Western Europe

Earlybird’s smava in €4m financing round

The online ‘social lending’ marketplace has attracted further finance from existing backer Earlybird and new investor Neuhaus Partners, which will position the platform alongside US and UK competitors, according to the firm.

Catalyst, RIT exit MessageLabs in £397m sale

Catalyst Investors and RIT Capital Partners have exited their 19 percent stake in the UK online security group following its sale to Symantec.

NVM invests £7m in exhibition buyout company

The UK-based firm will invest £4 million in CloserStill Holdings and an additional £3 million to be used for the acquisition of businesses that run exhibitions.

ECP buys stake in Togo commercial bank

The Africa-focused firm has purchased $28m in common shares and convertible notes of West African lender Financial BC.

Conduit Capital wins $1.4bn pipeline concession in Peru

Over two years in the making, the 700-mile natural gas pipeline represents the largest project the New York-based infrastructure investor has ever been involved in and marks a significant economic development project for the Latin American country of 30 million.

PCG AM subscribes to UN's ESG investment guidelines

The California-based gatekeeper has signed onto a global framework that allows institutional investors to evaluate their portfolios to make sure risks related to environment, social and governance issues are being addressed.

EnQii raises $18m for ‘aggressive’ expansion

Amadeus and Wellington have joined Ithmaar Bank as investors in EnQii, which designs and installs ‘digital out-of-home’ advertising networks. Following Ithmaar’s $10m investment last year, EnQii has made three acquisitions.

Private equity buyouts decrease, shrink in size in 2008

Difficult financing conditions continued to soften global buyout activity for private equity firms, with deal volumes plunging 72 percent in the first nine months of 2008. The oil and gas and mining sectors as well as Japan, India and the Middle East remained bright spots.

AXA, La Caisse sell part of infrastructure investment

The sale of a 3 percent stake in French water and waste management services provider Saur Group provides a partial exit to the private equity firm and brings in a new owner, Luxembourg-based CUBE Infrastructure fund.

Altus, Dunrath in $7m acquisition

The lower mid-market specialist and security infrastructure investor have teamed up to enlarge their portfolio company Gichner Systems Group by acquiring Charleston Marine Container, which makes logistic containers.