| AstraZeneca trial; HIG Capital closes EUR1.1bn European fund III; and UK's first sea fund launches
On Monday, British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca added to the recent stream of positive vaccine news when it announced that its vaccine candidate was 70 per cent effective, and global markets exhaled another well needed sigh of relief.
Since then, questions have been raised regarding why the company reported a pooled result of two different trials however, where one group received a lower dose – as it deviates from standard reporting on clinical trials.
As the US takes time off to celebrate a different kind of Thanksgiving this week, Trump finally signals he is prepared to leave the White House if Joe Biden is formally confirmed as the next US president.
HIG Capital closed its third European Fund on EUR1.1 billion, exceeding its target. Goldman Sachs raised USD10.3 billion for a fund that will buy PE stakes as interest in such deals grows, while KKR is preparing to raise another European buyout fund, having spent significantly during the pandemic.
Bain Capital raised USD800 million in capital to invest in businesses that the firm believes will benefit society. Meanwhile, Swedish private equity group EQT negotiated a EUR2.7 billionn fund subscription credit facility, and Blackstone seeks to raise around USD 5 billion for its second Asian private equity fund, according to reports.
Also this week, Pan-Nordic digital savings and investment platform Nordnet listed on Nasdaq Stockholm, generating a market capitalisation based on the IPO price of SEK96 per share of around SEK24 billion.
Reckitt Benckiser’s venture arm RB Ventures backed laundry and dry-cleaning startup Oxwash, which provides laundry services to the Oxford University coronavirus vaccine trial. RB Ventures is partnering with early-stage start-ups who share its ‘fight for access’, with Oxwash being one of its first investments.
The UK-focused Blue Impact Fund, with a pipeline of an estimated value of up to GBP90 million, launched at the Natural Capital Finance & Investment Conference on Tuesday. The fund focuses on ocean recovery and resilience and aims to harness the power of seaweed, mussels and oysters in order to counteract the impact of climate change.
Private credit managers will provide more than USD100 billion of financing during 2020 as economic uncertainty and low interest rates are reducing the attractiveness of traditional fixed income assets, according to the 'Financing the Economy' research paper published by the Alternative Credit Council and Allen & Overy.
Karin Wasteson
Editor, Private Equity Wire
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