GIC and Barzel Properties Complete R$1.2 Billion Acquisition of Nine Carrefour Brazil Group Assets

GIC

SAO PAULO, August 17, 2023 – GIC, a global institutional investor, in partnership with Barzel Properties, a leading real estate management and development firm, has completed the acquisition of five distribution centers and four retail stores through a sale-leaseback contract with Carrefour Brazil Group in a transaction valued at approximately R$1.2 billion.

The transaction is supported by a 20-year renewable lease contract with Carrefour Brazil Group, a leading Brazilian retail and private employer. Under this contract, Barzel Properties will ensure a stable, long-term revenue stream through a rental agreement, adjusted annually for inflation.

“We are thrilled to complete the acquisition of nine of Carrefour Brazil Group’s assets alongside our strategic partner, Barzel Properties,” said Lee Kok Sun, Chief Investment Officer of Real Estate, GIC. “GIC is confident in the portfolio’s long-term potential in Brazil, which is underscored by the stores’ strong operational performance and warehouses’ strategic locations in major logistics markets.”

“Despite uncertainties in the global macroeconomic environment, this transaction serves as a testament to GIC’s confidence in top-tier assets backed by robust companies with good credit ratings,” said Adam Gallistel, Head of Americas Real Estate, GIC. “In Brazil, we have been continuously exploring sale-leaseback opportunities underpinned by long-term contracts and companies with solid and growing operations, such as Carrefour Brazil Group.”

“We are immensely pleased to strengthen our partnership with GIC through this exceptionally promising transaction,” said Nessim Daniel Sarfati, CEO of Barzel Properties. “The strategic locations of these assets combined with Carrefour Brazil Group’s robust operational track record and the 20-year lease contract will provide a stable and reliable rent income stream. We have high confidence in the future potential of the acquired assets.”

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Leading European industrial temperature control equipment rental specialist Coolworld to be sold by Gimv to Arcus European Infrastructure Fund 3, the third fund of Arcus Infrastructure Partners

GIMV

16/08/2023 – 07:28 | Portfolio

Building on its strong organic growth, Coolworld Investments B.V. (“Coolworld” or the “Company”), a market-leading specialist in mission-critical temperature control asset rental solutions, will be acquired by Arcus European Infrastructure Fund 3 (“AEIF3”), the third fund of Arcus Infrastructure Partners (“Arcus”). As part of the transaction, Gimv will sell its majority shareholding in the Company.

Arcus has significant value-add investing experience in European infrastructure and, specifically, asset leasing and cold chain businesses. This will help to support Coolworld’s management in further accelerating growth and focusing on long-term, sustainable value creation. The current management team will continue to lead the business through this next phase of growth and reinvest in the Company alongside AEIF3.

Coolworld offers a wide range of temperature control asset rental solutions, including process cooling, climate control, modular cold storage and industrial heating. The Company is a key industrial partner to its customers, providing mission-critical assets to enable and ensure process and product integrity, and support companies in complying with operational and regulatory requirements.

Over three decades of organic growth, the Company has built a market-leading position as a pureplay temperature control rental specialist, reflected in the number of long-term relationships it serves with blue chip customers across the food, pharmaceutical, chemical, logistics and other sectors.

Coolworld’s comprehensive customer offering is enabled by its high-quality range of temperature control assets, including industrial chillers, climate control units, mobile cold rooms, its network of depots in key regions of Northwest Europe, deep in-house expertise and a full-service solutions offering. Coolworld supports its customers across the full spectrum of requirements, from temporary emergency and downtime capacity to long-term leasing solutions.

Coolworld currently operates in six European countries and serves its customers through local depots to ensure high responsiveness and to minimise its carbon footprint. The Company’s focus on sustainability will continue to be a priority in this next growth phase, through significant further investment in the asset fleet, an increasing range of sustainable solutions and partnerships with customers and suppliers to drive decarbonising innovation.

In 2019, Gimv invested in Coolworld through its Sustainable Cities platform alongside the founders and management team. At the time of investment, Coolworld already had a strong position in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, Austria and Switzerland and served a diversified customer base. With Gimv’s guidance, Coolworld achieved impressive organic growth through key strategic decisions, including further investments in a more sustainable fleet, build-out of the organisation and IT architecture, and further strengthening Coolworld’s local presence across Europe.

Ruud van Mierlo, CEO of Coolworld, noted: “Coolworld has delivered very strong growth over recent years and we have positioned ourselves as one of the leading temperature control asset rental companies in the market. Together with Gimv as our main shareholder, we were able to make substantial investments in our rental fleet and the organisation to keep up with the demands of our customers. With Arcus on board as our new majority shareholder, we will be able to enter the next phase of development in our company. Further growth, further professionalisation and access to more financing to support the growth of our company as a pan-European leader.

Jordan Cott, Partner at Arcus Infrastructure Partners commented: “As part of our broader industrial infrastructure sector strategy, Coolworld stands out as a market-leading pureplay specialist in the temperature control asset leasing space. The Company has a well invested asset fleet, top-tier management team, long-term operating relationships and excellent market reputation, with decades of track record in providing its mission-critical asset rental solutions to growing and resilient end markets in Europe. It is an excellent fit within AEIF3’s infrastructure investment strategy, and a business where we can leverage our significant experience in value-add asset leasing as well as cold chain infrastructure. We look forward to working closely with Coolworld’s excellent management team to deliver the next phase of growth for the Company.”

Rombout Poos, Partner Sustainable Cities at Gimv, added: “Under the leadership of Ruud van Mierlo and his team, Coolworld has experienced very strong growth in recent years as a solutions provider for the numerous climate challenges we all face today. With Arcus as a new shareholder, Coolworld will be able to further expand its position as a pan-European player.

Over the entire holding period Gimv realizes a return in excess of the long-term portfolio return target. No further financial details will be disclosed.

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Carlyle to sell Assala Energy to Maurel & Prom

Carlyle
  • Over the course of its ownership, Carlyle has worked with the Assala management team to support the company’s growth and rejuvenate its assets, investing in operations, infrastructure and M&A
  • Under Carlyle’s ownership, Assala increased its net production by approximately 30% to 45 kbbl/d and its reserves life from five to eight years

Libreville, Gabon – Global investment firm Carlyle (NASDAQ: CG) today announced that it has agreed to sell Assala Energy (“Assala”), an upstream oil exploration and production company operating in Gabon, to Etablissements Maurel & Prom SA (“M&P”), an oil and gas exploration and production company listed on Euronext.

Carlyle invested in Assala in 2017 through Carlyle International Energy Partners, a private equity fund that invests in energy opportunities in Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia. During its period of ownership and in partnership with the Assala management team, Assala has become a successful stand-alone company, adding reserves, upgrading production facilities and infrastructure, and executing strategic M&A.

Thanks to significant investment (in excess of $1.3 billion over the Carlyle investment period) and operational excellence, Assala has been transformed into one of the leading independent exploration and production companies in West Africa. Since Carlyle’s acquisition, Assala has increased net production by c. 30% to approximately 45 kbbl/d and, based on current production, has extended reserve life from five to eight years at the end of 2022, with a reserves replacement ratio of over 160% over the investment period. Assala also resumed exploration activity in 2020 to support the company’s longer-term growth.

Carlyle and the Assala management team have worked closely together to accelerate the decarbonization of the company. Since 2020, Assala has reduced its Scope 1 and 2 emissions by approximately 20%, primarily through methane leak detection and prevention, gas re-injection, the reduction of flaring and the shutting in of wells with excessive gas production.

David Roux, CEO of Assala, said: “We want to thank Carlyle for its financial and strategic support throughout Assala’s growth journey, from the initial carve out from Shell in 2017 to the successes of higher production and reserves growth, which were delivered to best practice and international ESG standards by our exceptional team. We also want to thank the Government of Gabon for the support it provided throughout this intensive investment and redevelopment period. We are proud of our accomplishments so far and look forward to our business’s next stage of growth. The combination with M&P will create a great platform, with its business anchored in Gabon and a continued focus on creating value for its employees, local communities, governments and shareholders.”

Bob Maguire, Co-Head of Carlyle International Energy Partners, said: “We are proud to have worked alongside David and his team in the transformation of Assala over the past six years. By investing in the company’s facilities and infrastructure to increase production and reserve life — while at the same time decarbonizing its operations — Carlyle has helped Assala become a responsible operator, employer and partner and has enabled it to contribute significantly to the sustainable economic future of Gabon’s energy industry.”

Guido Funes Nova, Co-Head of Carlyle International Energy Partners, said: “Our investment in Assala is a great example of how Carlyle works in partnership with management teams to deliver long-term value from mature assets for the benefit of our investors as well as the local economy and communities, while reducing emissions intensity. Assala is now one of the most efficient and skilled operators of mature onshore assets in Sub-Saharan Africa, with a long runway for future sustainable value creation.”

Citi acted as financial advisor and Latham & Watkins as legal advisor to Carlyle on this transaction.

About Assala 

Assala is an oil and gas exploration and production company, with operations in Gabon. Assala’s business model is to invest in mid-life and mature assets, improving operational efficiency and production levels, while responsibly extending field life cycles through reserves replacement and in compliance with international best practice Environment, Social and Governance standards. In line with Assala’s Values and corporate culture, the company is committed to contributing to the national and local economies of its host countries, while complying with its international obligations on transparency.

About Carlyle

Carlyle (NASDAQ: CG) is a global investment firm with deep industry expertise that deploys private capital across its business and conducts its operations through three business segments: Global Private Equity, Global Credit and Global Investment Solutions. With $385 billion of assets under management as of June 30, 2023, 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. Carlyle employs more than 2,200 people in 29 offices across five continents. Further information is available at www.carlyle.com. Follow Carlyle on Twitter @OneCarlyle.

Media contacts

Carlyle:
Charlie Bristow
charlie.bristow@carlyle.com
+44 7384 513 568

Assala Energy:
Caroline Sourt
+34 (0) 638 976 262
caroline.sourt@assalaenergy.com

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£1.1mn follow-on investment in legaltech leader Legatics as part of £4mn round

Gresham House

Gresham House Ventures makes £1.1mn follow-on investment in legaltech leader Legatics as part of £4mn investment round led by FINTOP Capital.

Designed by lawyers seeking to streamline the sector’s legacy working methods, Legatics enables deal teams to collaborate on and close deals in an interactive online environment.

Since its launch in 2015, the platform has been adopted by many of the world’s top global law firms, including Allen & Overy, Dentons and Shearman & Sterling, and has been deployed in more than 60 countries.

The Gresham House Ventures team initially invested £3 million in Legatics in 2021, investing on behalf of the Mobeus VCTs, which supported the business’ rapid expansion and the development of Legatics 2, a second-generation platform which will incorporate enhanced AI functionality. This additional investment will be used to bring new features and functionality to Legatics 2, and accelerate expansion plans for the US market, where the legal sector has not yet adopted digitisation to its full potential.

The deal was led by Joe Krancki and Mark Stroud, with Stroud also joining Legatics’ board, where he brings valuable experience working with legaltech businesses, as part of the investment. The investment came as part of a £4 million fundraising round led by legal tech specialist FINTOP Capital. Gresham House was advised by Marriott Harrison on the transaction.

The investment continues a busy period of dealmaking for Gresham House Ventures, which closed a £3.1 million investment into digital health platform provider Mable Therapy earlier in August.

This followed a £3.5 million investment into Dayrize, a £4.65 million investment into Connect Earth, a £4 million investment into Cognassist, and a further investment into eating disorder clinic, Orri.

Joe Krancki, Investment Director at Gresham House Ventures says:

“The Legatics team has revolutionised the sector, removing legacy hurdles to help countless leading law firms and professionals quickly adapt to the changing demands of the legal market. With the rollout of Legatics 2 further cementing its position as the go-to legaltech vendor in the UK, we are pleased to be providing additional investment at this exciting time. We have been impressed with Legatics’ continued growth in recent years, and we look forward to working closely with the business over the coming years to support its ongoing expansion into the US market.”

Anthony Seale, CEO at Legatics says:

“The Gresham House Ventures team’s previous investment in Legatics has played a significant role in supporting our recent growth, enabling the business to more than double its customer base in two years and accelerate its product offering with the launch of Legatics 2. This follow-on investment validates the significant opportunity to embed our platform into the US legal market – one that is crying out for streamlined solutions like Legatics to modernise legal transactions.”

 

 


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DIF’s portfolio company ruhrfibre signs EUR 120m senior debt financing

DIF

DIF Capital Partners (via its DIF CIF III fund) is pleased to announce that its portfolio company ruhrfibre has closed on a senior debt financing in support of the buildout of a large-scale fibre network in Essen (Germany), targeting around 150,000 households.

DIF announced its investment in ruhrfibre in November 2022, alongside project developer metrofibre and the City of Essen. The project is a game changer to the city in the industrial Ruhr-area in terms of its economic advancement and will accelerate Essen’s development into a smart city.

The financing package comprises senior loans totalling EUR 120m that are provided by a club of senior lenders comprising ING, Kommunalkredit Austria and SEB. There is a further uncommitted accordion facility of EUR 40m to expand the financing. The facilities are structured as a green loan with a dedicated green use of proceed for the financing of climate friendly broadband technology, and as such underpin DIF’s strong commitment to promote sustainable infrastructure.

The successful financing provides further momentum to ruhrfibre’s significant progress in bringing fibre to Essen: In June, ruhrfibre started the construction work in the first two roll-out areas in Essen. “With full financing, the project is now significantly picking up speed”, says Christopher Rautenberg, Managing Director at metrofibre and ruhrfibre. “New roll-out areas will follow in the next few months to meet our goal of connecting 150,000 households, businesses, and public institutions to the fiber-optic network.”  DIF and ruhrfibre were advised by ING, Hogan Lovells, Arthur D. Little and Riskbridge. The lenders were advised by White & Case.

About DIF Capital Partners

DIF Capital Partners is an independent infrastructure fund manager, with ca. EUR 17 billion of AUM. DIF was founded in 2005 and has built a leading position in managing mid-market investments, primarily in Europe, North America and Australia.

DIF follows two strategies: its traditional DIF funds invest in lower risk mid-sized infrastructure projects and companies in the energy transition (incl. renewables) and utilities sector, as well as PPPs and concessions. The firm’s CIF funds invest in small to mid-sized companies that will thrive in the new economy. These companies are typically active in the digital, energy transition and sustainable transportation sector.

With a team of over 225 professionals in 11 offices, DIF Capital Partners offers a unique market approach combining global presence with the benefits of strong local networks and investment capabilities. DIF is located in Amsterdam (Schiphol), Frankfurt, Helsinki, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, New York, Paris, Santiago, Sydney and Toronto.

For more information, please visit www.dif.eu

Contact DIF Capital Partners: press@dif.eu

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Bergman Clinics opens a new clinic in Rijswijk with a focus on eye care

NPM Capital

Bergman Clinics has opened a new focus clinic in Rijswijk. The new location offers the best possible eye care as a result of our ultimately modern complex with advanced equipment and facilities. The care provided here can be fully reimbursed by your health insurer, providing this is medically indicated and following a referral by your GP.

The opening of this modern, state-of-the-art location has enabled Bergman Clinics to respond to a growing demand for top quality, client-focussed treatments for plannable medical care. The specialisation Bergman Clinics is known for allows for very efficient working methods. This subsequently reduces access times and means more clients can be seen at an earlier stage.

The new location offers specialist treatments for a variety of eye diseases and conditions, including cataracts, glaucoma and macular degeneration. Clients can rely on a multidisciplinary approach, whereby experienced ophthalmologists work together with optometrists to realise the best possible care results. Cataract surgery is by far the most common procedure. Bergman Clinics | Rijswijk is expected to be able to help around 4000 clients get rid of their cataract problems every year.

The focus clinic has a brand new class 2 operating room at its disposal, especially designed for ophthalmic operations. The clinic also boasts twelve optimally equipped consulting rooms, allowing us to assist a large number of clients.

Dr Flora Berkhout is an Ophthalmologist at Bergman Clinics. She is very enthusiastic about the new focus clinic: “It’s hugely beneficial to form part of such a large ophthalmic organisation. We have gained an incredible amount of experience with eye care and how to organise this as optimally as possible in our other Bergman Clinics locations. I have personally worked at several Bergman Clinics locations: Ede, Den Bosch and Amsterdam. We can individually adopt each and every one of these best practices. Plus it’s certainly also going to be a very nice location. Fantastic for both our clients and our employees. Setting up this focus clinic together with the team is going to be a very exciting challenge to rise to!” according to Dr Berkhout.

Expansion of several care programmes later on this year
The new focus clinic will also be introducing other specialisms later on this year, in addition to ophthalmic care, including Skin & Vessels (dermatology & proctology), Woman (gynaecology) and ENT (ear, nose and throat). This will allow Bergman Clinics to offer an extensive care programme, making sure clients in Rijswijk and the surrounding area have access to top quality medical treatments in a variety of different areas.

 

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IBM Completes Acquisition of Apptio Inc.

Vista Equity

With close of transaction, immediate synergies to be driven with IBM’s IT Automation Portfolio

ARMONK, N.Y., Aug. 10, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced it has completed its acquisition of Apptio Inc. after receiving all required regulatory approvals. The acquisition gives clients the ability to derive additional value through the powerful combination of Apptio and IBM.

Technology is a competitive differentiator for today’s enterprises. Organizations are accelerating their IT investments, spreading workloads and applications across public and private clouds, using multiple service providers. As a result, their expenses are increasing, and they need simplified, integrated, and automated solutions to optimize their IT spend, improve operations, and drive greater financial returns.

 

Today’s close brings together the industry-leading solutions of Apptio’s FinOps offerings, including ApptioOne, Cloudability and Targetprocess, and IBM’s automation portfolio of Turbonomic, AIOps and Instana to give clients a “virtual command center” for managing, optimizing and automating technology spending decisions.

With AI and foundation models top of mind for clients and partners, IBM will also augment its watsonx AI and data platform with Apptio’s $450 billion in anonymized IT spend data, unlocking new innovation, insight and value.

“The combination of Apptio products and IBM’s IT automation portfolio will give businesses a 360-degree technology management platform they can use to optimize and automate decisions across their IT landscapes,” said Rob Thomas, Senior Vice President, Software and Chief Commercial Officer, IBM. “We are bringing together market-leading and best-in-class solutions to continue to reshape IT from a cost center to a true competitive advantage, powered by automation and AI.”

Starting immediately, clients can leverage the early integration between Apptio and IBM through their Cloudability and Turbonomic offerings. This is an important first step as IBM looks to drive significant synergy across several key growth areas, including automation, Red Hat, IBM Consulting, and IBM’s broader AI portfolio.

Cloudability gives organizations the data, insights and recommendations needed to understand and eliminate waste from their cloud spend, while Turbonomic generates trustworthy optimization decisions that can be automated to unlock true cloud elasticity, getting rid of overprovisioning to protect performance. Together, these products can give clients full coverage for the “Inform,” “Optimize” and “Operate” stages of the FinOps Framework, providing what they need to control cloud spend without slowing innovation or negatively impacting operational performance.

Cloudability can ingest Turbonomic executed and proposed actions to provide a shared, single view across services that helps stakeholders understand the impact that has been, and can be, achieved by bringing these two leading IT automation offerings together.

Clients are already seeing the benefits of these solutions. With Cloudability, organizations can reduce cloud costs by 30% or more1 while allocating 100% of cloud program costs2 and increasing reservation coverage to over 90%3. With Turbonomic, they can improve cloud investments by 33% and get 30% of engineering time back.4

The close of the Apptio acquisition is one of a series of investments in IT Automation by IBM over the last three years to help solve the problems facing today’s IT and business leaders. In 2020, IBM launched its IT Automation portfolio when it announced its AIOps offerings that used AI and automation to help enterprises self-detect, diagnose and respond to IT anomalies in real time. Later that year, IBM acquired Instana, recognizing that modern applications and operations required real-time observability. Then, in 2021, IBM acquired Turbonomic which has specialized in helping clients optimize for application performance at the lowest cost with automation. Now, with the acquisition of Apptio, IBM will provide real-time data and actionable insights for leaders to make smarter spending decisions and realize value faster as they transform their operations.

Apptio is an established, growing, and profitable technology business management and FinOps leader with over 1,500 clients, serving more than half of the Fortune 100.

IBM previously announced a definitive agreement to acquire Apptio from Vista Equity Partners on June 26, 2023.

“Our journey with Apptio is a testament to Vista’s ability to create consistent outcomes that drive value for our stakeholders,” said Robert F. Smith, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Vista Equity Partners. “We are proud of our continued momentum, even amidst these challenged market conditions, and look forward to seeing how Apptio’s technology will bolster IBM’s IT automation and AI capabilities in the years ahead. It’s been an honor to partner with a visionary founder like Sunny and we wish the entire Apptio team the best in the next phase of their growth with IBM.”

About IBM
IBM is a leading provider of global hybrid cloud and AI, and consulting expertise. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Thousands of government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and consulting deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service. Visit www.ibm.com for more information.

Press Contact:

Tim Davidson, 914-844-7847
tfdavids@us.ibm.com

1 https://www.apptio.com/case-study/the-national-rural-electric-cooperative-association-reduces-infrastructure-costs-by-30/
2 https://www.apptio.com/case-study/unlocking-the-business-value-of-it-transformation-with-coles-and-cloudability/
3 https://www.apptio.com/case-study/how-koch-business-solutions-became-finops-center-enterprise/
4 https://www.ibm.com/downloads/cas/JEWOV1BM

SOURCE IBM

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Nordic Capital-backed EDG embarks on transformative step via the separation and sale of its European laboratory business

Nordic Capital

European Dental Group (“EDG” or the “Company”), a leading pan-European oral care services platform, has announced a significant, transformative milestone on its journey. After rapidly growing its European clinics platform while in parallel establishing a European laboratory business, the Company has decided to separate and sell its laboratory activities (including Excent, Flemming, Artinorway Group), which will be acquired by Oakley Capital (“Oakley”) in the Transaction.

“Under EDG stewardship, we’ve built one of the leading dental laboratory players in Europe,” said Toby Anderson, CEO of EDG.

“Following an internal strategic review, we identified considerable benefits of separating our clinic and dental laboratory activities and believe that the separation will optimise the future growth of both.”

This strategic decision allows EDG to solely focus its resources on continuing the rapid development of its leading oral care clinic networks in the Netherlands, Germany, the UK, France, Switzerland, and Belgium. Its commitment to providing best-in-class oral care to patients and being the preferred partner for clinicians and staff remains at the centre of EDG’s mission.

EDG’s dental clinics will maintain a close partnership with the departing dental laboratories, preserving an ongoing collaboration that has contributed significantly to joint success.

The transaction’s completion remains subject to regulatory approval.

For more information, please contact:
Christoph Mosebach
Deputy Head of BD and M&A
tel: +31 627845159
email: christoph.mosebach@europeandentalgroup.eu

About European Dental Group
Founded in 2018 by Nordic Capital via the acquisitions of Dental Clinics and TopOrtho in the Netherlands, Flemming dental labs and a small dental chain in Germany and Adent in Switzerland, the European Dental Group is a leading European dental care and services provider that relies on quality leadership, a strong team concept and well-established processes.

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Blackstone Closes Record Energy Transition Private Credit Fund at Over $7 Billion

Blackstone

Largest private credit energy transition fund ever raised1

NEW YORK – August 10, 2023 – Blackstone (NYSE: BX) today announced the final close of its energy transition credit fund, Blackstone Green Private Credit Fund III (BGREEN III). BGREEN III closed at its hard cap of $7.1 billion, representing the largest energy transition private credit fund ever raised.

Dwight Scott, Global Head of Blackstone Credit, said: “Blackstone has built a premier platform focused on private credit in the energy transition and infrastructure markets. We are grateful for the trust from our limited partners and look forward to investing in this favorable market environment.”

Robert Horn, Global Head of the Sustainable Resources Group for Blackstone Credit, said: “The energy transition is impacting large sectors of the economy and is resulting in a growing need for efficient private capital. We believe our experience and scale will enable Blackstone Credit to deliver flexible solutions to companies driving this historic transition and generate compelling returns for our investors.”

BGREEN III is managed by Blackstone Credit’s Sustainable Resources Platform, which focuses on providing private credit to the renewable energy, infrastructure, and energy transition marketplace. The Platform has approximately 40 investment professionals across North America, Europe, and Asia and invests across the credit spectrum in investment grade credit, non-investment grade credit, preferred and convertible securities. In 2022, Blackstone announced that it sees an opportunity to invest an estimated $100 billion in energy transition and climate change solutions projects over the next decade across its businesses.

Blackstone Credit
Blackstone Credit is one of the world’s largest credit-focused asset managers. Blackstone’s Credit and Insurance segment has $295 billion in AUM. Blackstone Credit seeks to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns for our clients by investing across the entire corporate credit market, from public debt to private loans. Our capital supports a wide range of companies across sectors and geographies, enabling businesses to expand, invest, and navigate changing market environments.

1 Source: Preqin, Pitchbook, company websites, and publicly available information as of August 5, 2023. BGREEN III commitments included in this figure are as of August 8, 2023 to reflect final closing amount. Analysis based on universe of private credit funds closed since 2006 with fund sizes of $7B or greater.

Contacts
Kate Holderness
Kate.Holderness@Blackstone.com
646-482-8774

Mariel Seidman-Gati
Mariel.seidmangati@Blackstone.com
917-698-1674

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Pointsharp strengthens its presence in the German market by merging with SIVIS

Main Capital Partners

Pointsharp, backed by Main Capital Partners, today announces its third add-on acquisition of identity and role management specialist SIVIS, based in Germany and Denmark.

Pointsharp, backed by Main Capital Partners, today announces its third add-on acquisition of identity and role management specialist SIVIS, based in Germany and Denmark. Through this strategic merger, Sweden-based Pointsharp continuous its impressive growth journey as it bids to become the leading provider of European-made cybersecurity products, thus strengthening European data sovereignty.

Main first invested in Pointsharp in 2020 to support the company in its next phase of growth, with a keen focus on international expansion throughout Northwestern Europe.  In 2021, Swedish company Secmaker was added to the Pointsharp portfolio, which created a leading Nordic player within user authentication and access management. Further, in 2022, the acquisition of Cryptshare further strengthened Pointsharp’s position as a leading security software player in the European market, with complementary solutions for secure digital communication. Now, with the addition of SIVIS’ strong offering within Identity and role management, the Group is well equipped to compete with global competitors.

Developing a leading European IT security player

Pointsharp, founded in 2006, has grown from 10 FTEs in 2020 to an combined organization of +200 FTEs with local offices in Sweden, Germany, Denmark, Netherlands, Switzerland and Finland with pro-forma revenues in the region of EUR 28 million in 2022. Together the group services +2000 clients such as Akademiska Sjukhuset Uppsala, Atea, Friesland Campina, Webasto, ThyssenKrupp, Audi, Försäkringskassan, Region Blekinge, SICK, Karolinska Institutet, Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund and Nottingham County Council.

The acquisition of SIVIS comes at a time where there is an increasing demand for one-stop-shop software that can support user’s digital life journey, with login & access management, secure communication, on-, off- and cross boarding, role management, maintaining user processes and compliance across organizations.

Niklas Brask, Managing Director at Pointsharp Group, commented: “Pointsharp is on a rapid and exciting journey to build a leading European IT security player. We offer a complete suite of security software solutions to help companies build a better, modern and more secure workplace. By partnering with SIVIS, we are extending our portfolio with a strong Identity Management for SAP and Microsoft environments as well as role management, compliance checks and pioneering AI products in enterprise security.”

Boris Grothues and Philipp Latini, co-CEO’s at SIVIS, added: “We are very proud of the success of SIVIS. Our expertise has positioned us as leaders in our field. The merger with Pointsharp, known for strong and secure authentication in complex enterprise landscapes and encryption solutions, is an exciting development. This strategic move will enable us to offer our customers enhanced security throughout the entire identity lifecycle. Furthermore, we anticipate this merger to unlock even greater potential and opportunities for growth. We look forward to this promising next step in our journey.”

Wessel Ploegmakers, Partner and co-Head of the Nordics office at Main, concluded: “This strategic combination with SIVIS symbolises another important step in Pointsharp’s growth journey as it seeks to become the leading European security player while also competing with the larger US vendors. Furthermore, the acquisition of SIVIS enables Pointsharp to solidify its presence in the strategically important growth market Germany. We are delighted with the improved international outlook for the group as it also simultaneously adds strong and complementary solutions to the already impressive service offering.”

This strategic combination with SIVIS symbolises another important step in Pointsharp’s growth journey as it seeks to become the leading European security player while also competing with the larger US vendors.

– Wessel Ploegmakers, Partner and co-Head of the Nordics office at Main

About

Pointsharp

Pointsharp was founded in 2006 and has since enabled organizations to secure their digital identities and logins by combining the ability to meet the highest security demands and today’s need for user friendly solutions. Pointsharp has a broad solution offering in the Identity and Access Management market related to multi-factor authentication, secure access, encryption, digital signature, user provisioning and password management. The company serves more than 3,000 enterprise organizations globally with high security or sensitive data needs in several different market verticals, including finance, governmental, and industrial.

SIVIS

SIVIS was founded in 1999 and focuses on IDM, risk management, compliance and authorizations with a focus on SAP and Microsoft environments. Using SIVIS’ solutions allows customers to organize and manage roles and identities within the SAP, Microsoft and nearby ecosystems from a single location in an automated and user-friendly manner. Headquartered in Karlsruhe, the company serves more than 250 loyal enterprise customers in several industries, engaging 64 employees. Some of the partners that SIVIS closely collaborates with are Mehrwerk, Voquz and Mindsquare.

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