Category Archives: News

AXA and Finerge: ‘Watt’ a team

The alternatives division of AXA IM has swept into Portugal to acquire a 25% stake in Finerge, a renewable energy platform, from Igneo Infrastructure Partners. Watt a team this could be. AXA IM is in its element with this strategic investment. It perfectly aligns with the firm’s strategy of investing in decarbonization-focused assets, and underscores the importance of infrastructure investment as Europe transitions to a net zero economy. The Finerge platform invests in, and operates, a series of wind farms and solar cell plants across Portugal and Spain. The winds of change are growing in strength, so expect to see more investment managers acquiring energy transition assets over the coming years.

inspired by Funds Europe

Powder puff

Buyout groups find themselves at a crossroads. Even though M&A deal volume is strong, deal value is falling.Purchase price multiples have fallen 20% from their 2021 peak. And as GPs consider where to put their record amount of dry powder to work, high interest rates mean that a greater frequency of smaller deals are being completed: causing a divergence between deal value and deal count. Year-to-date, the dollar value of M&A activity is down a third. Shopping around for cheaper transactions is likely to be a temporary fashion trend, as buyout partners come under increasing pressure from LPs to put more of their dry power to work. For now though, it seems bargains rather than trophy assets are the preferred option.

inspired by Pitchbook

Summit to Plummet

Europe’s venture capital market has been in somewhat of a freefall this year, with deal value 60% lower than the first half of 2022 and 34% lower than the second half of 2022, according to Pitchbook’s Q2 2023 European Venture Report.Small deals, up to EUR1 million in size, have effectively entered a cryogenic chamber, signaling bad news for companies searching for seed and pre-seed capital, as VC managers focus more on supporting existing investee companies. This has contributed to a slower pace of dealmaking, as the teeth of a higher interest-rate economy begin to bite. Exits too have all but dropped off a cliff, totaling a mere EUR3.5 billion for the first six months of the year. It is enough to give VC managers and their investors a dose of the blues.

inspired by Silicon Canals