PEI Staff

The Abraaj Group established Themis Energy as a dedicated project development arm to invest in energy infrastructure. Themis, acquired by Abraaj to form the arm, currently has energy infrastructure projects under development in excess of 1,300 MW.  Marc Mandaba, founder of Themis, will join Abraaj as a managing director and head of the new venture. Tas Anvaripour will join Abraaj as a partner, following her previous role as chairperson of Themis.

Gyros AB, a Swedish developer of immunoassays agreed to merge with Tuscon, Arizona-based Protein Technologies Inc, a provider peptide synthesis tools, to form Gyros Protein Technologies AB. Swedish state-controlled pension fund AP6 and Ampersand Capital Partners, which own a majority of Gyros and Protein Tech, respectively, will become the major shareholders in the new company.

JMC Capital Partners hired Charlie Burckmyer as a principal. Burckmyer co-founded Knob Hill Partners, a Boston-based private investment firm. Most recently, he established a private equity investment platform as director of Nixon Peabody's Capital Connector

Michigan-based Spring & Sprout Dental Holdings Inc, Huron Capital Partners LLC's platform for acquiring dental practices, acquired Ohio-based Dan German Orthodontics. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Eurazeo, a European investment company, agreed to acquire Glion Institute of Higher Education and Les Roches International School of Hotel Management, both Swiss hospitality schools, from Laureate Education Inc for a total transaction value of  380 million Swiss francs ($384.28 million). Based in Baltimore, Laureate Education is a college network backed by an investor group that includes KKR.

U.S. private equity and venture capital funds posted negative returns in the third quarter of 2015, but both bested public market equity returns, according to benchmarks published by Cambridge Associates LLC. For the quarter ending September 30, 2015, the Cambridge private equity index posted a negative return of 1.4 percent, while the venture capital index showed a negative return of 0.4 percent. For comparison, the Nasdaq Composite lost 7.4 percent in the third quarter.

Ardian agreed to sell 46.7 percent of KOS, an Italian healthcare group, to Compagnie Industriali Riunite SpA (CIR), an Italian industrial group, and F2i, an Italian infrastructure fund, for 292 million euros ($323.04 million).

MOD Pizza, a fast casual pizza chain, raised approximately $32 million in an equity funding round led by existing investor PWP Growth Equity, the growth equity fund of Perella Weinberg Partners. PWP led a $45 million round for the company in March 2015. To date, MOD has raised about $106 million. Based in Seattle, MOD operates stores in 16 states.

Los Angeles-based private equity firm Monogram Capital Partners made a minority growth investment in Country Archer Jerky Co, a premium beef jerky brand headquartered in San Bernardino, California. Financial terms of the investment were not disclosed.