BancBoston bought by Bank of America

London based BancBoston Capital, formerly the European private equity arm of FleetBoston Financial is to become part of Bank of America. The group has also recently realized two of its investments with the sale of its stake in Lloyd Shoe and the completion of the sale of Steleus Group to Tekelec.

BancBoston Capital’s stake in Lloyd Shoe, a UK operator of in-store shoe concessions, has been sold back to the company, led by Chairman Marc Verona, for an undisclosed sum. Since the investment by BancBoston Capital in 1998, Lloyd Shoe has more than tripled in size, with turnover now in excess of £60m per annum. Lloyd Shoe currently around 2,000 people in over 800 concessions throughout the UK.

BancBoston Capital invested in US and France-based Steleus Group in July 2000 to support its expansion in the global telecom software market. The group has been bought for $55m by Tekelec, a global supplier of telecommunications products for next-generation fixed, mobile and packet networks. Other shareholders in Steleus are GMT Communications Partners, Vestbridge Partners (formerly St Paul Venture Capital, which has been a shareholder in Steleus since 1995), JP Morgan’s Beacon Group, WilBri Investissements (managed by Pierre Pigaglio & Robert W. Kirby, the co-founders of Steleus, and US VC Jafco Ventures – see exit news.