Emerging Capital Partners, in partnership with Truffle Capital, has acquired a third African mining company with its $53 million purchase of Morocco’s Compagnie Miniere de Touissit.
With the closure of its tenth fund on $520 million, Accel Partners is slowly increasing its fund sizes again; post-dotcom crash, the firm downsized its eighth fund by more than half, having originally closed on $1.4 billion in 2000.
Dubai-based distressed specialist HBG Holdings has held a second close on $120 million for its Middle East and South Asia-focussed fund. It is expected to close this year with commitments ‘north of $200 million’, more than double its initial target.
Private equity investment behemoth AlpInvest has recruited a trio of secondaries specialists to strengthen its teams in New York and Amsterdam.
The House of Representatives has narrowly passed a bill that aims to raises taxes on private equity and hedge fund managers by roughly $48 billion. The bill now heads to the Senate, and if approved, is likely to be vetoed by President Bush.
3i, the global private equity firm, remains bullish despite credit market turbulence. It argued that the doubling of its level of investment was due to an upward creep in average deal size and not to lack of investment discipline.
European mid-market firm Bridgepoint has sold Alliance Medical to Dubai International Capital, as the investment firm continues a flurry of acquisitions.
Growth stage-focussed Technology Crossover Ventures has closed its seventh fund on $3 billion, causing Oak Investment Partners to lose the record for the largest fund ever raised by a VC firm.
Gresham has recruited James Slipper from Deloitte as a partner, after working with the accountant on a number of deals.
Laurence Fink, former Blackstone partner and founder of publicly traded investment firm BlackRock, has reportedly been offered the chief executive position at Merrill Lynch. Fink is also said to be a candidate for the same job at Citi, as both US banks seek to replace CEOs in the wake of multibillion dollar write-downs.
Silicon Valley firm Shasta Ventures has closed on $250 million its second fund, which will make early-stage technology investments.
Pension funds anticipate private equity returns over the next three years to be 38 percent lower than managers’ expectations. However, pension funds’ desire to invest in the asset class remains high.
JP Morgan spin-out CCMP Capital has closed its first global fund, which will focus on buyout and growth equity opportunities.
A $3.5 billion distressed-for-control fund was recently closed by MHR Fund Management, the New York firm led by Carl Icahn’s former chief investment advisor Mark Rachesky. It is more than three times the size of the firm’s 2002 fund.
Isis Equity Partners, the UK mid-market buyout firm, has sold secure messaging company Boldon James to trade buyer Qinetiq, after securing contracts for the company with the UK Ministry of Defence and the UK Cabinet office.