| Amid stark economic figures, "recovery may hinge on investments into SMEs"
The UK is facing its deepest recession to date as a consequence of the pandemic. As the second quarter showed the worst quarterly fall in output ever recorded in the UK, investors point to how the recovery of the economy as a whole may rely on the prosperity of SMEs, start-ups and high-growth firms.
On Wednesday, Private Equity Wire reported on what a recovery might look like and how SMEs could play a vital role in aiding the economy.
“The UK’s fall into recession feels like the longest movie spoiler in history, with the Bank of England predicting a more than 20 per cent fall in output a week ago,” said Adam Vettese, analyst at multi-asset investment platform eToro.
PEW had an interesting discussion with Lisya Bahar Manoah, who was recently promoted to partner at Tel-Aviv based firm Catalyst Investments. In this interview she outlined her views on navigating risk during the pandemic, the private equity climate in Israel, and why it's so important for women in the PE industry to climb the ladder of leadership.
Crestbridge’s Michael Johnson also addressed how Covid-19 has forced PE practitioners to change their approach to fundraising and what GPs can do to stay ahead of the competition during this unprecedented moment, in PEW’s Q&A with him on Thursday.
Similarly, in a guest article, Natasha Head, business development manager at ManCo service, Maitland, discusses how the pandemic has brought about positive changes within the global PE space, and what key behavioural trends have emerged as a result of the lockdown.
Meanwhile, PitchBook Data released its healthcare focused Q2 European M&A Report, showing European M&A totalled an impressive EUR563.6 billion in H1 2020, keeping pace with 2019 figures despite the pandemic.
PitchBook believes the continued strong deal value figures in the second quarter could be a result of pre-pandemic deals now closing, as the deals that closed in Q1 and Q2 were negotiated back in 2019 when there was "no pandemic in sight", and the economy was stabilised, said Dominick Mondesir, EMEA private capital analyst at PitchBook Data.
Launched by the United Nations in 2006, the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI) is a global impact initiative in support of responsible investment. Late last week it was announced that investment company Eurazeo received A+ in each of the four assessment categories relating to its professions within the UN PRI’s most recent survey.
This week saw UK-focused primary buyout specialist Kester Capital close its latest fund, Kester Capital II, at its hard cap of GBP90 million within a nine month fundraising period.
InnovHeart received EUR20 million in a round of equity financing from a syndicate of investors. The Series B round was raised from existing Milan-based investor Genextra, and a syndicate led by Panakes Partners, with CDP Venture Capital and Indaco Venture Partners joining the round.
In other news this week KKR, Cinven and Providence Equity Partners look set to finalise their agreed EUR2.96 billion buyout of Spanish telecoms operator Grupo MasMovil, Epic Games raised another USD1.78 billion from investors, while Carlyle considers exiting USD1.2 billion packaging firm Logoplaste.
Blackstone is set to acquire Prestige assets in India for USD1.7 billion, Airbnb is preparing for its IPO filing later in August, and Advent bought a stake in UK’s parcel delivery group Hermes for EUR1 billion.
Karin Wasteson
Editor, Private Equity Wire
|
