Invest-IQ

Zurich-based PE firm Zurmont Madison Private Equity LP has acquired a 55-percent stake in Austrian company AKAtech Produktions und Handels GmbH, a manufacturer of complex wiring harnesses and high-quality electromechanical assembly. The deal will allow AKAtech to leverage Zurmont’s financial and technical expertise, and will help in the firm’s next round of growth. AKAtech (www.akatech.at) [...]

Est Media  Hungarian listed media corporation, has attracted a whopping HUF 1 bln investment, over the next three years, from Swiss investor group Global Emerging Markets Limited (GEM). They will also be authorized to subscribe, over the next three years, to three million shares at a price of HUF 280 per share. The contract was [...]

Russia based Quest.li has secured new funding from Redalpine Capital I and other private investors. The Zurich based venture fund had already led Quest.li’s first seedround in early 2011.     Quest.li (questli.com) Quest.li was founded by CEO Danila Kozyatnikov in April 2011 with the seed funding of CHF 200,000 provided by Redalpine. Quest. li [...]

Mountain Cleantech, a Swiss PE firm, has secured anchor investment commitment from development bank Austria Wirtschaftsservice for the Mountain Cleantech Fund II. Mountain Cleantech recently announced its first close at EUR 23 million, stating the final close of Fund II would be at about EUR 100 million. The fund will seek opportunities in German and [...]

Banking on a Russian online advertising market that could climb as high as USD $30 million this year, Russia’s Russia Venture Company and Gazprombank have entered a joint investment to acquire a 30% share of WebMediaGroup. The deal has been estimated to be between USD 10 million and USD 20 million. WebMediaGroup will use the [...]

Poland’s Enterprise Investors has agreed to a deal involving the sale of its entire stake in PharmaSwiss to Canadian pharmaceutical company Valeant Pharmaceuticals International. Enterprise Investors will get € 52.5 million for its share; the remainder of the PharmaSwiss shareholders will also sell, giving Valeant 100% ownership at a total cost estimated to be near [...]

icomasoft AG, the Swiss start-up just getting its foot in the cloud computing door, has managed to successfully secure Series B funding from GCP gamma capital partners AG (GCP). GCP joins Zurich Cantonal Bank (ZKB) as the second investor in the young company. ZKB provided seed funding in 2009. icomasoft (www.opvizor.com) icomasoft AG was founded [...]

The EBRD has announced plans to be an anchor investor in a new fund-of-funds aimed at investing in existing funds in Russia, Turkey, and CIS nations. The USD 300 million fund will be managed by Alpha Associates Group under the name Alpha Russia & CIS Secondary L.P., and will help to replace the private equity [...]

ODLO Sports Group, the Norwegian manufacturer of sports-related clothing, has a new majority shareholder in Herkules Private Equity Fund III. The fund takes over the majority position after acquiring the stake previously held by American PE firm TowerBrook Capital Partners. ODLO chairman Odd Roar Lofterød will remain on the board and will be a minority [...]

Hochtemperatur Engineering GmbH (HTE), a portfolio company of Germany’s Deutsche Beteiligungs AG, has completed the sale of thermal technology company Gautschi Engineering GmbH to EBNER Group. The sale was an all-share transaction retroactive to January 1st of this year. DBAG originally acquired Gautschi through a 2002 transaction in which it purchased nine companies from Austria’s [...]

Swiss cloud computing firm Parallels has received a new round of venture capital as at least two investors bought in to an industry which is expected to reach USD 44.2 billion within the next several years. Russia Partners, a subsidiary of emerging market investor Siguler Guff & Co., was joined by Bessemer Venture Partners of [...]

Swiss telecom company Trivon Group has reached a deal with Effortel to acquire MediaSeti, a Russian wireless broadband operator. The acquisition strengthens Trivon’s Russian presence, adding to its current Virgin Connect operations in Russia. Though both parties agreed to keep transaction details private, the deal has been estimated to be near RU 250 million. Trivon [...]

Swiss flooring manufacturer Bauwerk Parkett AG is preparing to change hands as current owner, Nybron Flooring International Corporation (NFI), has agreed to sell the company to EGS Beteiligungen AG and Zurmont Madison Private Equity. Under the arrangement Zurmont Madison will acquire a 55% interest while EGS Beteiligungen will own 45%. Both investors have committed to [...]

A recent announcement by Russia’s VTB bank has revealed the sale of Russische Kommerzial Bank AG by the troubled state-owned financial institution. VTB will have difficulty posting a profit this year, and the sale is meant to reduce losses and allow VTB to streamline its business. Prior to the sale, Swiss-based Russische Kommerzial was owned [...]

Almaz Capital Partners has announced an USD 11 million investment in Parallels, a virtualization software developer, and the Apollo Project, a new venture to extend social networking service to mobile devices. The funding, which is being offered through the Almaz Capital Russia Fund I, was made possible in part by a USD 30 million anchor [...]

Swiss private equity firm Alpha Associates Group has proposed the Alpha CIS Opportunity Fund, focusing investment on the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Russia, and Turkey. The fund has a target size of USD 300 million, the majority of which will be used to purchase interests in existing private equity funds in the secondary market. [...]

Polish Enterprise Fund VI, a private equity fund managed by Enterprise Investors, will acquire 12.7% of PharmaSwiss in a capital increase transaction for € 35 million. PharmaSwiss is the largest third party pharmaceutical sales and marketing outsourcing company in the Central and Eastern European region. PharmaSwiss SA (www.pharmaswiss.com) Established in 2000 and based in Zug, [...]