Keensight leads financing round in Bentley Endovascular

Let’s kick it off with a new healthcare deal in which Bentley Endovascular Group has received investment from Keensight Capital, A P Moller Holding and Bonit Capital.

Next, we’ll switch to the cloud services industry as I compiled a listicle on private equity-backed deals in the sector since the beginning of 2023. We also reported a deal yesterday where Apax Partners LLP agreed to invest in a cloud-based software service provider.

Then, we have news on Apollo and Air France signing a financing agreement.

We’ll finish off by looking at a report by S&P Global, which shows a slump in M&A in Q3 of 2023.

Medtech  

Keensight Capital, AP Moller Holding and Bonit Capital have invested in Bentley Endovascular Group, a medical technology holding company.

Bentley’s founders and management will retain control and will hold majority of the capital and the votes in the company.

Keensight, AP Moller and Bonit Capital will support Bentley by helping it expand its geographical footprint, strengthen its products and prepare the company for its upcoming IPO process, according to a release.

The firm will leverage its “network and capacities to support Bentley in their international expansion, especially when entering the US”, said James Mitchell, partner at Keensight.

PE on cloud 

There seems to be a growing interest by private equity firms in cloud service providers as we reported 11 private equity backed deals in the sector since the start of 2023.

This can be tied to what we have been hearing from PE professionals on the attractiveness of the technology sector.

The accelerated pace of digital transformation will enhance investment opportunities in the technology space, Stephen Shanley, partner and head of Tech Growth in Europe at KKR, told PE Hub’s Obey Martin.

“Specifically, companies are increasing their reliance on technology while at the same time customers are shifting their daily activities to the digital world,” Shanley said. “This has created an environment that is ripe for investment, especially around helping businesses operate and serve their customers better and more securely.”

Keensight Capital, LDC and Agilitas Private Equity are among the PE firms buying in the cloud services sector.

Check out the listicle to learn the firms involved in the deals.

Growth investment 

In more cloud provider news, we have Apax Partners LLP agreeing to make a growth investment in GAN Integrity, a cloud-based software service provider.

Copenhagen-based GAN enables real-time management and monitoring of third-party and employee risk, ethics and compliance programmes.

Apax’s investment will enable GAN to accelerate product development and to serve the growing demands of global brands for risk, ethics, and compliance management software technology, according to a release.

“Ethics and compliance behaviours start at the top of all organisations, but businesses need an effective and scalable solution to implement policies and procedures, and GAN provides just that,” said David Su, managing partner, Apax Global Impact.

Agreement 

Air France-KLM and Apollo Global Management yesterday announced that they have signed a definitive agreement regarding a €1.3 billion financing, which will be accounted as quasi-equity under IFRS.

Apollo will have the option to increase the nominal amount up to €1.5 billion in total, before closing, the release said.

M&A slump 

Lastly, we have some figures by S&P Global that said the M&A market has fallen to even more “depressed levels” in the third quarter of 2023.

Only 8,775 deals were announced globally in Q3, which was down 17.3 percent from the previous quarter and 28.3 percent from year-ago levels.

“Equity issuance activity received some fanfare in the third quarter due to a handful of initial public offerings, but the momentum from those deals has been slowed by the lackluster public market debuts from companies involved in the more notable IPOs,” the report stated.

The total value of global IPOs was down 9.1 percent quarter over quarter and plummeted 25.8 percent year over year to $33.8 billion.

“Heightened geopolitical concerns add to an already uncertain macroeconomic outlook, and uncertainty is never good for dealmaking,” said Joe Mantone, lead author of the report. “The Federal Reserve is nearing the end of its rate-hiking cycle and gaining clarity on peak rates would be positive for transaction activity, but if rates remain elevated, that will keep financing costs up and make some deals harder to pencil out.”