Lawrence Aragon

UK food supplier sold to European Capital

Limited partner: California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) Commitment: $400 million Fund manager: Centinela Capital Partners The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) has made a $400 million commitment to funds-of-funds manager Centinela Capital Partners as part of its effort to invest more capital with emerging managers–particularly ones that invest in California. Centinela intends to […]

Limited partner: California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) Commitment: $400 million Fund manager: Centinela Capital Partners The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) has made a $400 million commitment to funds-of-funds manager Centinela Capital Partners as part of its effort to invest more capital with emerging managers–particularly ones that invest in California. Centinela intends to […]

Paris-based private equity firm, Chequers Capital has reached a final closing of Chequers Capital XV on €600m (US$755m). Support from existing investors – including Access Capital, CAAM CI, Commonfund, HarbourVest, HSBC-Nobel, JP Morgan, LGT Capital Partners, Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch, and Pantheon – was extremely strong and led to oversubscription. Allocations to new investors was […]

Babson Capital, the UK leveraged loan manager and Duke Street CDO spin-out, has closed Almack Mezzanine I, Europe’s first dedicated mezzanine fund, on €800m. Following a first close in November 2005 at €251m, the investment strategy will see Almack target both large and mid-market mezzanine investments in the UK and Continental Europe. The fund has […]

Piaggio, the Italian scooter brand, has floated on the Milan Stock Exchange. The offering at €2.30 per share, at the bottom of the indicative range of €2.30 to €3, was 2.4x oversubscribed. The IPO price gave Piaggio a market capitalisation of €887m. Shareholders in the 122-year old company, which include Morgan Grenfell and the company’s […]

Nordic buyout specialist CapMan has sold a 12.5% stake in Access Capital Partners, a French fund-of-funds manager, to the Access management team. The sale of 12.5% of its shares to the management team of Access has earned CapMan €600,000 and brings the firm’s interest in to 35%. The management owns the remaining 65%. Access Capital […]

French buyout specialist Eurazeo has launched a €500m (US$629.45m) co-investment fund, holding a first closing on €345m. Eurazeo Co-investment Partners will, as the name suggests, seek to enter into syndicates with other private equity funds. The firm claims this will increase its recurring revenues as well as streamlining the equity syndication process. A final closing […]

Two of the largest public pension funds have set out to identify small firms that may not have come across their radars. The California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) and the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS)—with the help of investment advisor Altura Capital—are compiling a database filled exclusively with emerging managers and financial service […]