News in Brief

Longville sold to Carrier

Bridgepoint has sold Longville, a UK rental group it acquired in September 1999, to Carrier Inc, a business unit of United Technologies, for an undisclosed sum. Bridgepoint invested €44m in the business, which was formed from the merger of three specialist hire companies. Since then, the company has made seven acquisitions.

Inflexion sells ACIS

Carlyle has acquired ACIS, a UK real time passenger information system provider, for €91.8m from UK mid-market firm Inflexion Private Equity. Inflexion bought the business in April 2005 for €37m, acquiring Tandata in October the same year. In the last 18 months ACIS has doubled its profits and increased its staff number by 25%

A Style-ish IPO

Aberdeen Asset Managers Private Equity has made €83m from the €143m IPO of Style & Wood, a UK retail property services business. The company was previously owned by 3i, but was acquired by Abderdeen in May 2004 for €11.6m through its Ventures North West III fund. The firm backed another buyout in December 2005, increasing its holding from 40% to 53.8%.

Just Retirement floats

Langholm Capital has overseen the IPO of Just Retirement, a UK life assurance group focused on providing financial services to those in or at retirement. The float raised €74m on AIM, giving it a market capitalisation of €625m. The exercise of the greenshoe option raised a further €19m.

Madison sells Hiller

Madison Private Equity, a Swiss private equity firm, has sold its majority stake in Hiller Group, a German furniture manufacturer, to the management from an undisclosed sum. The sale brings an end to an investment that began in 2002 as part of a succession solution, and merged with an Austrian competitor in 2005.