KKR and TA Associates invests additional €265m in Söderberg & Partners

Current Söderberg & Partners minority shareholders KKR and TA Associates are making an additional €265m (SEK3bn) growth investment in the Nordic financial advisory and insurance and financial products brokerage business via a new share issue.

Following the new share issue, Söderberg & Partners will continue to be controlled by its founders and chairman of the board and supported by KKR and TA.

According to a press statement, the new capital will be used to support Söderberg & Partners’ continued expansion where the firm is currently active, with a particular focus on the United Kingdom and Spain.

GSB launches debt and equity capital markets division

Financial services group GSB has launched GSB Capital, a new division focussing on debt and equity capital markets for individual and corporate clients, which will be headed by Grant Bergman.

As part of the growth plan, GSB Capital is aiming to launch a co-investment vehicle later this year, which, according to a press statement, will allow it to “further support disruptive, innovative and impactful businesses globally”.

Bergman previously launched and led private company advisory teams at both finnCap (now Cavendish Financial) and Investec Bank, where he advised on a number of global transactions.

GSB Capital includes M&A, growth capital (debt and equity), direct investment, debt advisory and other advisory services with teams in both the UK and the UAE.

Cheyne Strategic Value Credit appoints Head of Origination and Trading

Alternative investment fund manager Cheyne Capital Management has appointed Dan Magee as Managing Director, Head of Origination and Trading for Cheyne Strategic Value Credit.

Magee, who will be based in London, succeeds David Lofts, who will remain a partner in the business but will transition to the US, where he will engage with US-based counterparties in the origination of cross-border opportunities while partnering with Magee to enhance existing relationships with European corporate advisory firms and bank asset disposal teams.

Prior to joining Cheyne SVC, Magee was a senior trader in the special situations team at Credit Suisse, originating and structuring private lending transactions and trading stressed and distressed credit. He began his career as a lawyer at Allen & Overy where he focused on leveraged lending, corporate restructurings and insolvency.

Cheyne SVC was established in 2017 and manages two strategies – one which focuses on stressed situations, providing restructuring solutions and turnaround capital, and another which provides debt capital solutions to predominantly non-sponsored mid-market enterprises.

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ACME Credit Partners names Head of Capital Formation and Investor Relations

New York-based credit-focused investment firm ACME Credit Partners has appointed Liz Veilleux as Head of Capital Formation and Investor Relations. 

Veilleux most recently served as Head of Business Development at Global Delta Capital and has previously held roles at Acadian Asset Management, Wellington Management and Summit Partners. 

ACME was founded last year by Peter Eschmann and Jay Rogers, both former Managing Directors at Cerberus Capital Management. 

The firm provides senior secured structures from $10-$150m to non-sponsor and sponsor-backed companies with at least $5m of EBITDA through term loans, last-out tranches, revolvers and bridge loans, according to a statement. 

Stocks making the biggest moves premarket: Chewy, Birkenstock, GameStop and more

Chewy shares rally 20% after SEC filing reveals ‘Roaring Kitty’ Keith Gill has 6.6% stake

Keith Gill, aka Roaring Kitty, hosting a YouTube livestream on June 7th, 2024. Source: Roaring Kitty | YouTube

Shares of Chewy popped in premarket trading Monday after a Securities and Exchange Commission filing showed meme stock trader “Roaring Kitty” took a stake in the pet food e-commerce retailer.

The filing showed Roaring Kitty, whose legal name is Keith Gill, bought just over 9 million shares — amounting to a 6.6% stake in the company. That makes him the third-biggest Chewy shareholder, according to FactSet. Based on Friday’s close, that stake is valued at more than $245 million.

Stock chart icon CHWY rallies

The stock was up more than 20% before the bell.

The SEC filing also included a section that read: “Check the appropriate box to designate whether you are a cat.” There was an “x” next to a response that read: “I am not a cat.” This line was included in Gill’s statement in a series of congressional hearings about 2021’s GameStop trading mania.

Arrows pointing outwards SEC filing

Chewy shares took a wild ride last week after Gill posted a picture on social media platform X of a cartoon dog that resembled Chewy’s logo. Shares were up as much as 34% on Thursday but ended the day down slightly.

CNBC emailed Chewy PR seeking comment on the new shareholder.

Gill is known to be a champion of GameStop and has been stirring up trading in the video game company in the last few months. In mid-June, he disclosed a stake of 9.001 million GameStop shares after exiting his massive call options position. It’s unclear if he sold his GameStop bet to fund the purchase of Chewy.

GameStop shares fell 6.5% in premarket Monday following the news.

There’s a big connection between GameStop and Chewy. GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen was the founder and CEO of Chewy, who was instrumental in PetSmart’s takeover of Chewy in 2017 and its subsequent initial public offering in 2019.

Cohen joined the GameStop board of directors along with two other Chewy executives in January 2021, partly helping fuel the initial GameStop rally. He later took over as GameStop CEO in 2023, leading a turnaround in the brick-and-mortar video game retailer.

In a recent YouTube livestream, Gill said GameStop is in the second stage of a reinvention, and

CNBC

China rivalry helps drive US carbon pricing debate

This article is an on-site version of our Moral Money newsletter. Premium subscribers can sign up here to get the newsletter delivered three times a week. Standard subscribers can upgrade to Premium here, or explore all FT newsletters.

Visit our Moral Money hub for all the latest ESG news, opinion and analysis from around the FT

Welcome back. Economists have long viewed international carbon pricing as one of the most important policy tools — arguably the most important — in the fight against climate change. The EU has been the key mover so far, with a long-standing industrial carbon trading scheme and an incoming levy on carbon-intensive imports.

Now, momentum is growing around a similar move by the US, as was clear from the conversation that FT climate correspondent Attracta Mooney and I had in London with John Podesta, the White House senior adviser on international climate policy. Such a step could be a major development for the global energy transition — even if it’s the US economic rivalry with China that gets it over the line.

Carbon pricing US looks beyond its borders in new approach to carbon pricing

Joe Biden’s weak performance at Thursday’s debate with Donald Trump has added weight to predictions that his administration is now entering its final months.

But our conversation with John Podesta underscored the growing political support in the US around carbon pricing, especially on imported goods. The momentum could conceivably grow even under a second Trump administration, thanks to the bipartisan concern about Chinese industrial competition.

So far, the Biden White House appears to have made a conscious decision not to prioritise a national carbon pricing system, as has now been rolled out in various forms in most other high-income economies and in China. That concept has long been seen as politically toxic in the US, the world’s biggest oil and gas producer. Biden’s clean energy strategy has put much more emphasis on carrots than on sticks, notably through the lavish incentives proffered under the Inflation Reduction Act.

But Podesta made clear that carbon pricing in international trade is now a focus for the administration. “The global trading system doesn’t properly take account of embodied carbon in tradable goods,” said Podesta, who announced a new “task force” to tackle this issue in April. “So we’re undertaking a review of that, trying to deepen the data that we are going to need to implement a policy framework for

The fate of dollar rests on the US election

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Partners Group acquires majority stake in €900m biotech FairJourney

Swiss private equity firm Partners Group has acquired a majority stake in FairJourney Biologics, a biotech known for its work on antibody treatments for major drugmakers such as Johnson & Johnson, in a deal that values the business at €900m, according to a report by the Financial Times.

London-based healthcare investor GHO Capital, which acquired a majority stake in FairJourney for just over €50m in 2020, will retain a minority shareholding alongside the company’s founder, António Parada.

The sale marks the largest exit in GHO’s history, potentially delivering a near 10-fold return on its initial investment, according to PitchBook data.

FairJourney, with laboratories in Porto, Portugal, and Cambridge, UK, has significantly contributed to research behind 14 antibody treatments currently in clinical trials for diseases such as cancer and autoimmune disorders. The company’s EBITDA are projected to reach €44m this year, up from €10m in 2020, while group revenues are expected to hit €79m in 2024.

The acquisition followed a competitive auction process, which saw Partners Group outbid other private equity investors.

Partners Group has invested billions in the healthcare and life sciences sectors in recent years, including the €1.6bn purchase of Greek generics manufacturer Pharmathen in 2021 and co-investment with GHO in Sterling Pharma Solutions.