News in brief

• 3i has furthered strengthened its Buyouts team investing in Central and Eastern Europe (‘CEE’) with the addition of Andrzej Szostak in Poland. Szostak will primarily be based in Warsaw, but will also spend time in 3i’s London office and in other parts of the CEE region. Szostak will focus on identifying, introducing and executing buyouts in Poland and the rest of CEE, targeting companies with an enterprise value from €100 million to over €1bn. He joins a dedicated team, led by Partner Stuart McMinnies. Prior to joining 3i, Szostak spent eight years as Managing Director of Rothschild Polska part of the Rothschild Group. He was also a member of the CEE Coordination Committee of Rothschild Europe, and his responsibilities in the region included origination and execution of mandates in the TMT and Oil & Gas sectors.

• Law firm Halliwells has appointed private equity specialist Steven Raize who joins from Fladgate Fielder. Raize specialises in private equity work and also has substantial experience in share sale and purchase transactions, asset sales and group reorganisations. He has previously worked at Baker & McKenzie and Clifford Chance.

• CDC Group, the UK Government-backed emerging market private equity fund of funds, appointed three senior directors, Hywel Rees-Jones, Investments Director; and two portfolio directors focused on Asia, Anubha Shrivastava and Veronica John. Hywel Rees-Jones formerly spent two years as head of West Africa for Actis, the emerging markets private equity firm and had previously worked for CDC. Hywel is responsible for CDC’s co-investment programme, global sector funds and microfinance across all of CDC’s core geographies. He will also explore ways in which CDC can deploy its capital in markets, potentially through secondaries or debt funds, where private equity may not be the most appropriate investment vehicle. Anubha Shrivastava has been appointed portfolio director responsible for South East Asia. Anubha previously worked for Performance Equity Management, a global private equity investment firm providing partnership and direct investment services. Veronica John has been appointed portfolio director, Asia. She was previously with the Asian Development Bank, where she headed up the private equity investment funds team. She will be responsible for CDC’s private equity fund of funds portfolio across all of Asia and the CIS. These appointments take CDC’s team of investment professionals and directors to 14 based in London.

• Advent International has announced the appointment of Bob Thian (chairman), Rod Aldridge OBE (non-executive) and Oliver Niedermaier (non-executive) to an interim advisory board pending completion of Advent’s acquisition of Lloyds TSB Registrars. These individuals, all of whom have agreed to co-invest with Advent International, will become non-executive directors of Newco (Lloyds TSB Registrars) upon completion, which is expected before the end of 2007 subject to regulatory approval.