Brad Meikle

HSBC Private Equity has secured its membership of the “billion-dollar-plus” club of European private equity players following an enlarged allocation from its parent bank and a “significant” commitment from an unnamed major US corporate pension fund. The US pension’s commitment boosted the HSBC Private Equity Partnership Scheme, a co-investment pool initiated in 1994, to GBP700 […]

As most of its peers look towards Continental Europe, Murray Johnstone Private Equity (MJPE) has opted instead to take the less trodden path into Asian markets. Murray Johnstone, which already has a well-established group office in Singapore has joined forces with GK Goh Holdings, one of the largest stockbrokers in South East Asia, and BancBoston […]

A buyout of Crystal Holidays and Jetsave from Viad Corp of the US has formed the UK’s largest specialist tour operator. BZW Private Equity negotiated, led and financed the deal, which involved total funding of GBP150 million (ecu 222 million). The businesses acquired include Crystal Holidays, whose chairman and managing director Peter Dyer leads the […]

The recent blossoming of the German private equity market over the last 18 months has prompted numerous UK groups to establish a direct presence there. Most of these groups are players at the larger end of the buyout market. By contrast, Granville Private Equity Managers, which has just announced the opening of Granville Private Equity […]

The Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC), under its Commonwealth Private Investment Initiative (CPII) programme, has launched a fund which is aiming to raise $200 million for investment in South Asia. At its first closing in late Autumn, the South Asia Regional Fund, the third vehicle established under the CPII umbrella, had raised $119.5 million (ecu 107 […]

In its first Swiss deal, Legal & General Ventures (LGV) has acquired a majority stake in the Burkhalter Group of companies, the leading Swiss electrical contractor and network engineering provider, via a CHFr 122 million (ecu 76.3 million) MBO. The transaction was sourced via its German joint venture, LGV-Candover, which co-operates on an informal basis […]

France is the one major European market where Advent International had neither a wholly-owned office or a local affiliate. Now, in response to an increase in investment opportunities in France, the firm has opened a Paris office and recruited Eric Adjoubel to head its French operation. Massimo Prelz, managing director of Advent International’s Continental European […]

The prospect of mass defections by experienced in-house teams who are lured by more attractive remuneration packages in the third-party fund management sectors, is a nagging worry for dedicated pension fund managers that have built up substantial private equity interests. Not so for AT&T Investment Management Corporation. Although its private equity management team has moved […]