European private equity major EQT, through its EQT Infrastructure VI fund, has agreed to acquire storage services provider Constellation Cold Logistics from Arcus Infrastructure Partners. 

EQT’s investment is expected to help Constellation expand within existing and new markets, both organically and through European M&A.  

The transaction is expected to close this October, after which EQT Infrastructure VI is expected to be 40-45% invested. 

Constellation provides temperature-controlled storage services to food producers, traders and retailers. The company was established in 2020 by Arcus Infrastructure Partners through a merger of three businesses located in Belgium, Norway and the Netherlands. 

Constellation currently owns and operates 26 large cold storage facilities across Western Europe and the Nordics, employing 700 people. It is expected to generate revenues over €150m this year. The company is currently led by CEO Carlos Rodriguez. 

EQT was advised by UBS, Roland Berger, Milbank and PwC. 

Global management consulting firm Kearney has added Grace Chieng and Marius Boersema as principals, Michael Schutte as senior manager and Sara Tan as associate to its private equity team. 

Chieng most recently worked in the strategy and transactions team at EY-Parthenon, Ernst & Young’s global strategy consulting arm, where she focused on pre- and post-acquisition projects.  

Boersema also joins from the strategy and transactions team at EY-Parthenon, having previously worked on operational due diligence and carve-outs across multiple sectors. He was also part of Montagu Private Equity’s operational excellence team, where he focused on value creation across their portfolio companies. 

 Schutte was previously at PwC within its deals strategy & operations practice, specialising in pre-deal operational due diligence, carve-out DD and synergy development. 

Tan has also joined from PwC’s deals strategy & operations team, having served as a manager. 

US venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz will enter private equity with the launch of its inaugural fund, a16z Perennial Private Equity Fund, according to a report by Fortune citing US SEC filings. 

Details on the fund’s strategy and launch timeline remain undisclosed.  

The disclosure was made through Andreessen Horowitz’s wealth management division, Perennial, which oversees the financial affairs and philanthropic endeavours of entrepreneurs and investors associated with the firm. 

Perennial was started in 2022 by investor relations head Scott Kupor. Its investments are led by Michel Del Buono. The division focuses on bespoke wealth management services, estate planning and charitable giving, catering to UHNWIs and families. 

According to Fortune, through its family office division, Andreessen Horowitz expects to soon close two new funds: a real assets fund focused on real estate and a diversified investments fund. 

Global private markets asset manager HarbourVest Partners has opened a new office in Zurich, marking its fifth EMEA office and its fourteenth globally. 

The new Zurich office will provide Swiss institutional and private wealth clients with access to private equity, private credit and real assets/infrastructure investments as well as separately managed accounts. HarbourVest has previously invested in, and managed capital for Swiss pension funds, insurance companies, wealth advisors, private banks and family offices. 

It will be led by managing director Simon Jennings, who also leads the firm’s private client activities in EMEA and APAC. Jennings joined in 2017 and helped launch the firm’s private equity open-ended evergreen fund for non-US institutional and high-net-worth investors. 

In a statement, Peter Wilson, Managing Director at HarbourVest Partners, described Switzerland as offering a “sophisticated market for the continued growth of private markets”. 

HarbourVest managed more than $125bn in AUM as of 31 December. The firm works across global primary funds, secondary transactions, direct co-investments, real assets/infrastructure and private credit. 

Private equity giant Blackstone is nearing the final stages of negotiations to acquire a minority stake in Ambassador Theatre Group, which owns West End venues such as the Duke of York’s and Lyceum theatres, according to a report by Sky News.  

The deal will see Blackstone acquire a 10% to 15% stake from TEG, an Australian live entertainment and ticketing company that invested in ATG during the pandemic.  

Providence Equity Partners, ATG’s majority owner since 2013, had contemplated a sale prior to the pandemic but was thwarted by the ensuing closures of theatres and live entertainment venues. ATG has maintained its prominence despite these challenges, operating around 60 theatres across the UK and internationally.  

In 2021, ATG expanded its footprint by acquiring the Golden Gate Theatre and Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco, as well as the Fisher Theatre in Detroit. Last year, it bolstered its US operations by merging with Jujamcyn Theaters. 

ATG faces competition from notable entities like Lord Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group and billionaire Sir Leonard Blavatnik’s Theatre Royal Haymarket. The valuation of ATG in Blackstone’s impending deal remains undisclosed, but Providence initially acquired the company for £350m over a decade ago. In 2022, ATG reportedly sought to refinance approximately £1.2bn of debt.  

Financial records for its parent company, International Entertainment Holdings, indicate a record operating profit of £120.5m for the year ending March 25, 2023, with advance ticket sales surpassing pre-COVID levels.  

ATG’s venues host blockbuster productions like Hamilton, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, The Book of Mormon, The Lion King, Les Miserables and Wicked. The company was founded in the 1990s by Sir Howard Panter and Dame Rosemary Squire. ATG is currently led by Ted Stimpson, who succeeded Mark Cornell, and employs over 4,000. Its portfolio includes the Harold Pinter Theatre, Liverpool’s Empire, and the Lyric and Hudson theatres on Manhattan’s Broadway. 

Providence-based private equity firm New Majority Capital has held the first close of its private equity micro-buyout fund, NMC Fund I, raising approximately $5m with funding led by the Skoll Foundation. 

NMC Fund I focuses on acquiring profitable small businesses owned by the so-called “silver tsunami” with $500,000 to $2m of EBITDA, a range NMC describes on its website as too small for traditional private equity interest but still offering opportunities for improved cashflow. 

The fund’s portfolio companies share 10% of annual profits with employees, aiming to transfer full ownership to underrepresented entrepreneurs over a 5-7 year period, according to its website. 

In a statement, Liz Diebold, Managing Director at the Skoll Foundation, said: “Truly inclusive entrepreneurship ensures that all individuals have the opportunity to own the businesses in which they work. 

“Asset ownership is key to wealth-building opportunities, but it remains systematically out of reach for many workers in the US. NMC is reducing barriers to business ownership with an equity-centered, non-extractive approach that generates impact at multiple levels—from business owners and employees to the communities they serve.” 

CEO and managing partner Havell Rodrigues described the fund’s “potential to significantly impact underrepresented entrepreneurs and the employees in their acquired businesses who will benefit from the profit share program”. 

UK lower mid-market private equity firm Kester Capital has agreed to sell Atec Group, a UK manufacturer and distributor of specialist insurance products, to European private equity investor Perwyn. 

According to a statement, this represents Kester Capital’s fourth consecutive exit over 4x and its eighth consecutive exit over 3x.  

During its investment period, Kester Capital said that it helped Atec to build out the management team; develop its technology team and platform; broaden the platform’s product and distribution footprint; deepen its insurer relationships; and establish Arkel, a managing general agent. 

In a separate statement, Perwyn said that Atec would appoint Matthew Donaldson, formerly CEO of BGL Group and founder of Compare the Market, as chairman.

Atec trades through Ceta Insurance and Arkel Underwriting and its portfolio includes brands specialising in niche leisure, household and SME cover (caravans, motorhomes, beach huts, boats, and let properties), as well as non-standard wholesale insurance. The company is led by CEO Brendan Devine and CFO Ian Gilbert.