are not disclosed.

Cloud Optics is a leading independent consultancy, providing cloud and software license and consulting services across mega-vendors including Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, SAP and Salesforce.

Cloud Optics’ lifecycle services align perfectly to those already provided by the Livingstone Group, which support global organisations in the public and private sector to procure and govern their IT estate effectively, based on trustworthy data and asset intelligence.  Cloud Optics’ best in class commercial and contractual solutions strengthen the group’s portfolio of services, allowing it to help clients to optimise their software and cloud estates and align them to their actual requirements.

This strategic acquisition will enable Livingstone to assess a client’s current and future software needs to produce an optimal Bill of Material.  It will then support clients through vendor negotiations with benchmarking support services, allowing clients to optimise their licensing, product and contract positions.

This investment represents the fourth significant investment that Carlyle has made in the Software Asset Management (SAM) sector in the last eighteen months, with the previous acquisitions of Livingstone Technologies (UK) enabling the further acquisitions of Siwel (USA) and more recently Derive Logic (UK).

Trevor Rolls, Chairman, Livingstone Group, said: “Livingstone Group will now be able to offer a comprehensive range of services that provides real value and tangible outcomes to our global clients, through the provision of trustworthy data and the intelligence that keeps them compliant. The acquisition of Cloud Optics enables us to deliver the best commercial outcomes from their cloud & software vendors, through our negotiation support services.  These are truly exciting times for our business and our clients around the world.”

Harmeet Assi, Chief Executive Officer, Cloud Optics said: “We are delighted to be joining the Livingstone Group, with our combined skill sets and portfolio we will have much greater breadth, depth and reach to deliver best in class end to end outcomes for our Clients. Our combined services are hugely complimentary and as a team we are very excited to join the Livingstone family.”

Fernando Chueca, Managing Director, Carlyle Europe Technology Partners, said: “In a relatively short period of time, Cloud Optics has established itself as a leading provider of software licencing advice to blue-chip customers and built a promising cloud advisory proposition. We are delighted to support the combination of Livingstone and Cloud Optics, which will deliver best in class services to all its joint customers. We welcome Harmeet and his team to the enlarged Livingstone family and look forward to working with them.”

Transcend Corporate (Corporate Finance), Osborne Clarke (Legal) and Spencer Gardner Dickins (Tax) advised Cloud Optics.

About Cloud Optics

Cloud Optics is a team of highly experienced and skilled Software License Consultants that deliver a range of Software License Consulting and Managed Services across Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, SAP and Salesforce.  Using a unique underpinning methodology, it advises, develops and implements solutions that improves and optimises client’s software license position from a contractual and commercial perspective. Its solutions drive measurable and tangible results for its clients, whilst always meeting responsibly their short and long-term technology requirements.  Cloud Optic’ consultants are recognised as some of the most experienced and skilled in the world having provided services to Fortune 500 global clients regularly and having worked on some the largest, complex and sophisticated software license negotiation’s in the world Cloud Optics is headquartered in Richmond, UK.

Web: www.cloud-optics.com

About Livingstone Technologies

Livingstone Technologies Limited is an independent, data and tool agnostic provider SAM managed services and a trusted partner to complex multinational corporations. The company combines proprietary technology, large vendor licensing expertise and proven methodologies to produce accurate SAM intelligence. Rapid onboarding of Livingstone’s managed service means that the company can deliver comprehensive reports within the first six weeks of an engagement.  The reporting helps CIO/CTOs, IT Procurement, SAM and ITAM professionals, make smart business decisions on software. Livingstone’s customers are its greatest advocates and represent some of the world’s largest and most complex organisations. For them, the company has delivered hard cost savings, quantifiable risk mitigation, licence optimisation and vendor audit readiness.

Web: www.livingstone-tech.com

About The Carlyle Group

The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) is a global investment firm with deep industry expertise that deploys private capital across four business segments: Corporate Private Equity, Real Assets, Global Credit and Investment Solutions. With $222 billion of assets under management as of September 30, 2019, Carlyle’s purpose is to invest wisely and create value on behalf of its investors, portfolio companies and the communities in which we live and invest. The Carlyle Group employs more than 1,775 people in 33 offices across six continents.

Web: www.carlyle.com

Contacts:

Livingstone
Chris Lewis
+44 203 817 4880
Chris.lewis@livingstone-tech.com

The Carlyle Group
Rory Macmillan
+44 207 894 1630
roderick.macmillan@carlyle.com

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Blackstone Partners with Aakash Educational, One of India’s Largest Test Prep Education Companies

Blackstone

Mumbai, October 30, 2019: Blackstone (NYSE:BX) announced that private equity funds managed by Blackstone (“Blackstone”) have partnered with Aakash Educational Services Limited (“AESL”), to build India’s largest digitally enabled, omni-channel education company.

AESL is India’s largest medical test preparation provider with a network of more than 200 centers across 130 cities, teaching more than 250,000 students, along with a fast growing digital business. AESL was founded as Aakash Institute around three decades back by Mr. J.C. Chaudhry. AESL has demonstrated a consistent track record of results in both medical and engineering entrance examinations over the last three decades. In 2019, nine of the top ten NEET rank-holders were AESL students.

Mr. Aakash Chaudhry, Director and CEO of AESL, said:
“AESL has grown tremendously, emerging as one of the largest and most trusted brands in the education sector. The entire management team is excited to partner with Blackstone, a leading alternative asset manager. We believe Blackstone is a like-minded partner that shares our values and culture. As we embark on the next trajectory of growth at AESL, Blackstone will complement our team with its deep expertise and network in the education sector globally and a team of highly accomplished professionals with a proven track record of creating value. Blackstone’s value creation has been visible already, as they have helped bring Deborah Quazzo, a leading education technology investor, onto the board of the company. Given Blackstone’s unique partnership philosophy, we engaged exclusively with the Blackstone team for this transaction. This investment is a testament to the dedication of our outstanding employees who have built this company by keeping with our founder’s motto of ‘Student First’.”

Mr. JC Chaudhry, Chairman and Managing Director of AESL said:
“It is heartening to commence our partnership with the Blackstone Group, which is one of the world’s largest private equity firms. AESL has seen significant growth in the last decade, becoming one of the largest education companies in the country. By leveraging Blackstone’s global reach and expertise, this partnership will aid our push into newer areas and cutting-edge education technology, enabling us to deliver long-term value to our students, employees, investors and other stakeholders.”

Mr. Amit Dixit, Head of India Private Equity at Blackstone, said:
“We are investing in AESL since it is the most scaled up test preparation business in India with a professional management team and best-in-class corporate governance. Live tutoring, whether in physical or online classrooms, has proven to be an effective model globally for delivering consistent results in standardized tests.

AESL has been a leader in this model in India, delivering exceptional results in NEET and JEE examinations year after year. Our thesis is to accelerate AESL’s push in online live tutoring, both organically and through acquisitions. We are excited to partner with Aakash and his management team to deliver on this vision.”

Mr. Amit Jain, Managing Director at Blackstone, said:
“Unlike most other players, AESL’s mission and business model have been to take high quality test preparation education closer to the student’s home rather than the student needing to migrate for it. AESL’s 200 pan-India centers, powered with institutional academic pedagogy, enable this distributed delivery currently. We plan to supplement this strong physical network by growing AESL’s digital segment to create India’s largest omni-channel test preparation company.”

Kotak Investment Banking acted as the exclusive financial advisor to the sellers. S&R acted as legal advisor to sellers. E&Y, KPMG, Trilegal and Clifford Chance acted as advisors to Blackstone.

About AESL
AESL is one of the largest test preparation companies in India, preparing students from grades 8 to 12 to prepare for medical, engineering and other competitive examinations like Olympiads and NTSE.  Established in 1988 as Aakash Institute, AESL has a long history. Today, the company has more than 200 centers across 130 cities, employing over 2,200 teachers to help teach more than 250,000 students.

Further information is available at www.aakash.ac.in

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 approximately $554 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 global basis.

Blackstone has been active in India since 2006 and has committed over $13 billion of investments in India through private equity, real estate and tactical opportunities.

Further information is available at www.blackstone.com. Follow Blackstone on Twitter @Blackstone.

 

Contact

Ellen Bogard
+852 9731 9726
Ellen.Bogard@Blackstone.com

Deepa Jayaraman
+91 900 877 8681
Deepa.Jay@outlook.com

Varun Soni
+91 742 879 0060
varunsoni@aesl.in

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IK in exclusive discussions with Dentressangle regarding the sale of Marle

ik-investment-partners

IK Investment Partners (“IK”) is pleased to announce that the IK VII Fund (“the Fund”) has entered into exclusive negotiations with Dentressangle regarding the sale of Marle International SAS (“Marle” or “the Company”), a leading European manufacturer of orthopaedic implants. The transaction remains subject to the information and consultation process of the relevant employee representative bodies in accordance with applicable laws and to the approval of the competent antitrust authorities.

Founded in 1964, Marle has grown to become a leading manufacturer of hip and knee implants and instruments for the orthopaedic industry. Covering the full value chain, including prototyping, forging, casting and finishing, Marle acts as a strategic partner to medical technology companies worldwide, producing 1.5 million implants annually. The Company operates six production sites in France and Switzerland and employs c. 750 FTEs.

Rémi Buttiaux, Partner at IK Investment Partners and advisor to the IK VII Fund, says: “Under the leadership of Antonio Gil and IK’s active ownership, Marle has completed a strategic acquisition in Switzerland and has grown substantially in North America and Asia. The Company has also further strengthened its array of capabilities and services in line with its long-term commitment to be the partner of choice for its clients.”

Antonio Gil, President at Marle, says: “I would like to thank IK for their active support over the last three years which has enabled Marle to reinforce its capabilities. We are enthusiastic about Marle’s long-term growth potential and are convinced that Dentressangle is the right partner to accompany us in the next phase of our development.”

Thierry Coloigner, Managing Partner at Dentressangle Mid & Large Cap, says: “We are privileged to partner with Marle. The company has an exciting future ahead of it and we look forward to supporting the management team in realising its long-term ambition for the Company by offering increasingly higher value-added services to its clients and pursuing targeted acquisitions.”

Parties involved on the transaction

Buyside
DENTRESSANGLE: Thierry Coloigner, Olivier Verdet, Charles Wacheux Camille Dussaix
M&A Advisors: Messier Maris (Erik Maris, Driss Mernissi, Laura Scolan), Wil Consulting (Jacques Ittah)
Legal Advisor: Bredin Prat (Olivier Assant, Adrien Simon, Karine Sultan)
Strategic Due Diligence: Bain & Company (Jean-Marc Leroux, David Gautard)
Financial Due Diligence: Eight Advisory (Stéphane Vanbergue, Christophe Puissegur)
Tax Due Diligence: Eight Advisory Avocats (Guillaume Rembry, Baptiste Gachet)
Legal Due Diligence: Simmons & Simmons (Guillaume Denis-Faure, Simonetta Giordano)
Financing: Capza (Laurent Bénard, Guillaume de Jongh, Oriane Mizrahi, Sabine Barral)

Sellside
IK Investment Partners: Rémi Buttiaux, Dan Soudry, Vincent Elriz, Guillaume Veber
Carlyle Europe Technology Partners: Vladimir Lasocki, Charles Villet
M&A Advisor: Natixis Partners (Francois Rivalland, Julien Plantive)
Legal Advisors: DLA Piper (Xavier Norlain, Aymeric Robine), Willkie Farr Gallagher (Eduardo Fernandez)
Strategic Due Diligence: BCG (Benjamin Entraygues, Florian Kahn, Chloé Caparros)

For further questions, please contact:

IK Investment Partners
Rémi Buttiaux, Partner
Phone: +33 1 44 43 06 60

Mikaela Murekian, Director Communications & ESG
Phone: +44 77 87 573 566
mikaela.murekian@ikinvest.com

Marle and DENTRESSANGLE
DGM
Thomas Roborel de Climens: thomasdeclimens@dgm-conseil.fr

About IK Investment Partners
IK Investment Partners (“IK”) is a Pan-European private equity firm focused on investments in the Nordics, DACH region, France, and Benelux. Since 1989, IK has raised close to €10 billion of capital and invested in over 125 European companies. IK funds support companies with strong underlying potential, partnering with management teams and investors to create robust, well-positioned businesses with excellent long-term prospects. For more information, visit www.ikinvest.com

About Marle
Marle has a 40-year track record serving the orthopaedic implant industry and specialises in the precision forging, machining and finishing of hip, knee, shoulder, spine and extremities implants as well as instruments. It has acquired and developed a wide span of technologies dedicated to the medical industry and now offers one of the most comprehensive ranges of manufacturing services in the orthopaedics market. For more information, visit www.marle.fr

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The Hilb Group Announces Definitive Agreement to Be Acquired By The Carlyle Group

Carlyle

RICHMOND, Va. — The Hilb Group, LLC (“Hilb”), a leading national insurance broker, announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement with global investment firm The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) for investment funds affiliated with Carlyle to acquire a majority interest of Hilb. Hilb’s existing management team and employee shareholders are expected to remain significant shareholders. Hilb is currently a portfolio company of Abry Partners, a Boston-based private equity firm.

Founded in 2009, Hilb employs more than 900 associates and operates 91 branch offices serving all 50 states. Abry Partners invested in Hilb in 2015 and worked closely with management to grow the business into one of the Top 30 insurance brokers in the U.S. according to Business Insurance magazine. The firm was recognized as one of the fastest growing private companies by Inc. magazine in 2018, and ranked a Top 10 fastest growing broker in 2017 by Business Insurance magazine and a Top 100 P/C Agency by Insurance Journal magazine in 2019.

Richard Spiro, Chief Executive Officer at Hilb, said, “This investment by Carlyle is a strong endorsement of our growth strategy and represents the next exciting chapter for Hilb. Carlyle’s additional capital and resources will significantly benefit our company and associates as we grow our business organically and through targeted M&A opportunities. Working with Abry enabled us to accelerate our development and we are equally excited to have new partners to fuel future growth. We have a rich pipeline of partnership opportunities and look forward to continuing our expansion with Carlyle.”

Brent Stone, Partner at Abry, said, “During the four years of our ownership, we helped build Hilb into a national insurance brokerage by investing in the company’s operations and strengthening its management team, including recruiting Ricky as CEO. The company’s annual revenues dramatically increased under our ownership and we successfully completed more than 60 strategic add-on acquisitions during that time. We are very pleased with the outcome of this investment for our investors and also for Hilb’s management team and employees. Hilb is very well positioned for ongoing growth and performance as a portfolio company of Carlyle and we wish them success.”

John Redett, Managing Director and Co-Head of Carlyle Global Financial Services, said, “We have long admired the Hilb franchise and are extremely impressed with what Ricky Spiro and the Hilb management team have accomplished during the past several years. We look forward to our partnership, and to supporting Hilb in its next chapter of growth and innovation as it expands into new geographies and product lines to serve the increasingly complex needs of its clients.”

Nathan Ott, Principal at Abry, commented, “Hilb has made significant progress since our acquisition and has developed a proven track record of growth across a variety of geographic regions and product lines. The company is led by a best-in-class management team and is poised to achieve its next level of growth.”

Equity capital for the investment will come from Carlyle Partners VII, an $18.5 billion fund that focuses on buyout transactions in the U.S., and Carlyle Global Financial Services Partners III, L.P., a dedicated financial services buyout fund.

The transaction is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2019, subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

J.P. Morgan and Sica | Fletcher served as financial advisors to Abry and Hilb, and Kirkland & Ellis LLP served as legal counsel. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP served as legal counsel and Latham & Watkins LLP provided financing and regulatory counsel to The Carlyle Group. Funds managed by Ares Capital Management LLC, Crescent Capital Group, Owl Rock Capital, Antares, and Barings will provide debt financing for the transaction.

About Abry Partners
Abry is one of the most experienced and successful sector-focused private equity investment firms in North America. Since their founding in 1989, the firm has completed over $82.0 billion of leveraged transactions and other private equity or preferred equity placements. Currently, the firm manages over $5.0 billion of capital across their active funds. For more information on ABRY, please visit www.Abry.com.

About The Carlyle Group
The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) is a global investment firm with deep industry expertise that deploys private capital across four business segments: Corporate Private Equity, Real Assets, Global Credit and Investment Solutions. With $223 billion of assets under management as of June 30, 2019, Carlyle’s purpose is to invest wisely and create value on behalf of its investors, portfolio companies and the communities in which we live and invest. The Carlyle Group employs more than 1,775 people in 33 offices across six continents.

About The Hilb Group
The Hilb Group is a leading middle market insurance agency headquartered in Richmond, Virginia and is a portfolio company of Boston-based private equity firm, Abry Partners. The Hilb Group seeks to grow through targeted acquisitions in the middle market insurance brokerage space. The company now has 91 offices in 21 states. Please visit our website at www.hilbgroup.com.

Contacts:
For Abry and Hilb, Chris Tofalli
Chris Tofalli Public Relations, LLC
914-834-4334
chris@tofallipr.com

For Carlyle, Christa Zipf
+1 (212) 813-4578
Christa.Zipf@carlyle.com

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Regional Rail expands its geographic footprint through acquisition of Pinsly Railroad Company’s Florida operations

3I

3i-backed Regional Rail, a leading owner and operator of short-line freight railroads and rail-related businesses in the Mid-Atlantic U.S., has agreed to acquire Pinsly Railroad Company’s (“Pinsly”) Florida operations with 208 miles of track across three short-line railroads, subject to authorisation from the Surface Transportation Board.

Pinsly’s Florida operations include the Florida Central Railroad, the Florida Midland Railroad and the Florida Northern Railroad. The railroads provide freight transportation, transload and railcar-storage services to a broad customer base of over 65 blue-chip companies covering a diverse set of endmarkets, including heating, fuel blending, building products, chemicals, food and agriculture, scrap metal and plastic resins.

Given its location in and around Orlando and Tampa, Pinsly’s Florida operations provide freight traffic that is over 90% inbound serving multiple, high-growth consumption markets throughout the state. With strong population and economic trends forecast for the region, the lines are well positioned to continue the impressive traffic growth they have experienced historically.

Al Sauer, CEO, Regional Rail, commented:

“Pinsly’s Florida operations are highly complementary to Regional Rail and expand our geographic footprint. The lines have a large and diverse customer base, a strong pipeline of new freight customers and service many highly attractive industrial development sites, all of which provide an exciting growth opportunity. We also intend to retain all of the lines’ employees and look forward to supporting and working with the local management team to continue the lines’ impressive growth.”

John Levine, CEO, Pinsly, commented:

“We are delighted to have reached an agreement with Regional Rail and 3i to acquire our Florida operations. I have known the Regional Rail management team for many years and believe they will be very good stewards of the culture and team we have created.”

Rob Collins, Managing Partner, 3i North American Infrastructure, commented:

“This is an attractive and strategic acquisition for Regional Rail, given the similarities between the businesses. Combined, the two companies will operate 21 line segments across four states, with over 355 miles of track. The U.S. short-line network is attractive to 3i and the combined company will be well positioned for potential future acquisitions.”

3i invested in Regional Rail in July 2019. The company provides freight transportation, railcar storage and transloading services in New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware across three railroads with over 155 miles of track connecting into a diversified Class 1 railroad network. In 2018, the company moved over 13,000 carloads while serving over 70 customers across an extensive set of end-user markets including heating, fuel blending, food & beverage, agriculture, chemicals and metals. In addition to rail transportation services, the company also provides railroad crossing signal design, construction, inspection and maintenance services to a diverse base of over 100 short-line and industrial customers across 20 states.

 

-Ends-
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For further information, contact:

 

3i Group plc

Silvia Santoro
Investor enquiries		 Tel: +44 20 7975 3285
Email: silvia.santoro@3i.com
Kathryn van der Kroft
Media enquiries		 Tel: +44 20 7975 3021
Email: kathryn.vanderkroft@3i.com

 

About 3i Group

3i is a leading international investment manager focused on mid-market Private Equity and Infrastructure. Its core investment markets are northern Europe and North America. For further information, please visit: www.3i.com

About Regional Rail, LLC

Regional Rail, LLC is a transportation-holding company headquartered in Kennett Square, PA. It is the parent company of East Penn Railroad LLC (ESPN); Middletown & New Jersey Railroad, LLC (MNJ); Tyburn Railroad, LLC (TYBR) and Diamondback Signal, LLC. For further information, please visit: www.regional–rail.com 

About Pinsly 

Pinsly, through its subsidiaries, is a short-line railroad operator headquartered in Westfield, MA.

Pinsly’s Florida operations include the Florida Central Railroad Company, Inc. (FCEN); Florida Midland Railroad Company, Inc. (FMID) and Florida Northern Railroad Company, Inc. (FNOR). For further information, please visit: https://www.pinsly.com/

Regulatory information 

This transaction involved a recommendation of 3i Corporation, a US wholly owned subsidiary of 3i Group.

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Ellie Mae to Acquire Capsilon to Deliver End-to-End Mortgage Automation

Franciso Partners

Transformative deal boosts AI capabilities and enables true digital mortgage

PLEASANTON, Calif. – Ellie Mae®, the leading cloud-based platform provider for the mortgage finance industry, announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Capsilon, the leading provider of AI-powered mortgage automation software for mortgage lenders, investors, and servicers. With the acquisition of Capsilon, Ellie Mae is accelerating the vision of offering a fully digital mortgage by combining Ellie Mae’s Encompass™ Digital Lending Platform with Capsilon’s AI-powered solutions to create the most comprehensive end-to-end SaaS solution for companies in the mortgage industry.

“With the delivery of our next generation lending platform, we are accelerating our mission to automate everything automatable for the residential mortgage market. This includes making strategic acquisitions of best-in-class solutions to bring more value to the platform and the ecosystem faster,” said Jonathan Corr, president and CEO of Ellie Mae. “This is a significant day for the mortgage industry, as with the acquisition of Capsilon we are bringing together two market-leading companies and adding to our platform the pioneer of AI-powered intelligent automation leveraged by some of the largest lenders and servicers in the industry. As lenders and servicers continue to shift toward data-driven automation, we are excited to provide automated document recognition, classification and data extraction to further drive down costs and time of loan origination, acquisition and servicing.”

The acquisition increases the productivity of mortgage lenders, investors and servicers by automating critical business processes to create massive efficiencies throughout the mortgage lifecycle. Capsilon’s best-of-breed platform, Capsilon IQ, is used by companies across the mortgage industry, including six of the top 10 originators and servicers, to automate manual work and power their businesses with trusted data.

Additionally, the company recently introduced Capsilon Instant Underwriter, the mortgage industry’s first autonomous underwriting engine that leverages artificial intelligence, data extraction and process automation to complete underwriting tasks in seconds, with greater consistency, accuracy and less risk.

“The team at Capsilon has built the leading AI-powered platform that is changing the economics of the industry by enabling mortgage lenders and servicers to significantly increase profitability on each loan,” said Sanjeev Malaney, CEO and Founder of Capsilon. “By joining forces with Ellie Mae, we are excited to extend our capabilities and deliver unprecedented functionality through deep integrations with the Encompass Digital Lending Platform. This will help lenders leverage automation from consumer engagement through investor delivery and servicing. We believe this combination will offer value to all of our customers and integration partners, regardless of LOS or servicing platform.”

Ellie Mae was advised by Sidley Austin LLP as its legal counsel. Capsilon was advised by Jefferies as its financial advisor and Kirkland & Ellis LLP as its legal counsel in connection with the transaction.

For more information about the Ellie Mae Encompass Digital Lending Platform visit, https://www.elliemae.com/encompass/encompass-digital-lending-platform

About Ellie Mae

Ellie Mae is the leading cloud-based platform provider for the mortgage finance industry. Ellie Mae’s technology solutions enable lenders to originate more loans, reduce origination costs, and shorten the time to close, all while ensuring the highest levels of compliance, quality and efficiency. Visit EllieMae.com or call 877.355.4362 to learn more.

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The Carlyle Group Raises €6.4 billion for Carlyle Europe Partners V

Carlyle

  • Leverages Carlyle’s deep regional expertise and global platform to source assets
  • More than 70% larger than previous fund

London, UK – Global investment firm The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ:CG) today announced that it has raised €6.4 billion for its latest Carlyle Europe Partners fund, exceeding its target by almost €1.0 billion. In total over 300 investors from 37 countries have made commitments to the new Carlyle Europe Partners V fund.

Carlyle Europe Partners V is managed by a team of 40 professionals across 5 European offices and continues its successful strategy of investing in European upper mid-market opportunities across a wide range of sectors and industries where there is significant potential for business transformation. The fund is the fifth in the Carlyle Europe Partners franchise which over the past twenty-two years has invested €15.2bn in 78 investments across Europe.

Marco De Benedetti  and Gregor Boehm, co-Heads of the Carlyle Europe Partners advisory team, said, “We are both humbled and excited by the strong showing of support and continued confidence from our limited partners. This latest successful fundraise reflects the strength of the Carlyle Europe Partners franchise and we are confident in our team’s demonstrated ability to work alongside companies in Europe to execute on their strategic goals. Our fund leverages Carlyle’s global network, cross-sector expertise and locally embedded teams to drive growth across all our portfolio companies and to create value for our investors and all our key stakeholders.”

Kewsong Lee, Co-CEO of The Carlyle Group said, “Europe continues to be an important strategic market for Carlyle.  In a time of immense complexity and change, our country-specific and sector-driven approach positions us well to find interesting opportunities to partner with management teams and build companies. We want to thank our limited partners for the significant commitment and confidence they have placed in Carlyle for more than 20 years to support the growth of our investment activities throughout the region. “

Carlyle Europe Partners V has already made 5 investments in companies located in Spain, Italy and The Netherlands: Forgital, a manufacturing company producing large forged and machined components for the aerospace and industrial industries; Cepsa, Spain’s largest independent multinational integrated energy company; Nouryon, a market leader in the manufacture of chemical components and solutions; Design Holding, a global high-end interior design group; and Jeanologia, a supplier of cutting-edge environmentally-friendly technologies.

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About The Carlyle Group

The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) is a global investment firm with deep industry expertise that deploys private capital across four business segments: Corporate Private Equity, Real Assets, Global Credit and Investment Solutions.  With $223 billion of assets under management as of June 30, 2019, Carlyle’s purpose is to invest wisely and create value on behalf of our investors, portfolio companies and the communities in which we live and invest.  The Carlyle Group employs more than 1,775 people in 33 offices across six continents.
Web: www.carlyle.com

 

Contacts
Rory Macmillan
+44 207 894 1630
roderick.macmillan@carlyle.com

 

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