Robert Daniel

Israel’s private-equity dealmaking dropped in the second quarter, a report released July 26 said. Deal value in the quarter dropped 22 percent to $1.3 billion from $1.67 billion in the year-earlier quarter, while the number of deals fell by more than half to 13 from 29, the report by the trade group IVC Research Center and the law firm Shibolet & Co said. The comparative figures for Q1 2016 were 15 deals valued at $265 million, the firms, both based in Tel Aviv, said.

Olympus Partners named Jim Conroy its third managing partner. Conroy, 55, joined the Stamford, Connecticut, firm in 1990 as it began investing its first fund. The firm said he’d had particular success with healthcare and financial-services investments. His new role will include expanded responsibility on the investment committee and within management. Olympus, founded 1988, manages more than $5.5 billion, the firm’s website says. Its latest fund, Olympus Growth Fund VI, has committed capital of $2.3 billion. Olympus says it makes at most three or four investments a year, ranging $50 million for growth-capital deals to $300 million and more for buyouts.

Swanson Health Products, the Fargo, North Dakota, online and catalog marketer of healthy living products, named Katie Doyle chief executive officer. Doyle joins Swanson from Abbott Laboratories, where she was a senior vice president, leading the nutrition business in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico. In that post she was responsible for $3.2 billion in revenue “across a portfolio of brands in the pediatric and adult nutrition space as well as sports nutrition and healthy snacking,” Swanson said in a statement. As Swanson CEO she succeeds Ken Harris, who led the company through its late-January acquisition by Swander Pace Capital, the San Francisco private equity firm with $1.3 billion of equity commitments.

Cinven, the London private equity firm, and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board agreed to acquire Hotelbeds Group from Tui Group. The enterprise value of Hotelbeds, the Palma de Mallorca, Spain, travel-services provider, is €1.165 billion, or $1.32 billion. Hotelbeds’ clients include tour operators, travel agencies, corporate clients and consumers. Tui Group is the Hannover, Germany, travel and tourism firm. Jorge Quemada, partner at Cinven, and Shane Feeney, managing director and head of direct private equity at the Canada pension firm, in a statement said Hotelbeds is performing well and has strong growth prospects. Advising on the deal were Bain & Co  (commercial); Freshfields (legal); Lazard, Morgan Stanley, HSBC and PricewaterhouseCoopers (m&a); Deloitte (tax) and PwC (financial, labor and IT).

Värde Partners, the $10 billion Minneapolis alternative-investment firm, and Banco Popular Espanol SA agreed to acquire the Barclaycard business in Spain and Portugal from Barclays. Terms weren’t disclosed.  The business will be acquired by bancopopular-e, which is owned 51 percent by Värde and 49% by Banco Popular, the Spanish bank. The deal builds online bank bancopopular-e’s presence in Spain and speeds its […]

Arsenal Capital Partners, the New York private equity firm focused on healthcare and specialty-industrial businesses, said that a unit acquired Sasco Chemical Group Inc. Terms weren’t disclosed. Sasco, founded 1948, is the Albany, Georgia, producer of specialty chemicals for the rubber, wood, consumer and medical industries. Arsenal’s polymer-solutions group, which made the acquisition, was advised by Kirkland & Ellis. Twinbrook Capital and Kayne Anderson, the group’s current lenders, provided debt financing for the deal. Genesis Capital LLC was financial adviser to Sasco Chemical.

3i Group, the London private equity firm, and funds it manages agreed to sell Mayborn Group to Shanghai Jahwa (Group) Co. In a statement, 3i said that total proceeds to 3i and funds “represent a 3.5x money multiple. Proceeds … will be £135m, in line with 3i's valuation at 31 December 2015. These amounts are in addition to £32m received by 3i through a refinancing in 2012.” 3i took Mayborn private in 2006. In that time, Ebitda tripled, reaching more than £25 million ($36.4 million) in 2015. Net sales in 2015 were £130 million, 60 percent of which were international sales.  Shanghai Jahwa is the parent of the Chinese consumer-products firm Jahwa United Co. Jahwa Group is wholly owned by Ping An Insurance Group.

SnappyData, the Portland, Oregon, developer of a cost-efficient analytics database built on the Apache Spark data-processing platform, closed $3.65 million of Series A funding. The round was led by Pivotal of Palo Alto, California, GE Digital of San Ramon, California, and GTD Capital of Seattle. In a statement, SnappyData said the funds would enable it to invest further in engineering and sales. The company says it already employs more than 30 engineers and is hiring.

MUFG Investor Services named Daniel Trentacosta sales director to help develop business for the firm’s solutions across hedge funds, funds of funds and private equity/real estate funds. MUFG, the global asset-servicing arm of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, provides services including fund administration, middle-office outsourcing, custody, depository, trustee, fund of hedge fund financing, foreign exchange and more. Trentacosta will report to John Sergides, managing director and global head of business development and marketing in New York. Previously, Trentacosta headed the treasury-operations team at Och-Ziff Capital Management Group, the New York alternative-asset manager.

Summit Partners, the Boston growth equity investor, said Greg Serrao joined the executive-in-residence program, tasked with helping the firm’s healthcare and life sciences team identify investment opportunities among growth-stage healthcare companies. Serrao is founder and executive chairman, and from 1996 until 2015 was chief executive, of American Dental Partners, which Summit had backed. Serrao also led American Dental, the Wakefield, Massachusetts, provider of business services to dental practices, to its 1998 initial public offering. He also served as an executive at Cardinal Health and as a healthcare-focused investment banker at Dean Witter Reynolds. Summit Partners currently has invested more than $7.2 billion in equity and fixed-income opportunities.