Good morning Eurohubsters, Craig McGlashan here opening the week in Dealflow.
I hope you had a good weekend. We’ve got plenty for you to begin the week with this morning, including a deep dive into minority investing – as well as a new deal using that technique – and an injection of cash into a capital markets tech firm.
Inflexion point. This morning Nina Lindholm has a fascinating piece on a trend that at least some in the private equity sector expect to grow further.
London-based Inflexion sold its minority stake in Phenna Group to Oakley Capital at the end of August to Oakley Capital, in a deal that valued Phenna at more than £1 billion ($1.2 billion; €1.2 billion).
Inflexion is no stranger to buying smaller stakes in companies – it even has a dedicated minority fund, called Partnership Capital. Nina grilled Inflexion partner David Whileman on why minority investing is becoming more popular, whether certain sectors are experiencing more minority investing than others as well as the positives and negatives of the approach.
“The flip side of it is, if they’ve never had an investor on board, it might involve embracing more transparency and governance,” Whileman told Nina. “For example, being accountable for having a well-organised, efficient board meeting – rather than key issues being discussed ad hoc and at length over a beer and a sandwich.”
Check out the full interview here.
Data deal. LDC, the private equity arm of Lloyds Banking Group, made a “significant investment” in capital markets technology firm Etrading Software, LDC announced this morning.
Etrading provides market and reference data used by international financial institutions. It is the primary service and technology provider to the Derivatives Service Bureau, the global numbering agency for over-the-counter derivatives. The firm also provides software to multinational corporate loan market participants. It is headquartered in London.
Find out how LDC plans to grow Etrading here.
Fund switch. We’ve a bit of fund juggling to report now, which, aptly given the opening of the newsletter, is about minority investing.
EQT Future, and ATHOS, alongside other co-investors, announced an investment in SHL Medical. The consortium will acquire a minority share of the company from EQT’s equity fund VIII.
Headquartered in Zug, Switzerland, SHL Medical designs, develops and manufactures drug delivery devices, such as autoinjectors, pen injectors and advanced inhaler systems, and provides final assembly, labelling, and packaging services for pharma and biotech companies worldwide.
Read about SHL’s growth plan as well as how the company developed under EQT VIII here.
K3 Capital, a group of professional services businesses, is in advanced talks with private equity firm Sun European Partners, about a cash offer at 350 pence per K3 share.
We’ve asked Sun European comment so will have more on that for you soon.
Podcast. In case you haven’t already, check out the first episode of our miniseries, Private Markets and the End of Cheap Money.
Mary Kathleen Flynn, editor-in-chief of affiliate title PE Hub, spoke with a wide range of dealmakers, including private equity firm leaders, lenders and investment bankers, about the impact of high interest rates and other factors like high inflation on private equity-backed transactions.
You can listen to the episode here.
That’s it from me – happy dealmaking and we’ll speak again tomorrow.
Cheers,
Craig
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