Category Archives: Deals

Gate.io-Aquanow deal to facilitate ‘access to crypto markets’

By Andrei Skvarsky. Gate.io, one of world’s top-ranking cryptocurrency exchanges, has entered into a partnership with digital assets infrastructure provider Aquanow with the aim of building up liquidity in global crypto markets in anticipation of new blockchain projects. The deal “will help increase access to crypto markets”, a statement from Aquanow quoted the company’s chief… Continue Reading

UAE plans investing in India’s renewable energy, food, healthcare sectors

By Andrei Skvarsky. India’s renewable energy, food processing and healthcare sectors are going to receive substantial investments from the United Arab Emirates, according to memorandums of understanding signed a week ago. The renewable energy investments would fund projects with a combined generation capacity of 60 gigawatts, Emirates News Agency (WAM) cited one of the memorandums,… Continue Reading

Gresham House fund raises £450m for environmental, social projects in UK

A fund run by alternative asset manager Gresham House has raised a little less than £450m ($574m) for financing environmental and social projects in Britain. The Guernsey-domiciled British Sustainable Infrastructure Fund (BSIF) II obtained the money from eight local government pension schemes and four family offices, the London-based asset manager said in a statement. Portfolio… Continue Reading

Prop trader The Trading Pit offers 30 pct Black Friday discount

Proprietary trading firm The Trading Pit is granting a discount of 30 per cent on all of what it calls “challenges” for the period from November 24 to December 3 as a Black Friday offer. The discount applies to all challenges. It is not limited to any one of the challenges in The Trading Pit’s… Continue Reading

QATAR NEWS

Franklin Templeton to manage multi-asset fund launched by Qatar’s Commercial Bank By Andrei Skvarsky. Global asset management firm Franklin Templeton Investments will manage a global sharia-compliant multi-asset retail fund that has been launched by Commercial Bank of Qatar, CBQ said in a statement. According to the statement, the Shariah Global Multi-Asset Fund project is part… Continue Reading

Central banks of UAE, India to join forces to boost digitalisation

By Andrei Skvarsky. The central banks of the United Arab Emirates and India have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to boost the digitalisation of financial products and services. At the centre of the MoU is a plan to test the cross-border use by the two countries of their developing central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).… Continue Reading

Mubadala buying into Truist Insurance Holdings, world’s 7th-largest insurance broker

By Andrei Skvarsky. Mubadala, an Emirati state-owned investment company, has struck a deal with U.S. private equity firm Stone Point Capital and other investors to jointly buy a $1.95bn 20 per cent stake in Truist Insurance Holdings, the world’s seventh-largest insurance broker. Truist Insurance Holdings is valued at $14.75bn by its parent company, investment bank… Continue Reading

EDB bank, Abu Dhabi financial centre admin to help companies get established

By Andrei Skvarsky. The United Arab Emirates’ state-owned Emirates Development Bank (EDB) and the authority of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), an international financial centre in UAE capital Abu Dhabi, have announced a joint plan to provide better facilities for companies seeking ADGM licensing. EDB and the ADGM authority would provide services such as the… Continue Reading

Tempo remittance firm to get verification services from Sumsub

By Andrei Skvarsky. Tempo France, a Paris-headquartered digital money transfer company, has become a client of London-based compliance-as-a-service and verification firm Sumsub. Tempo, which is licensed by French financial services regulator ACPR, has gained access to the full range of Sumsub’s know-your-customer and anti-money laundering (KYC/AML) services, according to a statement from the London firm,… Continue Reading

Prop trader The Trading Pit raises 10m euros in funding round

By Andrei Skvarsky. The Trading Pit (TTP), a Liechtenstein-based proprietary trading fintech startup, has raised 10m euros ($10.4m) in its latest round of growth funding. TTP now has the goal of achieving global access to all key asset classes, including foreign exchange, stocks, futures and cryptocurrencies, within the next six months, the firm said in… Continue Reading

M4Markets brokerage gets go-ahead to Europe trade from Cyprus regulator

By Andrei Skvarsky. Seychelles-headquartered foreign exchange and contract for differences (CFD) broker M4Markets has obtained a licence from the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) authorising it to cater to European traders. The authorisation came via the acquisition by The Oryx Group, the Belgian-based company behind M4Markets, of CySEC-licensed investment firm ICC Intercertus Capital, which… Continue Reading

Aussie investment firm Laguna Bay outsources fund admin to Bermuda-based Apex

By Andrei Skvarsky. Australian investment firm Laguna Bay has hired Apex Group, a Bermuda-headquartered financial services provider, to manage a fund for investing in food and agricultural projects in Australia and New Zealand. Laguna Bay Fund 2, the vehicle Apex will manage, is planned to raise and invest up to 1bn Australian dollars (US$672m), according… Continue Reading

Deal enables Apex to use Inveniam blockchain for asset valuation

By Andrei Skvarsky. U.S. fintech company Inveniam has clinched a deal with UK-based financial services firm Apex Group to enable the latter to use blockchain technology patented by the American company and its data operating system for asset valuation. “Using data that is verified on blockchain, through our innovative partnership with Inveniam, will … deliver… Continue Reading

Ampersand, private investor buy out Australian biopharma firm

By Andrei Skvarsky. Global health care private equity firm Ampersand Capital Partners and private investor Glenn Haifer have bought out Australian biopharmaceutical company Luina Bio, rebranding it as AcuraBio, according to a joint statement from Ampersand and AcuraBio. Haifer is board chairman of AcuraBio. He is an Australian medical practitioner and entrepreneur. The statement did… Continue Reading

Permira, Ampersand, Abu Dhabi govt co-acquire, merge two biopharma firms

By Andrei Skvarsky. Private equity investment firms Permira and Ampersand, based in London and Boston respectively, and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) have jointly acquired and merged two global pharmaceutical companies making remedies from human blood plasma. The merger of Kedrion Biophama, which is headquartered in Tuscany, Italy, and Bio Products Laboratory (BPL), which… Continue Reading

NY fintech Inveniam pulls into in Brazil via deal with Growth Tech

By Andrei Skvarsky. Inveniam Capital Partners, a New York-headquartered financial technology company operating a digital services platform, said it has “definitively entered” the Brazilian market by clinching a partnership deal with Brazilian blockchain developer Growth Tech. Growth Tech, a startup whose blockchain solutions are mainly focused on real estate, “is in the process of incorporating… Continue Reading

Dubai’s Mubadala spearheads $100m funding for Swedish neobank Juni

Emirati state-owned investment company Mubadala said on Twitter that its asset management arm, Mubadala Capital, had recently led a $100m Series B financing round for Swedish neobank Juni. Juni, which is headquartered in Gothenburg, is a business-to-business firm providing services for e-commerce companies. Mubadala, whose full name is Mubadala Investment Company, is based in Dubai. Continue Reading

EQT, Mubadala to buy out container maker Envirotainer from Cinven, Novo Holdings

By Andrei Skvarsky. Stockholm-headquartered EQT Private Equity and Abu Dhabi sovereign investment company Mubadala have clinched a deal to acquire Envirotainer, a provider of temperature-controlled containers for the air transport of biopharmaceuticals. The price that EQT Private Equity, a division of global investment group EQT, and Mubadala have agreed to pay the sellers, British private… Continue Reading

Sumsub says its kit enables NiceHash crypto firm to avoid most of fraud, security incidents threatening it

By Andrei Skvarsky. A toolkit developed by identity verification firm Sumsub has enabled its client NiceHash, a cryptocurrency mining platform and exchange, to boost its rate of avoidance of fraud attempts and security incidents by 80 per cent, according to Sumsub. The kit is an all-in-one solution that enables NiceHash to meet differing requirements set… Continue Reading

Advanced training edtech startup Qureos raises $3m in pre-seed funding

By Andrei Skvarsky. Qureos, a Dubai-based education technology startup organising advanced training for graduates to help them find successful employment, has raised $3m in a pre-seed funding round. The round was led by venture capital firms COTU Ventures and Colle Capital, the former headquartered in Dubai and the latter in New York, according to a… Continue Reading

Asset manager Apollo’s franchisee EPF buys 68 properties from Italian pension fund

By Andrei Skvarsky. European Principal Finance (EPF), a business franchised by New York-headquartered global asset manager Apollo, has bought an 842m-euro ($923m) portfolio of 68 commercial and residential real estate properties from an Italian pension fund. The properties include hotel, retail, logistics and parking assets and are mostly located in Rome and Milan, Apollo said… Continue Reading