Private Equity
Swanson Health Products, the Fargo, North Dakota, online and catalog marketer of healthy living products, named Katie Doyle chief executive officer. Doyle joins Swanson from Abbott Laboratories, where she was a senior vice president, leading the nutrition business in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico. In that post she was responsible for $3.2 billion in revenue “across a portfolio of brands in the pediatric and adult nutrition space as well as sports nutrition and healthy snacking,” Swanson said in a statement. As Swanson CEO she succeeds Ken Harris, who led the company through its late-January acquisition by Swander Pace Capital, the San Francisco private equity firm with $1.3 billion of equity commitments.
2 min read · 28 April 2016
Cinven, the London private equity firm, and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board agreed to acquire Hotelbeds Group from Tui Group. The enterprise value of Hotelbeds, the Palma de Mallorca, Spain, travel-services provider, is €1.165 billion, or $1.32 billion. Hotelbeds’ clients include tour operators, travel agencies, corporate clients and consumers. Tui Group is the Hannover, Germany, travel and tourism firm. Jorge Quemada, partner at Cinven, and Shane Feeney, managing director and head of direct private equity at the Canada pension firm, in a statement said Hotelbeds is performing well and has strong growth prospects. Advising on the deal were Bain & Co (commercial); Freshfields (legal); Lazard, Morgan Stanley, HSBC and PricewaterhouseCoopers (m&a); Deloitte (tax) and PwC (financial, labor and IT).
4 min read · 28 April 2016
2 min read · 28 April 2016
Levyx Inc, the Irvine, California, producer of cost-efficient big-data infrastructure technology for all size enterprises, closed a $5.4 million Series A financing led by OCA Ventures of Chicago. In a statement, Levyx said that other participating investors included Amino Capital (aka zPark Capital) of Palo Alto, California, and Sumavision USA Corp. Sumavision Technologies Co is the Beijing provider of video-delivery solutions. Individual executives from tech companies including EMC and SAP also invested in the round. Levyx plans to use the funds to speed product development and boost sales and marketing.
3 min read · 28 April 2016
Arsenal Capital Partners, the New York private equity firm focused on healthcare and specialty-industrial businesses, said that a unit acquired Sasco Chemical Group Inc. Terms weren’t disclosed. Sasco, founded 1948, is the Albany, Georgia, producer of specialty chemicals for the rubber, wood, consumer and medical industries. Arsenal’s polymer-solutions group, which made the acquisition, was advised by Kirkland & Ellis. Twinbrook Capital and Kayne Anderson, the group’s current lenders, provided debt financing for the deal. Genesis Capital LLC was financial adviser to Sasco Chemical.
3 min read · 28 April 2016
3i Group, the London private equity firm, and funds it manages agreed to sell Mayborn Group to Shanghai Jahwa (Group) Co. In a statement, 3i said that total proceeds to 3i and funds “represent a 3.5x money multiple. Proceeds … will be £135m, in line with 3i's valuation at 31 December 2015. These amounts are in addition to £32m received by 3i through a refinancing in 2012.” 3i took Mayborn private in 2006. In that time, Ebitda tripled, reaching more than £25 million ($36.4 million) in 2015. Net sales in 2015 were £130 million, 60 percent of which were international sales. Shanghai Jahwa is the parent of the Chinese consumer-products firm Jahwa United Co. Jahwa Group is wholly owned by Ping An Insurance Group.
3 min read · 28 April 2016
SnappyData, the Portland, Oregon, developer of a cost-efficient analytics database built on the Apache Spark data-processing platform, closed $3.65 million of Series A funding. The round was led by Pivotal of Palo Alto, California, GE Digital of San Ramon, California, and GTD Capital of Seattle. In a statement, SnappyData said the funds would enable it to invest further in engineering and sales. The company says it already employs more than 30 engineers and is hiring.
4 min read · 27 April 2016
MUFG Investor Services named Daniel Trentacosta sales director to help develop business for the firm’s solutions across hedge funds, funds of funds and private equity/real estate funds. MUFG, the global asset-servicing arm of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, provides services including fund administration, middle-office outsourcing, custody, depository, trustee, fund of hedge fund financing, foreign exchange and more. Trentacosta will report to John Sergides, managing director and global head of business development and marketing in New York. Previously, Trentacosta headed the treasury-operations team at Och-Ziff Capital Management Group, the New York alternative-asset manager.
2 min read · 27 April 2016
Summit Partners, the Boston growth equity investor, said Greg Serrao joined the executive-in-residence program, tasked with helping the firm’s healthcare and life sciences team identify investment opportunities among growth-stage healthcare companies. Serrao is founder and executive chairman, and from 1996 until 2015 was chief executive, of American Dental Partners, which Summit had backed. Serrao also led American Dental, the Wakefield, Massachusetts, provider of business services to dental practices, to its 1998 initial public offering. He also served as an executive at Cardinal Health and as a healthcare-focused investment banker at Dean Witter Reynolds. Summit Partners currently has invested more than $7.2 billion in equity and fixed-income opportunities.
3 min read · 27 April 2016
RayVio Corp, the Hayward, California, producer of ultraviolet LED technology for applications including disinfecting water at the point of use, raised $26 million in funding rounds led by IPV Capital and Tsing Capital. Participating current investors included DCM Ventures, Capricorn Investment Group, Applied Ventures, Augment Ventures, Tolero Ventures and New Ground Ventures. Alex Banh of IPV Capital and Don Ye of Tsing Capital will join RayVio’s board. RayVio said it would use the funds to boost production and continue R&D. It expects to double its workforce. The company says its technology is portable and versatile and can protect against germs in water and air and on surfaces.
3 min read · 26 April 2016
