PRINT THIS PAGE Weekly Deals and Funds Roundup: 20 February 200820/02/2008. Source: AltAssets. 
A selection of the latest deals and funds news from across the globe - essential reading for those who need to keep up-to-date with the industry's key developments. DEALS
Apollo Group, through its consolidated subsidiary, Apollo Global, has agreed to acquire Chilean university Universidad de Artes, Ciencias y Comunicacion, for $40m. UNIACC, founded in 1989 and based in Santiago, Chile, has over 3,000 students and three campuses. Apollo Global has agreed to purchase 100 per cent of UNIACC for $40m in cash and assumed debt, plus an earn-out based on a multiple of earnings to be paid in four years. If the earn-out were paid based on current earnings it would be approximately $9m, according to a statement.
Thoma Cressey Bravo has agreed to acquire the Software Business Unit of IT company Macrovision in a deal worth around $200m. As part of the deal, Mark Bishof, currently Macrovision's executive vice president and general manager of the Software Business Unit, will assume the role of CEO for the new software company. In the software industry, Thoma Cressey Bravo has completed 35 acquisitions across 11 platform companies with total annual earnings of approximately $500m.
NewWest Capital Partners has backed an MBO of San Diego-based internet prepaid phone card reseller 1st USA.com Phonecards. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. NewWest Capital Partners is headquartered in Denver, Colorado and seeks to acquire controlling interests in smaller businesses located throughout the West and Midwest US.
Healthcare-focused private equity firm MTS Health Investors has purchased a majority stake in Houston, Texas-based radiology benefit management company HealthHelp from an individual investor. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The company's services cover over nine million members in 50 US states, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam. The senior management team at HealthHelp, will remain with the company. New York-based MTS Health Investors makes equity investments in the buy-out, recapitalisation or growth financing of healthcare operating companies.
Information and media company-focused private equity firm Noson Lawen Partners has made a growth capital investment in Outdoor Promotions of Fort Collins, Colorado. Financial terms were not disclosed. OPL's focus is on metropolitan transit and street advertising franchises. OPL current served markets include Salt Lake, Provo and Ogden Utah, Denver Metro and Greenwood Springs Colorado, Henderson and recently added Las Vegas Metro in Nevada. As part of the deal, OPL founder and president Gary Young will remain CEO and NLP partners Earl Macomber and Ted Carroll will join OPL's board. NLP focuses on providing growth and buy-out capital to smaller US information and media companies.
Mid-market private equity firm Baird Capital Partners Europe has invested £12m in ESS Steels Holdings, a manufacturer of engineered components for the oil industry. Alongside funds managed by Baird Capital Partners Europe, Yorkshire Bank provided facilities of £35m to support the MBO and growth of the company. The total consideration for the transaction is undisclosed. ESS was founded in 1992 and operates from two sites in Sheffield and Rotherham in the UK.
Camrivox, a UK developer of computer telephony integration software for the SME market, has raised £1.2m from a consortium of investors. The funding round was led by NESTA Investments and involved existing shareholders, including founding investor and chairman, Dr Phil O'Donovan, and fund management company Create Partners. New investors included Bank of Scotland Growth Equity who invested alongside business angel members of Oxford Investment Opportunity Network under their co-investment programme arrangement.
UK medical device company L3 Technology has completed a £1.75m fundraising round led by Catapult Venture Managers. L3T was founded by Anglo Scientific and CLIK, the commercialisation arm of the Science and Technology Facilities Council. Catapult provides funding from early stage and development capital to MBO/MBIs. Since 1999 the firm has invested in over 50 companies.
Belgian private equity firm GIMV has invested €11m in VAG Armaturen. The investment is part of the buy-out of VAG Armaturen, for which GIMV provided a part of the mezzanine tranche. VAG Armaturen designs, produces and distributes valves and fittings for the water supply and waste water industries. The company has its own factories in Germany, Czech Republic, China and India. In 2007, the company achieved sales of more than €100m with 850 employees, according to a statement. GIMV and Dutch firm Alpinvest provide mezzanine financing and take a limited stake in the company's capital. The investment is part of a secondary buy-out, led by the Halder-GIMV Germany Fund.
Stratus Group's Cleantech-Biotech Fund has made an investment through its São Paulo-based Timber Value subsidiary, in timber investment management company Brazil Timber. The size of the investment was not disclosed. Brazil Timber manages $40m in timber assets in 6,500 hectares of eucalyptus forests. Stratus is an independent São Paulo-based private equity firm. Its Stratus Growth Capital funds invest in companies focusing in the cleantech/biotech and applied technology sectors.
Digital media company doubleTwist Corporation has closed Series A funding from venture capital firms Index Ventures and Northzone Ventures. Index Ventures has offices in Geneva, London and Jersey. Index Ventures is an active investor in the consumer internet sector and recent investments in this space include Last.fm and Stardoll, a celebrity doll dress-up site for girls.
The Capital Fund has achieved its fifth exit following the £4.5m acquisition of information management software company Solcara by ArgentVive. The Capital Fund originally invested £250,000 in July 2003. Since its foundation in 2001, Solcara has developed information management software for over 130 blue chip clients in the UK and Europe, including AstraZeneca, De Beers, VISA and Thomas Cook. The Capital Fund is a £50m venture capital fund that backs fast-growing small and medium-sized companies in the Greater London area.
German private equity firm NORD Holding Unternehmensbeteiligungsgesellschaft has taken a majority stake in Teupen Maschinenbau, a manufacturer of access platforms. Fianancial terms were not disclosed. Both the managing directors, Alfons Thihatmer and Andreas Grochowiak, will retain a significant share of the company. NORD Holding's activities focus on the structure and funding of succession issues and expansion stage financing for mid-market companies. The firm has holdings in some 50 companies in Germany and German-speaking countries.
Fabless semiconductor company IPtronics has closed more than $10m in series B funding, co-led by Nordic venture capital firms Creandum and Sunstone Capital. The current investor, 10IPT10, and members of the management team also contributed to the investment round. IPtronics supplies integrated circuits to the emerging market for parallel optical interconnects.
Secondaries venture capital firm Shackleton Ventures has purchased a significant minority interest in CIO Connect, a UK IT networking organisation for CIOs, from the National Computing Centre, for an undisclosed sum. Shackleton's fund, the Shackleton Secondaries Limited Partnership has acquired a 49.9 per cent interest in CIO Connect, alongside management. Shackleton specialises in direct secondary venture capital investments. The SSLP fund can draw on investments of up to £20m and is backed principally by a leading European-based fund of funds investor with over €1.5bn under management. The fund was formed in July 2006 and now has a portfolio of 15 investments focused primarily on information technology, communications and healthcare.
Lombard Investments has invested $18.9m in Thai residential home builders Krungthep Land Public Company. As part of the deal, a representative from Lombard has joined the company's board of directors. Lombard subscribed to a special issue of five year convertible debentures, convertible into ordinary shares representing a 20.2 per cent equity interest in the company. Lombard made its investment in KLand through Lombard Asia III, the firm's South East Asia and Greater China private equity fund. Lombard is a private equity investment manager with offices in Bangkok, Hong Kong and San Francisco.
Investment management organisation Franklin Resources, operating as Franklin Templeton Investments has acquired a 49 percent stake in Vietcombank Fund Management, an investment management firm currently focused on private equity investment in Vietnam. The remaining 51 per cent of VCBF will continue to be owned by Vietcombank, the Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam. The move marks the firm's first joint venture in Vietnam. Franklin Templeton also intends to partner with Vietcombank to make its investment funds available to Vietnamese investors. Approximately 9 per cent of Franklin Templeton's assets under management are from investors in the Asia Pacific region. As part of the deal, Dennis Lim, co-CEO and portfolio manager of Templeton Asset Management and Mark Browning, co-CEO of TAML and managing director, Asia for Franklin Templeton International, have been named as members of VCBF's board of directors.
Gala Capital has sold its 6.9 per cent stake in Spanish utility company Acciona Eólica Cesa for €77m. In January 2006, Acciona agreed with the shareholders of Acciona Eólica, comprising Cesa, Mercapital, Juan Luis Arregui and British private equity fund Bridgepoint for the acquisition of their combined stake of 93.1 per cent in the company. Following the acquisition of Gala's stake in the company, Acciona becomes the 100 per cent of Cesa.
Private investment firm Carousel Capital has partnered with company CEO Don Waters in the acquisition of Brasseler USA, a provider of dental and surgical instrumentation, for an undisclosed sum. Brasseler markets its products to dentists, dental laboratories, dental schools, hospitals, medical OEMs and surgery centres throughout the US and Canada. Following the transaction, Waters will have significant ownership in the business, as will certain members of his management team. Carousel Capital funded the transaction with equity from its third investment fund, Carousel Capital Partners III. Financing for the transaction was provided by Unitranche Fund, which is co-managed by affiliates of Allied Capital and GE Commercial Finance.
FUNDS
The Soros Economic Development Fund, Omidyar Network and Google.org have launched a $17m SME investment company for India. The joint initiative will provide capital to small and medium businesses in underserved markets, targeting equity investments between $500,000 and $3.5m. SEDF, Omidyar Network and Google.org plan to locate the investment advisor at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad. Dr Reuben Abraham, currently the ISB's director of the Base of Pyramid Lab and a board member of SEDF, will be named senior advisor. The Soros Economic Development Fund is a non-profit private foundation that makes investments in banks, microfinance institutions, cooperatives and social enterprise projects worldwide. The Omidyar Network is a philanthropic investment firm that supports nonprofit and for-profit efforts.
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