Category Archives: News

Apollo Funds Provide $200 Million to WEC Energy Group Renewable Portfolio

Apollo Financing Supports WEC Energy’s Renewables Strategy

NEW YORK and MILWAUKEE, Dec. 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Apollo (NYSE: APO) and WEC Energy Group (NYSE: WEC) today announced that certain Apollo-managed funds (the “Apollo Funds”) have purchased approximately $200 million of senior secured notes of WEC Infrastructure Wind Holding II LLC (“Wind Holding”) in a private placement. Wind Holding, a wholly owned subsidiary of WEC Energy Group, owns the Tatanka Ridge and Jayhawk wind farms, which together provide 340 megawatts of renewable power generation and are fully contracted under long-term PPAs with high-quality offtakers.

Shawn Robinson, Partner and Co-Head of Private Fixed Income at Apollo, said, “We are pleased to provide an investment grade private capital solution to a WEC Energy affiliate on behalf of our clients. This high-quality investment supports significant renewable wind energy generation, and we expect to continue growing our relationship with WEC’s clean energy affiliates.”

Wind Holding is part of WEC Energy Group’s nonutility energy infrastructure business, which has agreements in place for majority ownership interests in wind and solar generating facilities that are capable of producing more than 1,700 megawatts of energy. These projects support WEC Energy Group’s aggressive environmental goals and commitment to building a bright, sustainable future that is affordable, reliable and clean.

For Apollo, the transaction aligns with its cross-platform collaborative approach and focus on private fixed income assets suitable for a broad range of clients. The investment also underscores Apollo’s commitment to driving a more sustainable future, including by funding renewable and energy transition assets and companies.

MUFG served as financial advisor to WEC Energy Group on the transaction. “This is MUFG’s second project finance engagement with WEC, and we look forward to continuing our partnership in support of WEC’s effort to build out its portfolio of renewable-energy projects,” said Fred Zelaya, Managing Director of Project Finance with MUFG.

About Apollo
Apollo is a global, high-growth alternative asset manager. In the asset management business, Apollo seeks to provide its clients excess return at every point along the risk-reward spectrum from investment grade to private equity with a focus on three business strategies: yield, hybrid, and equity. For more than three decades, Apollo’s investing expertise across its fully integrated platform has served the financial return needs of its clients and provided businesses with innovative capital solutions for growth. Through Athene, Apollo’s retirement services business, it specializes in helping clients achieve financial security by providing a suite of retirement savings products and acting as a solutions provider to institutions. Apollo’s patient, creative, and knowledgeable approach to investing aligns its clients, businesses it invests in, its team members, and the communities it impacts, to expand opportunity and achieve positive outcomes. As of September 30, 2022, Apollo had approximately $523 billion of assets under management. To learn more, please visit www.apollo.com.

About WEC Energy Group
WEC Energy Group (NYSE: WEC), based in Milwaukee, is one of the nation’s premier energy companies, serving 4.6 million customers in Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota.

The company’s principal utilities are We Energies, Wisconsin Public Service, Peoples Gas, North Shore Gas, Michigan Gas Utilities, Minnesota Energy Resources and Upper Michigan Energy Resources. Another major subsidiary, We Power, designs, builds and owns electric generating plants. In addition, WEC Infrastructure LLC owns a growing fleet of renewable generation facilities in the Midwest.

WEC Energy Group (wecenergygroup.com) is a Fortune 500 company and a component of the S&P 500. The company has approximately 38,000 stockholders of record, 7,000 employees and more than $40 billion of assets.

Apollo Contacts
Noah Gunn
Global Head of Investor Relations
Apollo Global Management, Inc.
(212) 822-0540
IR@apollo.com

Joanna Rose
Global Head of Corporate Communications
Apollo Global Management, Inc.
(212) 822-0491
Communications@apollo.com

WEC Energy Group Contacts
Beth Straka
Senior Vice President – Investor Relations
and Corporate Communications
414-221-4639
Beth.Straka@wecenergygroup.com

Brendan Conway
Director Media Relations
414-221-3728
Brendan.Conway@wecenergygroup.com

MUFG Contact

Assaf Kedem
Vice President, Corporate Communications
(212) 782-4926
akedem@us.mufg.jp


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Source: Apollo Global Management, Inc.

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Consortium led by Capital A acquires Hampden Insurance Group in the Netherlands

Capital-A

On the 9th of December, a group of investors led by Capital A acquired Hampden Insurance Group B.V. (HIG) from Hampden Holdings Ltd. Maas Lloyd, a non-life insurance company, falls under the Hampden Insurance Group. With this acquisition, Maas Lloyd strengthens its position as a nationwide insurance company with a focus on MGA’s and run-off business. The CEO of Maas Lloyd, Elbert-jan Offereins, said the following: “The acquisition of HIG by the consortium fits perfectly with our long-term (growth) ambitions. By bundling our forces, we can strengthen our position in the market and serve our clients in a better manner going forward. Through this acquisition, Maas Lloyd fall back into Dutch hands, which is the first time since its inception in 1984”. The investors of the consortium have acquired 100% of the outstanding shares of HIG. The name Hampden Insurance Group shall be changed to Halcyon Insurance Group going forward and shall remain active as a holding company for Maas Lloyd and other daughter companies.

The consortium is led by Capital A, an investment company active in the Netherlands. Friso Janmaat, the managing partner of Capital A, said the following on the transaction: “Acquiring an insurance company has been on our wish list for a long time. We believe in the strategy that HIG has and trust that they can expand their current activities in the Dutch non-life insurance market with our help.”

HIG will continue to operate with the same workforce, which means that no changes will take place with regards to the main points of contact for business.

Maas Lloyd

N.V. Schadeverzekeringsmaatschappij Maas Lloyd is a non-life insurance company that has been offering run-off services since 2002 and started up business as an active commercial insurer since 2019. Maas Lloyd does so focused on SME companies and private individuals, mainly through MGA’s.

Capital A

Capital A is one of the most established private equity investors in the Netherlands, with a focus on investing in fast (both autonomous and acquisitive) growing companies. Originally started at ABN AMRO in the 1980’s as an investment fund focused on SMEs, Capital A continued independently in 2018 with support from investors such as ABN AMRO, Five Arrows, Alpinvest, Bregal, LGT, entrepreneurs of former portfolio companies and the Capital A team itself. From offices in Amsterdam and Antwerp, Capital A manages approximately EUR 1 billion in assets under management and has a portfolio of more than 30 growth companies that are predominantly active in Europe.

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Inflexion announces Partnership Capital minority investment in YER

Inflexion

Inflexion is pleased to announce it has agreed to make a minority investment into YER, a leading Netherlands-based specialist secondment and recruiting agency. The investment is Inflexion’s second in the Netherlands in the last 12 months following its investment into e-bike component manufacturer enviolo in March 2022. The investment is being made by Inflexion’s dedicated minority investment fund, Partnership Capital II.

Founded in 1987, YER offers high scarcity talent in undersupplied fields such as engineering, IT, public sector and finance to a range of specialist end market verticals. The business has over 950 clients including ASML, Bosch, DAF, KLM, VDL and Rabobank, and operates internationally from nine local offices in the Netherlands, four in the USA and one in Belgium. Inflexion has deep experience in this sector following investments in FDM, K2 Partnering Solutions, Red Commerce, Sparta and Calco.

Working closely with the founder of YER, Jaap Kooijman, and the management team led by CEO Johan Overgaauw, Inflexion will support the growth of the business by further developing existing and new customer relationships and through continued international expansion, both organically as well as through selective M&A.

We are delighted to have partnered with Jaap and Johan and the broader team at YER and look forward to using our strong sector expertise to support them with their ambitious plans. They have built a fantastic business and we are really impressed with the growth journey that YER has been on so far. Our unique minority capital offering will allow them to keep control, whilst having the added benefit of access to Inflexion’s extensive experience of building market leading international companies.

David Whileman,Head of Partnership Capital, Inflexion

This is a really exciting opportunity for YER and the continued potential for the business in both the Netherlands and internationally is huge. We are confident that Inflexion is the right partner for the next stage of our growth and have been impressed with their global presence and sector knowledge, whilst benefiting from a local presence in the Dutch market. This partnership will allow us to continue building out YER, and we can’t wait to get started.

Johan Overgaauw, CEO,

YER

The transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals and is expected to close in Q1 2023. 

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Finnvera calculated the CO2 emissions of the ship finance – The pandemic still affected the cruise industry and the CO2 calculation

Finnvera

Risteilyalus saaristossa.

Finnvera has, for the second time, calculated the carbon intensity of the ship finance portfolio according to the Poseidon Principles climate alingnment agreement. The climate alignment score is 57.3% above the decarbonisation trajectory based on the International Maritime Organisation, IMO’s, initial climate goals for the international shipping. The score differs significantly from the previous year, when the score was 7% below the international trajectory. The score still reflects the impacts of the pandemic, which affected the operating of the ships.

The Poseidon Principles members are leading ship financiers, such as international banks, but there are export credit agencies among them. The principles are consistent with the policies and ambitions of the International Maritime Organization, including its ambition to reduce shipping’s total annual greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% of 2008 levels by 2050. Commitment to the Poseidon Principles is a concrete step in Finnvera’s sustainability and corporate responsibility.

“We calculated the CO2 emissions of our ship finance portfolio for the second time. The score differs significantly from the previous year, partly due to the calculating method. We believe that in the future the score will better correspond to the impact of our ship finance portfolio. We expect next year to be a more stable year for the cruise industry as well as for the CO2 calculation, when the ships will again operate in full capacity”, says Excutive Vice President Jussi Haarasilta.

This is how carbon intensity is measured according to Poseidon Principles

Poseidon Principles measures carbon intensity. The data based on which the overall climate alignment score is calculated is distance travelled, amount of fuel consumption for each fuel type, and size of the vessel. The outstanding debt per vessel also play a role when calculating the weighted average of the scores.

The calculation is based on a formula that takes into account the distance traveled by the vessels during the year. Regarding the calculation, the previous years, especially year 2020, were exceptional due to the pandemic, when cruise ships stayed mainly in ports, but maintenance still produced emissions. Finnvera already got below the target level for the ship finance CO2 emissions, which was positive and reflects the fact that as an export credit agency, Finnvera primarily finances new projects, better technology with fewer emissions.

The CO2 level being reported now has been calculated from the 2021 data, when the pandemic still affected the cruise industry to some extent, although cruise shipping started to recover and ships returned to operate.

Transparency and comparability in export financing is important

The shipyard cluster is significant in Finland, and approximately half of Finnvera’s EUR 23 billion export credit guarantee exposure is related to ship cluster. The share of drawn ship exposure is EUR 6.4 billion (Q3/2022).

”Poseidon Principles have brought measurability and comparability to the monitoring of the climate impacts of Finnvera’s ship finance. Approximately half of Finnvera’s export credit guarantee exposure is related to cruise shipping cluster. Considering the scale, the climate alignment score gives us valuable information about the climate impact of our financing and that of the shipping industry. It also supports assessing the impact of Finnvera’s own operations. We wish to thank our customers for providing the information needed and thereby enabling the monitoring of the CO2 emissions of our ship portfolio.”

”Mitigating climate change is at the core of Finnvera’s strategy. As an export credit agency, Finnvera has good opportunities to influence the development of climate solutions, as we essentially finance new technology with fewer emissions. We believe that in the future there will be less volatility in Finnvera’s climate alignment score”, Jussi Haarasilta says.

Further information:

Jussi Haarasilta, Executive Vice President, Finnvera plc, tel. +368 29 460 2601

Poseidon Principles report 2022 (PDF)

The Poseidon Principles

The Copenhagen-based Poseidon Principles, launched in June 2019, are developed by leading international shipping banks, international industry players and academic institutions as well as export credit agencies. 30 Signatories from 13 different countries together represent over 65% of the global ship finance portfolio. Finnvera became signatory to the Poseidon Principles in April 2021. Among the Signatories, there are also export credit agencies of other countries.

Read more and see previous reports: www.poseidonprinciples.org

Read also:

The Finnish marine industry intends to win the ship development race

2021:

Finnvera calculated the CO2 emissions of the ship finance – The climate alignment score for the year 2021 is below the international trajectory

Finnvera becomes signatory to the Poseidon Principles to measure the greenhouse gas emissions of ship finance

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Strata Identity Partners With HYPR to Accelerate Elimination of Passwords

.406 Venture

BOULDER, CO and New YORK, NY – December 15, 2022 — Strata Identity, the Identity Orchestration Company, and HYPR, the Passwordless CompanyTM, today announced a partnership that enables phishing-resistant MFA to be added to any modern, legacy, or custom application without rewriting the source code. This unique capability is made possible via an abstraction layer that decouples identity and authentication from the identity system and applications to deliver the strongest levels of authentication security.

According to a 2022 Forrester survey, 67 percent of respondents are in the process of adopting passwordless security in their organizations. Passwordless protection is needed across all access points, including legacy applications that may have been neglected or overlooked in the past. Now, through this integration with HYPR and Strata, organizations with older, outdated systems will be able to get the benefits of passwordless authentication security assurance and a frictionless, password-free user experience. This agreement brings together Strata’s specialization in Identity and Policy Orchestration with HYPR’s proven True Passwordless™ authentication expertise. Together, Strata and Hypr customers can overcome the traditionally challenging hurdle of adding MFA to legacy applications — even those tied to directory-based passwords.

Passwordless authentication has been identified as the gold standard for authentication. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released a new “Phishing Resistant MFA Fact Sheet” that calls out the immediate need for fully passwordless protection of every app in critical risk sector organizations, regardless of app type. It also recommended this level of authentication security for organizations in every sector and every application in their organization’s environment, regardless of whether it speaks modern authentication protocols.

“Legacy MFA technologies are failing, at scale, and leaving serious security gaps due to insecure authentication methods costing organizations an average of $2.19M per year as detailed in the latest State of Authentication report, ” said Bojan Simic, CEO and CTO at HYPR. “To get the highest levels of authentication security, organizations need to adopt passwordless MFA. HYPR’s integration with Strata technology is exciting because it now enables customers to extend HYPR’s passwordless authentication solution to legacy applications without coding, radically simplifying and accelerating an organization’s passwordless deployment.”

As part of the joint integration, Strata’s Maverics identity orchestration platform enables HYPR’s True Passwordless security platform to function as the passwordless authenticator with any combination of IdPs and support both on-premises and cloud identity systems. In addition, HYPR can be used with any app, including modern, legacy, and custom-developed programs, without making any modifications to its source code. Maverics also provides transparent journey-time orchestration that allows HYPR registration and user onboarding to be inserted within existing application access workflows.

“Forward-looking organizations are moving to passwordless authentication to protect their web applications in the cloud, but what about their legacy and custom applications? They must be modernized first, which traditionally means manually re-coding each app one by one,” said Eric Olden, CEO of Strata Identity. “This partnership with HYPR removes the need to rewrite legacy applications and systems to support passwordless simplifying the process for deploying modern authentication across a company’s entire environment.”

Availability

The integrated Strata Identity and HYPR passwordless solution is available immediately from both Strata and HYPR.

About Strata

Strata Identity is the leader in Identity Orchestration for hybrid and multi-cloud environments. The orchestration recipe-powered Maverics platform enables organizations to connect and control incompatible identity systems without changing the user access experience. By decoupling applications from identity, Maverics makes it possible to implement modern authentication like passwordless and enforce consistent access policies without refactoring source code. The company’s founders created the IDQL (Identity Query Language) standard and Hexa open-source software for multi-cloud policy orchestration and are co-authors of the SAML standard for SSO federation. For more information, visit us on the Web and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

About HYPR

HYPR fixes the way the world logs in. HYPR’s True Passwordless™ MFA platform decouples authentication from the organization’s identity providers and eliminates the traditional trade-off between security and user experience by providing uncompromising assurance and consumer-grade experience. By eliminating the password and deployments taking hours rather than weeks or months, organizations decrease the risk of a cyber attack, increase positive user experience, and lower operational costs.

Welcome to The Passwordless Company®. Additional information is available at https://www.hypr.com

Contact

Marc Gendron
Marc Gendron PR for Strata
+1-617-877-7480
marc@mgpr.net

HYPR
Carol Dullmeyer
Vice President, Brand and Corporate Communications
carol.dullmeyer@hypr.com

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A new EUR 60 million fund by Saari Partners, focus on service companies

Tesi

The new fund, Saari II, will make majority investments in service SMEs operating in traditional sectors. With special knowhow in branding and digitalisation, Saari Partners strives making its portfolio companies the frontrunners in their sectors.

Investors in Saari II include European Investment Fund (EIF), Nordea Life Assurance Finland Ltd, Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Company, Konstsamfundet, Tesi and the KRR fund-of-fund it manages, in addition to small investors. The fundraising continues in 2023.

”Saari Partners invests in growing Finnish small companies focusing on the service sector. It has gotten a good start, and their first exit shows that their investment strategy is showing results. Saari has excellent know-how in digitalization and branding, and this is transferred to their portfolio companies”, comments Tapio Passinen, Investment Director on Tesi’s Investment Funds team.

Both Tesi and KRR also invested in the first fund by Saari Partners.

 

Read more:

 

Additional information:

Tapio Passinen, Investment Director, Fund Investments
tapio.passinen@tesi.fi
+358 40 840 3681

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Nordic Capital invests in Autocirc, an industry leader with a circular business model for recycled automotive spare parts

Nordic Capital to support growth acceleration and European expansion

Nordic Capital has entered into an agreement to acquire Autocirc, a leader in the automotive aftermarket with a circular business model built on a closed-loop eco-system for reused and recycled automotive original spare parts, from the Nordic sustainable investment fund Alder. The investment is made in partnership with Autocirc’s founders Johan Livered and Mattias Pettersson and aims to accelerate the company’s growth plans and further strengthen its circular offering with a mission to significantly reduce CO2 emissions in the automotive aftermarket industry.

Autocirc is a fast-growing and profitable leader in the automotive aftermarket industry, offering high-quality reused original spare parts to insurers, workshops and car owners. Extending the lifecycle of auto parts significantly reduces costs for insurers and end-customers while at the same time contributing to significant climate savings by lowering carbon emissions with up to 75 percent. The European demand for spare parts is high, and Autocirc’s business model reuses more car parts and revives leftover materials with a clear benefit to the environment. Autocirc is based in Borås, Sweden, and has seen rapid growth supported by 37 acquisitions since inception and has c. 570 employees. The company’s turnover is c. SEK 1.2 bn as of September 2022 and is present in Sweden, Norway, Finland and the UK.

Nordic Capital invests in Autocirc alongside the founders Johan Livered and Mattias Pettersson and management team, to support the company in the next phase of its growth journey to create increasing circular effects at a growing scale. Nordic Capital is an active owner with deep experience in growing industrial and business services companies, and the acquisition of Autocirc follows the well-proven strategy of supporting leading companies through growth acceleration.

Joakim Andreasson, Managing Director, Nordic Capital Advisors, says: “Autocirc is a green pioneer in the automotive aftermarket industry, offering sustainable aftermarket services that significantly reduces emissions and climate impact while providing exceptional value to its customers. We have followed Autocirc for a long time and are very impressed by the founders and the management team who have built a very strong platform with great potential for further expansion in existing and new geographies. Autocirc fits perfectly into Nordic Capital’s strategy to build sustainable, first-class companies with great growth potential, and we look forward to supporting Autocirc with expertise, resources and broad external network”.

Johan Livered, CEO of Autocirc, says: “We are very proud of Autocirc’s growth over the past years and we are excited to enter into a partnership with Nordic Capital as one of the leading European private equity investors with strong international reach and an impressive track record of successful growth acceleration in the industrial and business services sectors. We look forward to further accelerating our journey to truly create a sustainable European leader, with great potential in expanding our offering, both in existing and new markets and across the entire value chain. We have had a tremendous development in recent years and look forward to the next chapter together with Nordic Capital”.

Completion of the transaction is expected to occur in Q1 2023 and is subject to customary closing conditions, including relevant regulatory approvals.

Media contacts:

Nordic Capital
Katarina Janerud, Communications Manager
Nordic Capital Advisors
Tel: +46 8 440 50 50
e-mail: katarina.janerud@nordiccapital.com

Autocirc
Johan Livered, CEO
Tel: +46 727 164 666
e-mail: johan.livered@autocirc.com

About Nordic Capital

Nordic Capital is a leading private equity investor with a resolute commitment to creating stronger, sustainable businesses through operational improvement and transformative growth. Nordic Capital focuses on selected regions and sectors where it has deep experience and a long history. Focus sectors are Healthcare, Technology & Payments, Financial Services, and selectively, Industrial & Business Services. Key regions are Europe and globally for Healthcare and Technology & Payments investments. Since inception in 1989, Nordic Capital has invested close to EUR 22 billion in 130 investments. The most recent fund is Nordic Capital Fund XI with EUR 9 billion in committed capital, principally provided by international institutional investors such as pension funds. Nordic Capital Advisors have local offices in Sweden, the UK, the US, Germany, Denmark, Finland and Norway. For further information about Nordic Capital, please visit www.nordiccapital.com.

“Nordic Capital” refers to, depending on the context, any, or all, Nordic Capital branded entities, vehicles, structures and associated entities. The general partners and/or delegated portfolio managers of Nordic Capital’s entities and vehicles are advised by several non-discretionary sub-advisory entities, any or all of which are referred to as “Nordic Capital Advisors”

About Autocirc

Autocirc is a Nordic group that offers reused and recycled spare parts to the automotive industry. The company’s operations are based on the circular economy model where car parts and materials can be used longer, which means a competitive advantage and major positive effects for the environment. Autocirc was founded in 2019 and has since grown significantly both organically and through acquisitions in Northern Europe. The company’s turnover is c. SEK 1.2 bn as of September 2022 and has a presence in Sweden, Norway, Finland and the UK. The head office is located in Borås in Sweden and there is a total of c. 570 employees in the group. For further information about Autocirc, please visit autocirc.com

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Ardian and Mubadala Capital announce US$2.1 billion private equity partnership transaction

Ardian

15 December 2022 Secondaries & Primaries USA, NEW YORK

Transaction builds on a long-standing relationship between the two organizations

Ardian, a world-leading private investment house, and Mubadala Capital, the asset management arm of Mubadala Investment Company, today announced a new partnership that will see Ardian invest in a portfolio of high-quality private equity assets managed by Mubadala Capital, and in parallel Ardian will make a primary commitment to Mubadala Capital’s Private Equity funds.

Ardian and Mubadala Capital have built a strong relationship since forming a successful initial partnership in 2017, a milestone transaction that established Mubadala Capital as a third-party asset manager and represented the first time a sovereign wealth fund has managed capital on behalf of institutional investors.

As part of this latest transaction, Ardian and Mubadala Capital curated a portfolio of ten limited partnership interests with a leading group of General Partners predominantly in North America and Europe, as well as six high-quality direct investments. All of the assets in the new portfolio were previously held on Mubadala Capital’s balance sheet following a successful spin-off from Mubadala Investment Company in 2021.

Mubadala Capital’s private equity strategy focuses on direct investments in North America and Europe in core sectors where the team has a strong network and track record, including media, sports and entertainment, consumer and food services, financial services and business services.

“This transaction is the culmination of a highly collaborative and close working relationship with Mubadala Capital over the past five years. They are a well-respected team with an established track record, and this latest transaction is indicative of the importance we place on being a valuable long-term partner.” Mark Benedetti, Member of the Ardian Executive Committee and Co-Head of Ardian US

“We are proud to once again partner with a leading firm such as Ardian, with whom we have now been successfully working with for over five years and value the partnership tremendously. This transaction is a significant vote of confidence in our ability to create value for our investors and partners by executing against our strategy and differentiated approach to the private equity market.” Hani Barhoush, Managing Director and CEO of Mubadala Capital

Evercore acted as exclusive financial advisor to Mubadala Capital on this transaction.

ABOUT ARDIAN

Ardian is a world-leading private investment house, managing or advising $140bn of assets on behalf of more than 1,400 clients globally. Our broad expertise, spanning Private Equity, Real Assets and Credit, enables us to offer a wide range of investment opportunities and respond flexibly to our clients’ differing needs. Through Ardian Customized Solutions we create bespoke portfolios that allow institutional clients to specify the precise mix of assets they require and to gain access to funds managed by leading third-party sponsors. Private Wealth Solutions offers dedicated services and access solutions for private banks and family offices worldwide. Ardian is majority-owned by its employees and places great emphasis on developing its people and fostering a collaborative culture based on collective intelligence. Our 990+ employees, spread across 15 offices in Europe, the Americas and Asia, are strongly committed to the principles of Responsible Investment and are determined to make finance a force for good in society. Our goal is to deliver excellent investment performance combined with high ethical standards and social responsibility.
At Ardian we invest all of ourselves in building companies that last.

www.ardian.com

ABOUT MUBADALA CAPITAL

Mubadala Capital is the wholly owned asset management subsidiary of Mubadala Investment Company, a $284 billion global sovereign investor headquartered in Abu Dhabi. Mubadala Capital manages c. $17 billion in aggregate across its own balance sheet investments and in third-party capital vehicles on behalf of institutional investors, including four private equity funds, three early-stage venture funds and two funds in Brazil focused on special situations. The growth of Mubadala Capital as a global asset management firm with headquarters in Abu Dhabi and a focus on international investment activities is a further testament of Mubadala Investment Company’s entrepreneurial approach to business building and a continued diversification away from a reliance on natural resources.

mubadalacapital.ae

Press contacts

ARDIAN

THE NEIBART GROUP Emma Murphy

ardian@neibartgroup.com  

MUBADALA CAPITAL

Salam Kitmitto

sakitmitto@mubadala.ae +971 50 276 9286

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GBC Gruppe acquires IT system software integrator Maxxys

GBC Gruppe entered into an agreement to acquire Maxxys. The acquisition is the third in GBC’s buy and build story and added a managed services provider with a focus on infrastructure and security managed services to the group.

Pride Capital Partners continues to support GBC’s buy and build strategy. The investment will enable GBC on its path to building a leading IT managed services group in the market with a clear focus on added customer value and the creation of a preferred place to work for talents.

Maxxys is founded in 2002 and is located in Butzbach, Germany. The company offers services and consulting for endpoint management, service management, security, operation and automation. The product portfolio consists of well-known software solutions such as USU, DriveLock and invanti, thereby serving large blue chip customer base.

According to Pascal Bechtel (CEO GBC Gruppe) , this acquisition fits in the ambitions of the organization: “We are pleased to embark on this joint path with Maxxys, as we will be able to significantly expand our expertise in the area of security and operations and provide our customers with a broader portfolio.”

Bernhard Bock, CEO of Maxxys, will stay on board to support future growth: “We want to take Maxxys AG to the next level to support SMEs even better with the expert team of the entire GBC Group. The merger allows us to expand and broaden our business. We look forward to leveraging synergies for the benefit of our customers.”

Lars van ‘t Hoenderdaal, Managing Partner Pride Capital Partners, likes to emphasize that “GBC management is able to build a strong managed service group in the DACH region with a profitable and recurring business model. We are enthusiastic in supporting GBC in this strategic acquisition, as well as future acquisitions”.

Pride Capital Partners

Pride Capital Partners invests into growing companies in Software and IT services. By combining private debt and equity, Pride Capital Partners enables entrepreneurs to realize growth ambitions with a flexible capital solution. Typical scenarios include growth, acquisitions, and management buyout transactions. The focus is on companies in the Benelux, DACH region and Nordics. Pride Capital Partners has offices in Amsterdam, Cologne, Frankfurt and per 2023 also in Copenhagen.

Pride Capital Partners’ resources have been made available by shareholders, institutional investors, wealthy individuals, family offices and (former)entrepreneurs. The current portfolio includes Benelux companies Blue Field Agency, Spotzer Digital, Fivespark, Fairbanks, Netaxis, ScanmarQED, Archipel, Matrixian and Dileoz, as well as DACH companies Wagawin, GBC Gruppe, Architrave, Kendox, moveXM, eKomi, Talentsconnect and Link11.

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tepeo raises £10.5 million to transform the way homes are heated

BGF

tepeo, the British designer of the Zero Emission Boiler (ZEB®), has secured £10.5 million in funding to fuel the next stage of the company’s growth and bring it a step closer to its ambition of transforming the way homes are heated.

BGF is leading the round and is joined by tepeo’s existing investors Clean Growth Fund (CGF), Bonheur and Renewable Environmental Investments Ltd, all backing the future of clean, green and affordable home heating.

tepeo’s patented ZEB is a direct plug-n-play replacement for a gas, oil, LPG or electric boiler, and is a low carbon alternative without compromising on performance. Instead of relying on fossil fuels, its proprietary technology is powered by electricity and works like a battery to store heat efficiently until it is needed.

At present, 17% of all UK carbon emissions come from heating our homes. For most people this means that their homes present one of the easiest ways to reduce their carbon emissions significantly. Reducing this figure is a key component in addressing the climate crisis and meeting the UK’s ambitious carbon reduction targets by 2035.

The benefits of a ZEB stretch beyond carbon reduction, tackling local air pollution by eliminating the emission of particulates and other pollutants from domestic boilers. ZEBs have been designed to provide Demand Side Response (DSR) and flexibility services such as frequency response to Distribution Network Operators and National Grid, thereby supporting the needs of an increasingly low carbon electricity grid.

The funding will enable the British firm to develop its Wokingham head office, growing its production, R&D, assembly and commercial teams, as well as expanding sales across the UK. The goal is to decarbonise domestic heating and provide grid stability services that will support the deployment of further renewable generation across the national grid.

Johan du Plessis, founder and CEO of tepeo, said: “In the last twelve months we have launched our first ZEB and received an overwhelming amount of interest from consumers. We’ve tripled the size of the business and built a solid foundation for scale. This investment from BGF and our existing investors will enable us to scale-up our manufacturing and commercial operations, to offer ZEBs to more and more people across the UK and to start making meaningful progress on decarbonising heating. A ZEB is a simple, low carbon, plug ‘n’ play boiler replacement for consumers and will increasingly play a critical role in reducing the cost of the energy transition and stabilising the electricity networks. This funding is a clear vote of confidence in the enormous size of the opportunity ahead of us and our plans for expansion in order to address it.”

Dennis Atkinson, investor at BGF, said: “We are excited to be investing in tepeo, and in doing so, supporting the UK transition to a low carbon economy. Tepeo is at the forefront of the urgent activity being undertaken to reduce emissions from households and their innovative technology has an important role to play in the electrification of heating. tepeo’s ability to store and discharge heat in a cost-effective manner will also prove crucial in delivering this transition in an efficient way, at a time when energy costs are of crucial importance to consumers.  We look forward to working with Johan and his talented team and supporting tepeo to achieve its full growth potential.”

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