Speed Check Services (“SCS”), the traffic management company, has secured £9m (€10m) of development funding from LDC to finance its expansion strategy.

A group of private equity firms have shown interest in companies that Royal Dutch Shell wants to sell to fund a $28bn (€20.5bn) capital spending push.

T-Venture has made an undisclosed investment in Lantiq, a next-generation access and home-networking technologies company.

Olivier Schuepbach has left Wellington Partners, having served as a principal at the firm.

Blackstone, the US-based private equity giant, was boosted last year by the recovery of the financial markets. The group recorded economic net income of $703m (€519m) in 2009 but did have to take $875m of charges, mostly because of its 2007 IPO, which pushed the firm into net loss of $715m last year, compared to a loss of $1.2bn in 2008.

The private equity owners of TDC, the Danish telecoms giant that was Europe's largest buyout in 2005, are set to launch a flotation of the business.

Private equity groups including Graphite Capital and LDC are lining up to acquire HobbyCraft, the UK arts and crafts retailer.

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System is set to reduce the number of private equity firms with which it invests, in an attempt to cut costs and boost returns.

Obtineo, Carlyle Group’s Dutch search engine marketing business, has agreed to a merger with LBi International, the Nasdaq and Stockholm-listed digital media and marketing company.

Gibson Dunn & Crutcher has appointed Jeff Roberts, formerly of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, as a partner.