Hello dealmakers,
It’s Nina Lindholm here with the Europe edition of the Wire from the London newsroom.
Aviation is one of the most carbon-intensive activities. While the pandemic affected air travel, this year is expected to be a milestone for global traffic as it reaches 9.4 billion passengers, according to Airports Council International. As passenger numbers rise, it’s increasingly vital to find ways to combat the industry’s contribution to climate change. This morning, we take a look at one area of that, as we start with a deep dive into Baird Capital’s exit from eCube, an aircraft end-of-life services provider.
We then explore the world of sports and sports technology, with the help of a report by Houlihan Lokey.
To finish, we have a done deal in Ukraine, as a consortium that includes NJJ Holding and Horizon Capital hascompleted its acquisition of Datagroup-Volia, a fixed telecom and pay TV provider,and Lifecell, a mobile operator.
Flying away
Baird Capital exited end-of-life aircraft services provider eCube ahead of schedule following several inbound offers and a successful greenfield development in Arizona, James Benfield, partner, told PE Hub.
For more on that story, take a look at the premium Wire coverage here.
You can also find the full story here. It covers Benfield’s thoughts on the APAC market, as well as his view on the aircraft MRO and circular economy segments.
Sporting value
Sports technology is fueled by “several transformational tailwinds” driving growth across the broader sports ecosystem, according to Houlihan Lokey’s latest Sports Market Update.
For my takeaways from the report, take a look at the full Wire coverage here.
PE Hub’s Rafael Canton interviewed Carlyle’s head of private credit Alex Popov in July to find out about the firm’s acquisition of National Women’s Soccer League franchise the Seattle Reign FC. Popov echoed a lot of the points made in the Houlihan report in the interview, which you can read here.
Other recent sports related coverage on PE Hub includes National Football League agreeing to allow private equity firms to invest in the organization, KKR closing its buyout of Varsity Brands, a US-based sports uniform and memorabilia company, and Sixth Street naming Josh Empson as a partner to co-lead the firm’s sports, media and entertainment investing platform.
Finish line
Before I sign off, let’s take a look at a deal that has now been completed. Horizon Capital and NJJ Holding have acquired fixed connectivity and pay TV provider Datagroup-Volia and Lifecell, Ukraine’s third largest mobile operator.
Wefirst reported on the deal in April, when Horizon and NJJ won regulatory approval for the acquisition. PE Hub editor Craig McGlashan caught up with Horizon founding partner and CEO Lenna Koszarny at the time to learn about the deal, which according to Horizon was the first major investment in Ukraine by a new market entrant since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of the country.
You can read Craig’s full story here.
That’s it from me. Craig McGlashan will write to you tomorrow with the Europe edition of the Wire, while Rafael Canton will be on US Wire duty as usual during the New York morning later today.
Cheers,
Nina
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