Category Archives: News

Partners Group to lead delivery of 226MW wind farm project in Australia

Partners Group

Partners Group, the global private markets investment manager, has agreed on behalf of its clients to invest over AUD 200 million in equity to acquire and construct the first stage of Murra Warra Wind Farm (Murra Warra I) in Australia. The 226MW wind farm is being acquired from Renewable Energy Systems (RES) and Macquarie Capital, which jointly developed the project.

Partners Group is leading the delivery of Murra Warra I, which will comprise 61 Senvion 3.7MW turbines with a total nameplate capacity of 226MW, located approximately 30 kilometers north of Horsham in the state of Victoria. RES will work alongside Partners Group to provide certain ongoing services to support the project.

Construction of Murra Warra I commenced in March 2018 and is expected to be completed in mid-2019. The project has already entered into long-term power purchase agreements for a substantial portion of its generation output with investment grade commercial and industrial customers, including Telstra, Australia’s largest telecommunications company, Coca-Cola Amatil, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ), the University of Melbourne and Monash University.

Once completed, Murra Warra I will generate enough clean energy to power 220,000 Australian households and offset over 900,000 tonnes of carbon emissions every year. The wind farm is also expected to support around 150 jobs in regional Victoria during construction, stimulating further investment in local businesses and services.

Benjamin Haan, Partner, Co-Head Private Infrastructure Asia-Pacific, Partners Group, states: “We continue to believe the Australian renewable energy sector is benefiting from a transformative trend, with a significant amount of coal-fired generation retirements expected in the coming decade. Investing into a project such as Murra Warra I, where we can enter during the construction phase and successfully deliver the project through to its operation phase, is consistent with our ‘building core’ strategy in infrastructure and is Partners Group’s fourth major wind farm investment in Australia since 2015. The project brings additional scale and diversification to our portfolio and is one of the highest-quality wind resource sites in Australia’s National Electricity Market.”

The Murra Warra I investment follows Partners Group’s recent AUD 700 million commitment to develop Grassroots Renewable Energy Platform (“Grassroots”), a large-scale platform that aims to construct over 1.3GW of new wind power, solar power and battery storage assets across Australia within the next four years. Once operational, Grassroots is expected to become a category leader in the Australian power market as one of the country’s largest independent power producers in the renewables sector. Also in the Australian renewable energy sector, in June 2015, Partners Group invested into the development of the 240MW Ararat Wind Farm, which started supplying clean energy to the Australian national grid in mid-2017.

Andrew Kwok, Senior Vice President, Co-Head Private Infrastructure Asia-Pacific, Partners Group, comments: “Murra Warra I and Grassroots add to our substantial portfolio of renewable energy assets across the Asia-Pacific region. Since 2014, we have delivered over 900MW of renewable energy generation capacity in the region, with another 490MW currently under construction. In order to ensure such large-scale projects are completed on time and within budget, experience has taught us that it is important to focus on procuring construction items with long lead times in a timely manner, having the right in-house expertise to identify and manage risks and partnering with counterparties who bring the right capabilities and experience to deliver a project.”

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Clarify Health Solutions Raises $57 Million in Series B Financing Round Led by KKR

KKR

nvestment will fuel company’s growth in building the industry’s first real-time care guidance platform

SAN FRANCISCO & NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Clarify Health Solutions, Inc. (“Clarify” or the “Company”), a pioneer in real-time care guidance technology, today announced that it has closed $57 million in a Series B financing round led by KKR, a global investment firm. Building upon the Company’s rapid customer expansion in 2018, the injection of new capital will fuel the Company’s growth on its mission to power the personalization and optimization of every care journey.

Clarify brings hospital, health insurance, and life sciences customers the latest financial services and consumer technologies coupled with the deep clinical expertise needed to power innovative care delivery models. Clarify’s solutions deploy predictive analytics and machine learning on a comprehensive data set of over 20 terabytes – representing clinical, claims, social determinant, laboratory, and prescription data – to provide actionable insights and automate care navigation. The Company’s Care Journey Platform enables doctors to gain the confidence of matching patients to the most appropriate care, while patients benefit from real-time visibility and guidance.

Clarify plans to use the new funding to expand its clinical transformation, sales, engineering, and data science teams, to acquire new data assets, and to accelerate the development of its digital care guidance platform. This will help widen Clarify’s reach in supporting customers in their delivery of more effective and delightful care to patients nationwide.

“We are thrilled to partner with KKR to build the world’s first real-time care guidance platform,” said Jean Drouin, MD, CEO and Co-Founder, Clarify Health Solutions. “We are entering a new era, where technology can help us to reimagine care delivery. We have accepted for far too long that an accessible, service-oriented, and customer-centric experience is simply unattainable in health care. We are committed to making the words ‘delightful,’ ‘healed,’ and ‘affordable’ far more common in the health care lexicon.”

For KKR, the investment is being funded through the firm’s Health Care Strategic Growth Fund, which is focused on investing in high-growth health care-related companies for which KKR can be a unique partner in helping reach scale.

“Today’s health care market is not only very complicated but also extremely fragmented and marked by patient dissatisfaction,” said Ali Satvat, Member of KKR and Head of KKR’s Health Care Strategic Growth investing efforts. “The impressive and highly experienced team at Clarify is addressing this problem by bringing the power of technology to the industry in a way in which it has not been applied to date. We are delighted to partner with Clarify on this effort to enable a more effective, efficient, and simply better health care experience for both physicians and the patients who need it.”

Clarify delivers precise care guidance through its three primary solutions:

Clarify Care Prism

Clarify’s machine-learning analytics solution provides case-mix adjusted insights on performance in value-based payment programs and beyond. The solution unlocks granular clinical and operational variation insights on performance at the facility, physician, and/or patient levels with compelling, easily understandable visuals that empower change. Clarify recently became a Qualified Entity (QE), gaining access to the full Medicare data set for parts A, B, and D, through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

“The Clarify Care Journey Platform is built upon an ever-growing data set that represents one third of the U.S. population and over 20% of our nation’s health care spend,” said Todd Gottula, President, CTO and Co-Founder, Clarify Health Solutions. “We are giving customers a rare insight into the precise drivers of cost, quality, and outcomes, at the patient level, completely revolutionizing how care journeys are mapped and directed by clinicians.”

Clarify Care Pilot

Clarify’s real-time patient engagement solution effectively guides the patient through his or her care journey. A doctor or health care professional prescribes a personalized “care map” directly to the patient via the mobile or browser-based app. Care Pilot is designed to engage the patient outside of the clinic by providing critical information about care regimens, collecting self-reported data, and enabling communication with care teams through real-time patient monitoring.

Clarify Care Connect

Clarify’s real-time care navigation solution empowers clinicians to monitor and guide patients efficiently through their journey of care in real time. Granular patient stratification and journey assignment at the beginning of a journey creates a workstation for the efficient management of a panel of patients. Ongoing assessment of patient risk levels, prioritized alerts to focus on patients requiring intervention, and critical patient-level information are all easily accessible by the care team.

About Clarify Health Solutions

Our vision is to power better care by personalizing and optimizing every care journey. Clarify delivers the insights and digital solutions that empower physicians, health systems, and payers to optimize care and thrive in a value-based world. The Clarify platform seamlessly integrates powerful analytics, artificial intelligence, real-time patient navigation, and smart workflows to guide patients and their caregivers proactively through personalized care journeys. Clarify brings committed and passionate colleagues with backgrounds in big data and AI engineering from financial services together with extensive clinical operations expertise. The team has a track record of achieving over $1 billion in improvement at more than 125 health systems, payers, and pharmaceutical companies and deploying cloud-based software at over 5,000 institutions. For more information, please visit http://www.clarifyhealth.com.

About KKR

KKR is a leading global investment firm that manages multiple alternative asset classes, including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate and credit, with strategic manager partnerships that manage hedge funds. KKR aims to generate attractive investment returns for its fund investors by following a patient and disciplined investment approach, employing world-class people, and driving growth and value creation with KKR portfolio companies. KKR invests its own capital alongside the capital it manages for fund investors and provides financing solutions and investment opportunities through its capital markets business. References to KKR’s investments may include the activities of its sponsored funds. For additional information about KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE: KKR), please visit KKR’s website at www.kkr.com and on Twitter @KKR_Co.

 

Clarify Health Solutions
Kendall Reischl, 408-768-3176
kendall@clarifyhealth.com
KKR
Kristi Huller or Cara Major, 212-750-8300
media@kkr.com

Source: Clarify Health Solutions, Inc

 

 

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Atomico invests in Beekeeper: Using Saas to connect the unconnected

Atomico

Two billion people – or 80% of the world’s workforce – do not spend their day at a desk. As a result, this massive scattered workforce is often forgotten when it comes to the rapid advances in workplace productivity software the rest of us often take for granted. In many industries, knowledge workers back at HQ get more and more productive while others in the field are often left to fend for themselves.

One of the core problems with workforce communication and management: in the absence of a a corporate email address, how does a security worker talk to HR? How does a cleaner reach out to a colleague or manager?

Aligning employees without email addresses or corporate devices with the entire organisation in a centralised, secure environment is a major challenge. 75% of the non-desk workforce currently use their personal mobile devices to communicate with co-workers, and the lack of functional tools usually forces employees to use consumer-based workarounds like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger. Even aside from the obvious management & oversight challenges associated with this, cybersecurity scandals and GDPR compliance drive home the inadequacy of this approach.

Beekeeper has emphatically solved this problem. They’ve built the world’s most flexible secure communication and operations platform for non-desk based and on-demand workers. Powerful tools to allow communication between workers and managers means higher team engagement, a more cohesive culture and reduced turnover.

 

 

Over the last few years, we’ve watched Beekeeper founders Cris & Flavio and their team build a world-class product and exceptional culture. They’ve gone head-to-head with some of the world’s leading employee communications platforms, and won. Repeatedly. They are the perfect example of best in class SaaS products we believe will continue to emerge from Europe at an accelerating pace.

Beekeeper’s approach – which was designed for the hospitality, manufacturing, retail, construction, transport and logistics, food production, NGOs and healthcare industries – takes into account how diverse staff can be today. Employees and managers can communicate across languages and geographies using one unified app. Utilising the latest approaches in machine translation, Beekeeper can translate seamlessly across languages – a feat that would have been impossible just a few years ago.

We were impressed to see the team realize the importance of building security, compliance, and integration at the core of the app, making a point of hiring a veteran executive to lead compliance early in the company’s history. The result is a platform that consistently wins over security conscious yet user experience driven enterprises, from Hilton to Heathrow.

At Atomico, we back founders using technology to rewire the world towards something better for as many people as possible. We believe technology should make a positive impact on everyone’s lives and work.

This is why we are proud to join our friends at Keen Ventures and co-lead Beekeeper’s Series A extension. We’re in good company – a diverse group of strategic investors is enthusiastically joining us, including Samsung NEXT, Edenred Capital Partners and Swiss Post.

Beekeeper joins the stable of enterprise SaaS companies that Atomico is proud to support, including Pipedrive, Bitmovin, and Scandit. One thing they all have in common is that they’ve set the world in their sights from the get-go. Beekeeper calls Switzerland home but already serves customers in 130 countries.

We look forward to helping Cris and the Beekeeper build the category winning company we see them being. Now, more than ever, it’s critical that non “knowledge workers” aren’t left behind by the digital transformation occurring absolutely everywhere.

 

 

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TowerBrook signs definitive agreement for sale of Wilton Brands

New York – September 10, 2018 – TowerBrook Capital Partners L.P. (“TowerBrook”), an international investment management firm, today announced the sale of Wilton Brands, a baking, cake decorating and candy making brand, to Dr. August Oetker KG (“Dr. Oetker”). Financial terms were not disclosed, and the transaction is expected to close by the end of the year.

Dr. Oetker is a Germany based, privately held, global food and beverage company, which includes baking products and baked goods. Both companies were family-founded and share a long and rich heritage in baking.

The sale to Dr. Oetker positions Wilton Brands to draw on both companies’ strengths and combined knowledge as the business continues to grow and innovate for the benefit of customers, retail partners and employees. Wilton’s product portfolio and strong brand makes it a compelling fit for Dr. Oetker as the company accelerates its expansion in the U.S.

Since TowerBrook acquired Wilton Brands in 2009, the company re-focused on its baking and food core while successfully divesting non-core businesses. Wilton products can be found on shelves at Walmart, Target, Michael’s, Kroger and grocers across the U.S., as well as on Amazon, and are distributed through partners on every continent.

Wilton Brands will remain headquartered in Naperville, Illinois and will be run as a division within the broad portfolio of companies owned by Dr. Oetker. Sue Buchta will remain in her role as CEO of Wilton Brands.

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HENDRIX GENETICS ramps up investment in US| NPM CAPITAL

NPM Capital

Hendrix Genetics has substantially expanded and upgraded its US facilities, including its turkey hatcheries and prawn and trout farms. These investments will help the global leader in animal genetics to significantly strengthen its position in the US market.

Highest-quality turkeys

The company has invested tens of millions of dollars in the construction of two new hatcheries and various new egg production facilities. In addition, Hendrix Genetics has purchased new state-of-the-art trucks equipped with hatching facilities and established a modern distribution network to increase the number of turkey deliveries in the United States and beyond. Through these investments, the NPM Capital portfolio company guarantees a reliable supply of the highest-quality products.

Hendrix Genetics opened the first state-of-the-art hatchery in Grand Island, Nebraska in late 2017, with a capacity of 100,000 one-day old chicks a day, five days a week. This investment comes in the wake of a major upgrade carried out at the grandparent stock facility in Virginia.

The new barns were built in accordance with Hendrix Genetics’ stringent guidelines, to ensure that its high quality standards are complied with across the entire supply chain.

Increased prawn exports

Since partnering with Hawaiian-based Kona Bay Marine Resources in 2017, Hendrix Genetics also supplies prawns. A brand-new packaging and shipping facility recently became operational on the premises of the hatchery on the island of Kauai. The investment will help to boost prawn exports, while maintaining the current high quality levels.

Top-quality trout

The trout farm operated by Hendrix Genetics in Washington State has been a global supplier of the finest trout for more than 70 years. These high quality levels are also guaranteed through investments in research capacity and a major extension of the Family Genetics building. The company’s incubator is currently one of the largest privately-owned facilities of its kind worldwide.

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EQT Credit provides financing for Summa Equity’s investment in HyTest

eqt

EQT Credit, through its Mid-Market Credit investment strategy, today announced that is has provided a senior secured financing solution to support Summa Equity’s investment in HyTest.

Founded in 1994 as a spinoff from a project within Turku University, HyTest is a high-quality, global antibody and antigens manufacturer and supplier, primarily targeting in vitro diagnostics (IVD) OEMs and research organizations. The company is headquartered in Turku, Finland and employs 112 people.

Paul Johnson, Partner at EQT Partners’ Credit team, Investment Advisor to EQT Mid-Market Credit, commented: “HyTest is recognized globally as a high-quality supplier of antibodies to IVD companies and to the research community. The company operates in an attractive market driven by non-cyclical, stable growth drivers. EQT Credit looks forward to supporting HyTest and its management team under Summa’s ownership”.

Alexandre Hökfelt, Director at EQT Partners’ Credit team, Investment Advisor to EQT Mid-Market Credit, added: “The transaction represents EQT Mid-Market Credit’s second unitranche in Finland this summer and we would like to thank EQT’s Industrial Advisors, who as senior executives in the IVD space, provided key support to the EQT Credit deal team throughout the due diligence process”.

Contacts
Paul Johnson, Partner at EQT Partners, Investment Advisor to EQT Mid-Market Credit, +44 203 372 9424
Alexandre Hökfelt, Director at EQT Partners, Investment Advisor to EQT Mid-Market Credit, +44 203 372 9414
EQT Press Office, +46 8 506 55 334, press@eqtpartners.com

About EQT Credit
EQT Credit invests through four complementary strategies: Senior Debt, Mid-Market Credit (direct lending), Core Value and Credit Opportunities. Since inception, EQT Credit has invested in excess of EUR 5 billion in over 160 companies. EQT Credit’s direct lending strategy seeks to provide flexible, long-term debt capital solutions to medium-sized European businesses, across a wide range of sectors. These businesses may be privately-owned corporates seeking alternative funding to grow or be the subject of private equity-led acquisitions or refinancings.

More info: www.eqtpartners.com/Investment-Strategies/Credit

About EQT
EQT is a leading investment firm with approximately EUR 50 billion in raised capital across 27 funds. EQT funds have portfolio companies in Europe, Asia and the US with total sales of more than EUR 19 billion and approximately 110,000 employees. EQT works with portfolio companies to achieve sustainable growth, operational excellence and market leadership.

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ARDIAN Private Debt provides additional financing for ALPEGA’S aquisition of WTRANSNET

Ardian

London/Frankfurt, September, ­6, 2018 – Ardian, a world leading private investment house, today announces that it has provided additional financing to Alpega, a leading global logistic software company, to support the company’s add-on acquisition of wtransnet, a leading freight exchange company in Spain. The financing underlines the continued expansion of Ardian Private Debt’s Senior Debt direct lending capabilities across Europe.

Formed in 2017 via a carve-out transaction led by Castik Capital, Alpega Group is a leading global logistics software company that offers end-to-end solutions covering a wide range of transport needs, including TMS solutions and freight exchanges, offering its customers the largest network of carriers in Europe. The transaction with wtransnet will help increase Alpega’s liquidity in terms of shipments and trucks for all freight exchanges in the Group. This will improve the value proposition to customers who will be able to access a wider market in the future.

Founded in 1996, wtransnet is the leading freight exchange in Spain and Portugal with a growing footprint in other countries. The Company has experienced significant growth in the past by creating an appealing product that is currently used by more than 11,500 customers.

Lukas Stepanek, Director at Ardian Private Debt in Germany, said: “As an existing financing partner, we are delighted to see the remarkable progress of the Group from a carve-out transaction to an established logistics software platform. We are looking forward to support Castik Capital and the Group as a long-term financing partner in their strategy to build an end-to-end solution for its customer base.”

Ulrik Hjorth, CFO of Alpega Group, said: “We appreciate the continued support and close cooperation with Ardian Private Debt since the initial investment. The relationship with Ardian Private Debt has allowed us to continue our buy and build strategy, and we are pleased to have chosen a long-term financing partner with the capacity to provide follow-on financing in support of our expansion strategy.”

ABOUT ARDIAN

Ardian is a world-leading private investment house with assets of US$71bn managed or advised in Europe, the Americas and Asia. The company is majority-owned by its employees. It keeps entrepreneurship at its heart and focuses on delivering excellent investment performance to its global investor base.
Through its commitment to shared outcomes for all stakeholders, Ardian’s activities fuel individual, corporate and economic growth around the world.
Holding close its core values of excellence, loyalty and entrepreneurship, Ardian maintains a truly global network, with more than 530 employees working from fourteen offices across Europe (Frankfurt, Jersey, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Milan, Paris and Zurich), the Americas (New York, San Francisco and Santiago) and Asia (Beijing, Singapore, Tokyo). It manages funds on behalf of around 700 clients through five pillars of investment expertise: Funds of Funds, Direct Funds, Infrastructure, Real Estate and Private Debt.
www.ardian.com

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KKR Closes $7.4 Billion Global Infrastructure Fund

KKR

NEW YORK & LONDON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Sep. 6, 2018– KKR, a leading global investment firm, today announced the final closing of KKR Global Infrastructure Investors III (the “Fund”), a $7.4 billion fund focused on pursuing global infrastructure investment opportunities with an emphasis on investments in OECD countries. KKR will be investing $358 million in capital alongside external investors through KKR’s balance sheet and employee commitments.

“The current scale of global infrastructure investment demand is simply enormous, and is only growing, with the need outstripping capital available,” said Raj Agrawal, KKR Member and Global Head of KKR’s infrastructure business. “This dynamic, coupled with limited public financing sources, has created a significant need for private capital to provide infrastructure solutions. We believe our sector expertise and global platform uniquely position us to help fill this funding gap and we look forward to our continued growth in, and commitment to, the infrastructure asset class.”

KKR has a risk-based, rather than a sector-based, approach to infrastructure investing. Consistent with this approach, the Fund will focus on critical infrastructure investments with low volatility and strong downside protection where KKR believes it can leverage its global value creation resources to tackle complexity in sourcing, structuring, operations, and execution. By doing so, the Fund aims to deliver attractive returns with a low risk profile from a portfolio that is broadly diversified across a number of different infrastructure sub-sectors, geographies and asset types. The Fund has a broad investment mandate across infrastructure sectors, including but not limited to: energy; transportation; water, wastewater and waste; social infrastructure; and communications infrastructure. The Fund will also focus its investment mandate on the OECD countries predominantly in North America and Western Europe.

KKR first established a dedicated infrastructure team and strategy in 2008. Since then, the team has grown to consist of 25 experienced investment professionals and has completed or announced 25 infrastructure transactions across a number of sub-sectors and geographies. With the closing of the Fund, KKR’s infrastructure business manages approximately $13 billion in assets under management. Recent transactions by the Fund include Starlight, which owns a portfolio of approximately 10,200 telecommunication towers across France, and Discovery Midstream, the largest private natural gas gathering and processing business in Colorado’s Denver-Julesburg Basin.

The Fund received strong backing from a diverse group of new and existing global investors, including public pensions, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, family offices, high net worth individual investors and other institutional investors.

“Since first launching the Fund, we were thrilled to see the incredible momentum we received from investors – both those who were early and large supporters of our predecessor funds and also those who were first-time investors with us as well as the asset class,” said Alisa Amarosa Wood, KKR Member and Head of KKR’s Private Market Products Group. “The enthusiasm we saw across all geographies and investor types demonstrates the strong support for our infrastructure team, strategy and investment performance to date. Additionally, we have seen infrastructure as an asset class mature and grow in the way investors allocate capital to the space. The support for our Fund also speaks to this evolution of the asset class. We believe this continues to be important as the need for infrastructure capital from an investment perspective only grows.”

About KKR

KKR is a leading global investment firm that manages multiple alternative asset classes, including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate and credit, with strategic manager partnerships that manage hedge funds. KKR aims to generate attractive investment returns for its fund investors by following a patient and disciplined investment approach, employing world-class people, and driving growth and value creation with KKR portfolio companies. KKR invests its own capital alongside the capital it manages for fund investors and provides financing solutions and investment opportunities through its capital markets business. References to KKR’s investments may include the activities of its sponsored funds. For additional information about KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE: KKR), please visit KKR’s website at www.kkr.com and on Twitter @KKR_Co.

Source: KKR

Media:
KKR
Kristi Huller or Cara Major, +1 212-750-8300
media@kkr.com

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EagleClaw Midstream Announces Acquisition of Caprock Midstream

Blackstone

Strategic acquisition reinforces EagleClaw’s best-in-class service offering by adding complementary natural gas gathering, processing, and compression assets in close proximity to existing system; expanding EagleClaw’s offering to crude and water services; and adding new customers, volumes, and high-quality dedicated acreage

Midland & Houston, TX, September 5, 2018 – EagleClaw Midstream (“EagleClaw”), a portfolio company of Blackstone Energy Partners, announced today that it has entered into binding agreements to acquire Caprock Midstream Holdings (“Caprock”) from Energy Spectrum Capital and Caprock Midstream Management for $950 million plus pre-closing adjustments.  The all-cash transaction is expected to close in 2018 and will be funded with equity and committed debt financing from Barclays Plc.  EagleClaw’s current executive leadership team will lead the combined business, which shall operate under the EagleClaw name, following the closing of the transaction.

EagleClaw is the largest privately held midstream operator in the Permian’s Delaware Basin in West Texas.  The company’s assets are strategically located in Reeves, Ward, and Culberson counties and include more than 550 miles of natural gas and natural gas liquids (“NGL”) pipelines and 720 million cubic feet per day (“MMcf/d”) of processing capacity.  EagleClaw serves many of the region’s leading oil and gas producers, who have committed long-term dedications of natural gas volumes to the company from over 310,000 acres.  Since being acquired by Blackstone last year, EagleClaw has more than doubled its processed volumes and system capacity, increased the amount of acreage under long-term dedication by over 55%, and entered into partnerships with Kinder Morgan and Targa to improve its customers’ takeaway options for natural gas and NGLs.

Caprock is a privately held midstream operator that provides gathering, processing, and disposal services for natural gas, crude oil, and produced water to producers in the Delaware Basin.  Caprock’s assets are strategically located in the core of the southern Delaware Basin in Reeves and Ward counties.  Caprock currently operates two natural gas processing facilities and will have 540 MMcf/d of processing capacity pro forma for the completion of two additional facilities currently under construction.  Caprock also operates almost 300 miles of gas, crude, natural gas liquids, and water gathering pipelines; 23 MBbls of crude storage (expected to grow to over 60 MBbls within the next twelve months); and water disposal facilities with capacity of 210 MBpd (with an additional 375 MBpd of additional capacity planned and permitted).  Caprock serves several highly active producers, which have made long-term dedications for natural gas, crude and / or water-related services totaling over 115,000 acres.

The acquisition of Caprock is complementary to EagleClaw and further solidifies the company’s position as the midstream partner of choice for producers in the Delaware Basin.  Pro forma for the closing of the transaction, EagleClaw will operate close to 850 miles of natural gas, natural gas liquids, crude and water gathering pipelines; 1.3 billion cubic feet per day of processing capacity; and crude and water storage facilities, with over 425,000 acres under long-term dedication for midstream services.  The acquisition of Caprock expands EagleClaw beyond natural gas gathering and processing related services into crude- and water-related services, providing opportunities for EagleClaw to offer a broad suite of midstream services to both existing and new customers.  The transaction also benefits EagleClaw’s and Caprock’s customers by improving flow assurance and reliability and providing additional flexibility for customers’ natural gas, crude, and NGL takeaway.

The transaction has been structured such that the existing Caprock operating company (which will be renamed EagleClaw Midstream II) will be a sister-entity to the existing EagleClaw operating business (EagleClaw Midstream Ventures LLC) following the closing, under common ownership and management by the same corporate parent.  The acquirer under the transaction documents and borrower of the acquisition financing will be a newly-established partnership, completely distinct from the existing EagleClaw credit group.  All field personnel of Caprock will be offered opportunities to remain with the company following the closing.  The Caprock water assets will be operated under a services agreement with Waterfield, a Blackstone-backed partnership focused on long-term full-cycle water solutions for upstream companies in the Permian Basin.

EagleClaw CEO Perspective

“We are delighted to welcome Caprock’s customers and their employees into the EagleClaw team,” said Bob Milam, EagleClaw’s founder and CEO.  “I have known and respected Mike Forbau, Caprock’s co-founder and CEO, for over 20 years.  We look forward to building on the great footprint that Mike and the Caprock team have assembled to date and providing Caprock’s customers with best-in-class service consistent with our record of safe and reliable performance.”  Jamie Welch, EagleClaw’s President and CFO, added, “Following our recent announcement of the Permian Highway Pipeline in partnership with Kinder Morgan, the acquisition of Caprock is another exciting chapter in the continued growth story of EagleClaw.  This transaction expands our business in every aspect, from asset footprint, to customer diversity, to breadth of service offering, while remaining true to EagleClaw’s core mission of providing customer-focused midstream services in the Permian basin.”

From Blackstone Energy Partners

“As investors across the energy value chain, with extensive holdings of upstream and midstream businesses, we have firsthand appreciation for the critical nature of EagleClaw’s services, the importance of safe and reliable operations, and the mutually beneficial relationship with the company’s producer customers,” said David Foley, CEO of Blackstone Energy Partners.  “We look forward to serving Caprock’s customers under the EagleClaw platform and continuing to provide midstream services to address the rapidly growing needs of Permian producers.”  Eric Liaw, Senior Managing Director at Blackstone, added, “We acquired EagleClaw with a vision of growing the business into a major, fully-integrated midstream player, delivering comprehensive value-added services to Permian Basin producers.  Following our partnerships with Targa on the Grand Prix JV pipeline and with Kinder Morgan on the Permian Highway Pipeline, the acquisition of Caprock further broadens EagleClaw’s business and enhances the company’s value to its customers.”

From Caprock

“Caprock was formed with the intention of providing producers with a focused service partner in a high growth basin. We have enjoyed working with our key customers to facilitate the development of the Delaware Basin, a world class resource. We are proud of the work our team has done from tying-in the first exploratory wells on this acreage to building infrastructure to enable our customer’s transition to pad development,” stated Mike Forbau, CEO of Caprock.  “As the basin transitions to a larger scale of development, we believe the capital intensity of a large private equity sponsor such as Blackstone will be a great addition to the Caprock business,” added Sanjay Bishnoi, CFO of Caprock.  “The Caprock system and the EagleClaw system share a lot of geographical and operational synergy,”  stated David Ferer, COO of Caprock.  “We firmly believe the EagleClaw team will integrate the two systems to provide its combined customers with greater optionality around gas and product takeaway, in-field operational flexibility, and redundancy.”

From Energy Spectrum Capital

“Caprock exemplifies the role that Energy Spectrum plays in the midstream industry.  By backing highly qualified teams, we allow capital to flow to well thought-out business plans.  Caprock has succeeded in putting early-stage capital to work to develop critical infrastructure for upstream producers to delineate a key new basin in the United States.  We are proud of our partnership with Mike and his team and believe that the integration with EagleClaw will be a strong development for Caprock’s customers,” said Tom Whitener, President of Energy Spectrum Capital.

Jefferies LLC acted as Blackstone and EagleClaw’s financial advisor in connection with the transaction.  Akin Gump served as legal counsel to Blackstone and EagleClaw.  Evercore and Barclays acted as financial advisors to Caprock and Energy Spectrum. Vinson & Elkins LLP and Orrick, Herrington and Sutcliffe LLP acted as legal counsel to Caprock and Energy Spectrum.

About EagleClaw Midstream Ventures, LLC
Headquartered in Midland and with a core presence in Houston, EagleClaw is focused on rapid response to the midstream infrastructure requirements of Permian producers.  The Company provides comprehensive gathering, transportation, compression, processing and treating services necessary to bring natural gas, natural gas liquids and crude oil to market.  EagleClaw is also partners with Targa on the Grand Prix Pipeline Project and with Kinder Morgan on the Permian Highway Pipeline Project.  EagleClaw has long term dedications for over 300,000 acres from a broad number of successful and active producers in the Delaware Basin.  For more information, please visit www.eagleclawmidstream.com

About Blackstone Energy Partners
Blackstone Energy Partners is Blackstone’s energy-focused private equity business, with a successful record built on our industry expertise and partnerships with exceptional management teams.  Blackstone has invested over $15 billion of equity globally across a broad range of sectors within the energy industry.  Blackstone (NYSE: BX) is one of the world’s leading investment firms.  Our asset management businesses, with approximately $440 billion in assets under management, include investment vehicles focused on private equity, real estate, public debt and equity, non-investment grade credit, real assets and secondary funds, all on a global basis.  Further information is available at www.blackstone.com.

About Caprock Midstream
Headquartered in Humble, TX, Caprock was founded in 2015 by Mike Forbau, David Ferer, Sanjay Bishnoi, John Phillips and Darin Aucoin.  In partnership with Energy Spectrum Partners VII, LP Caprock began developing assets in the Delaware Basin in 2016.  Caprock has developed gas gathering, gas processing, oil gathering and water gathering and disposal assets in the Delaware basin.

About Energy Spectrum Capital
Founded in 1995, Energy Spectrum Capital (“Energy Spectrum”) is a Dallas, Texas-based private equity firm focused on partnering with premier management teams that are pursuing compelling opportunities in the midstream sector of the North American oil and gas industry.


Contacts
EagleClaw
Jamie Welch
(713) 621-7300
jwelch@eagleclawmidstream.com

Blackstone Media Relations
Paula Chirhart
(212) 583-5011
Paula.chirhart@blackstone.com

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Swegon acquires Zent-Frenger GmbH from the Uponor Group

Latour logo

Swegon, a wholly owned business area within Investment AB Latour, has acquired Zent-Frenger GmbH.

Zent-Frenger is a leading provider of radiant ceilings in Germany and in addition develops and sells customized commercial heat pumps and concrete activation products. Zent-Frenger’s products are used to create a comfortable indoor climate in commercial buildings such as offices and hotels, as well as residential apartment buildings.

The company develops and assembles its products in Heppenheim, Germany. The company employs about 100 staff with a turnover in 2017 of 29 MEUR.

“As ‘The Indoor Climate Company’, radiant ceilings is a natural addition to our room unit product portfolio. It is a growing product segment in Continental Europe, due to its high comfort characteristics”, says Hannu Saastamoinen, CEO Swegon. ”Zent-Frenger’s highly customized heat pumps is also a strong complement to our existing commercial heat pump offering. Overall, there are numerous synergies we look forward to pursuing together. This acquisition also substantially strengthens our market presence in Germany, being one of the focused growth markets for Swegon”.

“Swegon and Zent-Frenger is a very good match with a shared focus of delivering optimal indoor climate to commercial buildings. We look forward to continued development of the Zent-Frenger business as part of Swegon Group”, says Andreas Linger, Managing Director of Zent-Frenger.

The acquisition is subject to approval by antitrust authorities and closing is expected during October.

The Latour Group’s net debt increases with 18 MEUR through the transaction.

Göteborg, September 5, 2018

INVESTMENT AB LATOUR (PUBL)
Jan Svensson President and CEO

For further information, please contact:
Hannu Saastamoinen, CEO Swegon, +46 31 89 58 10
Gustaf Ahlenius, Director Corporate Development Swegon, +46 31 89 58 19

Swegon Group AB is a company in the Latour Group which manufactures and sells products and systems for an optimal indoor climate. The Swegon group has 2,200 employees with a turnover of about SEK 4 billion.

Investment AB Latour is a mixed investment company consisting primarily of a wholly-owned industrial operations and an investment portfolio of listing holdings in which Latour is the principal owner or one of the principal owners. The investment portfolio consists of ten substantial holdings with a market value of about SEK 53 billion. The wholly-owned industrial operations has an annual turnover of about SEK 10 billion.  

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