GAS-TO-LIQUID TECHNOLOGY PIONEER, GAS2, IN ADMINISTRATION

 

FRP Advisory seeks buyer for ‘disruptive technology and assets’

 

Gas2, a pioneering Aberdeen-based business that was developing a disruptive technology that could dramatically transform the market for the conversion of gas into liquids (GTL), has been placed in administration.

 

The Gas2 technology has significant potential for mothballed and marginal gas fields, and for the distribution of gas (as a liquid) into rural and remote areas.  The company and the intended applications for its technology had to date attracted £18m of investment, together with support and talent from across the oil and gas industry.

 

Founded in 2005 and based in Bridge of Don, Aberdeen, Gas2 had invested in a £4 million state-of-the-art Syngas and Fischer Tropsch reactor plants at the Wilton Centre complex on Teesside.

 

Compared to existing technologies, Gas2 was developing a modular system that would offer significant economic and environmental advantages, plus much higher hydrocarbon conversion rates.   The company was encouraged by early trials but was unable to progress to the next stage of development, and fell short of the full commercialisation of its technology.

 

Iain Fraser and Tom MacLennan, partners with FRP Advisory and joint administrators, are now seeking buyers for the intellectual property and assets of the company, and encouraging interested parties to make contact as soon as possible.

 

 

Commenting, Iain Fraser, joint administrator and partner with FRP Advisory said: “Gas2 was focused on perfecting a new technology that has the potential to cause a seismic shift in the GTL market.   That significant market potential still exists, but unfortunately the company could not fund the next phase of R&D, and there was no alternative other than to place the business in administration.  We are now offering the intellectual property and pilot plant for sale with immediate effect, and hope that an entrepreneur or business that recognizes the potential will acquire these valuable assets and bring this exciting new GTL technology to market.”

 

 

Maven Capital Partners sells student accommodation development in Bath Street, Glasgow for £7.45 million

 

Maven Capital Partners (“Maven”), one of the UK’s leading private equity and property investment managers, is pleased to announce that it has sold its premium, purpose-built student accommodation development at 333 Bath Street in central Glasgow, to Empiric Student Property plc, for £7.45 million shortly after it opened for the 2015/16 academic year. The sale was achieved in the same week that Maven announced the opening of its latest hotel development, the ibis Styles boutique hotel in Glasgow’s vibrant Merchant City, as part of a growing UK hotel portfolio.

 

Ramsay Duff, Investment Director at Maven Capital Partners, said: “The sale of this development has generated good returns for Maven investors, just nine months from original investment. It demonstrates the potential for the student accommodation sector to provide attractive investor returns on the back of continued strong demand from both occupiers and institutional purchasers, particularly in areas such as Glasgow that are under-supplied with purpose-built, student accommodation. The project is a good example of Maven’s strategy of backing experienced developers to provide ‘Real Estate Private Equity’ opportunities to investors.”

 

Maven acquired 333 Bath Street, adjacent to the Kings Theatre, as a vacant office building and worked closely with developer partner, Calmont Property Group, to carry out a multi-million pound redevelopment of the site to provide 70 studio apartments over six floors. These highly-specified studios have access to extensive common space with a residents’ club lounge, dinner party room, private gym, on-site cinema room, seminar rooms, a quiet reading room and games area. As a result of the quality of the refurbishment, the development is close to being fully let for the 2015/16 academic year. 

 

333 Bath Street is Maven’s second sale of a student accommodation development in Glasgow this year, following the redevelopment and sale of Claremont House, in the Kelvingrove area of the city, to a specialist European property fund for £8.37 million in the Spring. Research into the Glasgow market shows that 20,000 to 25,000 full-time students are without access to purpose-built accommodation, particularly self-contained studios which are attractive to undergraduate, postgraduate and overseas students alike.  Student numbers are forecast to increase on the back of the reputation of the City’s three universities and the provision of high quality accommodation continues to present good opportunities to invest.

 

 

Maven’s property team has completed a number of other student accommodation, hotel and office developments across the UK, offering a range of opportunities to investors who are looking for well-researched and managed property deals which can generate attractive returns, typically with an element of development gain.

 

BERINGEA MAKES FURTHER INVESTMENT IN COGORA

 

Beringea, the venture capital investor and manager of the ProVen VCTs, has announced that it has made an additional investment into existing portfolio company Cogora, a media and marketing services group.

 

The investment was used to support Cogora’s recent acquisition of PCM Healthcare, a leading medical education and communications agency.

 

The acquisition will create one of the UK’s largest independent healthcare agencies.

Malcolm Moss, Co-Founder of Beringea, commented: “We have a long standing relationship with Cogora and have seen them evolve from a traditional media business to the ‘full service’ agency it is today. The acquisition of PCM Healthcare and the subsequent combination of both organisations’ expertise, experience and resources, cements Cogora’s potion as a leader in its field and takes the company’s growth potential to the next level.”

Cogora’s media brands include Pulse, Nursing in Practice, The Commissioning Review and Hospital Pharmacy Europe, while the company's marketing services arm delivers research, strategy and campaigns for its clients.

 

Cogora Chief Executive John Pettifor commented: “Though we started life as a ‘traditional’ media company, we’ve also been operating in the agency space for some time now and we’ve been looking to build the size of the group in this area.

 

“We identified PCM right at the very beginning of that journey as a potential acquisition that would bring the very highest levels of technical expertise and clinical knowledge to the group, as well as broaden the geographic scope of our operations and bring their leadership position within European CME. So I am absolutely delighted that Alisa, Rob and the team are joining us.”

 

PCM Healthcare co-founders Alisa Pearlstone and Rob Miller will continue to lead the business post-acquisition, and the company will remain in its London Docklands offices.

PCM has pioneered novel approaches to deliver healthcare communications and non-promotional medical education that have measurable impact on patient care standards for a range of clients including Novartis, Gilead and Indivior.

 

The company is structured into two separate divisions: PCM Scientific, its specialist CME and independent education business, has delivered some of the largest and most successful practice-enhancing education programmes in Europe over the last few years; and Pharmacom Media, its separate promotional medical communications team, produces medical communication strategies and tactical campaigns for its blue-chip pharmaceutical clients.

 

Commenting on the deal, Alisa Pearlstone said: “PCM Healthcare has grown significantly in recent years on the back of our clear commitment to delivering innovative techniques and meaningful outcomes for our clients. Our partnership with Cogora creates an excellent synergy and promises a significant boost to the PCM Healthcare offering.

 

 

“Cogora brings commercially significant resources, which will help us to dramatically extend the reach and impact of our specialist approaches much more widely – not least through Cogora’s extensive global physician network, with access to over 220,000 healthcare professionals, and its heavyweight digital production and marketing team. But at the same time, Rob and I will continue to run PCM in exactly the same manner we always have, with the same team, from our current office, and with the continued support of our MDs Alex Monaghan and Celeste Kolanko.”

 

 

Highland Europe raises new €332M fund

 

Highland Europe II will invest in rapidly emerging European growth-stage tech companies

 

Highland Europe, the prominent growth-stage technology investor, has raised a new €332m tech growth fund, Highland Europe Technology Growth II. This follows Highland Europe’s 2012 €250m Highland Europe Technology Growth I fund that invested in 15 technology companies including WeTransfer, AMCS, GetYourGuide, Outfittery, SocialPoint, Finanzcheck, TalentSoft, eGym, Intersec, NewVoiceMedia, Brandwatch, Matches Fashion, Jampp, LoveCrafts, and Malwarebytes.

 

Highland Europe’s partners - Fergal Mullen, Laurence Garrett, Irena Goldenberg, Sam Brooks and Tony Zappala - intend to continue investing this second fund with the same laser-focused growth-stage investment strategy: targeting rapidly emerging internet, mobile and software companies.  These companies are led by inspiring entrepreneurs who have demonstrated resourcefulness by achieving substantial revenue scale in a relatively short period of time, and on a capital-efficient basis.  The companies are always high-growth and have sensible business models from a unit-economics perspective. The partners aim to back sector-leading companies addressing large market opportunities either on a pan-Europe basis or globally.

 

Fergal Mullen, who joined Highland Capital Partners in the US in 2001 and who launched the firm in Europe in 2007 said, “The new fund was substantially oversubscribed, which reflected support for our focused strategy and early performance of Fund I. We had the pleasure of welcoming back all investors from Fund I - with many substantially increasing their commitments. In addition, we were honoured to welcome a very limited number of sophisticated new investors who have a long-term commitment to our asset-class.”

 

 

Laurence Garrett, Highland Europe partner, said, “In Europe, the early-stage investment market is relatively well-funded – but there is a relative under-capitalization of the venture and growth-stage market. In the past, deals requiring investment of €10M - €30M were over-syndicated by European investors prompting many entrepreneurs to seek capital in the US.  Highland Europe is simply meeting a market need within the venture capital and growth-capital eco-system.”

 

 

Dunedin joins newly formed global mid-market Private Equity network

 

First private equity network to span Europe and USA

 

Senior appointments made to Dunedin’s international advisory board

 

Dunedin, the UK mid-market private equity house, today announced that it has joined the Alliance for Global Growth.  The Alliance for Global Growth is a newly launched global network of ambitious lower mid-market private equity firms and the first of its kind to operate across Europe and the USA.

 

The Alliance for Global Growth currently includes ten members drawn from Western Europe and the United States. In addition to Dunedin, which targets buyouts of market-leading companies headquartered in the UK with a deal size of £20 -100 million, the network includes Nordic mid market specialist, Axcel; Finatem, a German private equity fund focused on the “Mittelstand”; French mid market house Nixen; Nazca, a leading Spanish mid-market firm; and US investors Harris Preston Partners, Brentwood Associates, Stone Goff, Wincove and Silver Oak Services Partners.

 

The formation of this network is driven by a continuing trend towards globalisation and comes at a time when significant opportunities exist for UK businesses to capitalise on increasing inbound and outbound investment.

 

The Alliance for Global Growth intends to support growth within its members’ portfolios of companies during the investment period, but also to enhance opportunities for sale to international buyers at the point of exit. In addition, shared knowledge and intelligence across the network will benefit member firms and contribute to members’ deal origination and the identification of overseas investment opportunities.

 

Internationalisation is one of the primary growth strategies that Dunedin adopts in order to add value to the businesses that it backs. This strategy is shared by other members of the Alliance for Global Growth.  Of Dunedin’s last four exits, three were to international trade buyers.  These were UK headquartered businesses with a market leading position in their niche, which, with Dunedin's support, achieved greater scale and operational efficiency, ultimately attracting the attention of international trade buyers.  Dunedin has had particular success in helping its portfolio companies to establish a presence in international markets.

 

The Alliance for Global Growth is the only global alliance spanning Europe and America. Future plans include establishing relationships with new members in Eastern Europe, Asia and South America.  The current member firms collectively back a total of 122 companies across Western Europe and the US.  A dedicated person will be recruited to manage the day to day business of the Alliance.

 

Shaun Middleton, Managing Partner of Dunedin commented: “We are constantly looking for ways to add value to our companies and ultimately to our investors and this initiative illustrates our commitment to the international growth of the businesses we back.”    

 

“Globalisation is a continuing trend and local knowledge and relationships are a critically important factor in the internationalisation of any business.  Joining this newly formed Alliance gives Dunedin and its portfolio companies the benefit of a global perspective and a strong international network.  We are very excited by the opportunities that the Alliance represents, especially since it is the first to secure members from Europe and the USA.  We hope to bring in new international members in the coming months.”

 

In addition to joining the Alliance for Global Growth, Dunedin has also announced three senior appointments to its international advisory board. These include:

 

David Lockwood OBE - the current CEO of Laird PLC with extensive experience of international operations. He is also Non-Executive Chairman of Knowledge Transfer Network Limited and formerly held senior positions in B.T., Thales and GEC.

 

Gerard Lavery – President of Xoepia Investments. He has a proven track record in delivering strategic initiatives, driving organisational change, profitable growth, operational excellence and sustainable productivity.  Gerard was formerly CEO of GKN Land Systems and transformed the business to become a $1.5 billion plus global business.  Prior to that he held senior executive positions at Ingersoll Rand in the US where he led global operations for the Climate Solutions business, Trane, General Electric and GEC Alstom.

 

 

Angus Cockburn - Chief Financial Officer of Serco, and formerly Aggreko plc.He brings a wealth of experience gained across a variety of sectors in high growth competitive global environments. Prior to Aggreko, Angus spent three years as Managing Director of Pringle of Scotland, five years at PepsiCo Inc and several years at KPMG working in the UK and USA. Angus is also an experienced Non-executive Director, currently serving on the Board of GKN Plc.