The UK facilities management business has been sold to a Finnish-based lift and escalator company.
A Dresdner Kleinwort Benson Research report says that UK investors still lag behind their US counterparts when it comes to investing in private equity but predicts this is set to change.
The investment is part of a Lazy’s first round of private equity funding which aims to raise £6m. Its founders have funded the company to date.
The Finnish private equity firm has taken a 25 per cent stake in the technology enabling company.
The company will use the money raised in a private funding round to progress its clinical programmes and increase its in-house research capability.
The latest Initiative Europe focus report says that private capital is increasingly being raised for investment in European technology companies despite turbulence in the world’s public markets.
Trade & Industry Secretary Stephen Byers has agreed with the Director General of Fair Trading's view that the takeover by Interbrew would reduce competition in the UK beer market and drive up prices for consumers.
Just three days before Christmas, Schroder Ventures acquired a 71.2 per cent shareholding in Homebase, in a deal which valued the DIY chain at £750m.
nCoTec will offer the software company both financial and operational support.
Allianz Capital Partners and Goldman Sachs are rumoured to have paid E700m for the acquisition and to have assumed Aventis's share of Messer's estimated E1.6bn debt.