Equistone Partners Europe Divests ATPI - peHUBpeHUB

Equistone Partners Europe has sold ATPI to its management, backed by Intermediate Capital Group for an undisclosed amount. ATPI is a global travel management service provider with operations in business travel, corporate event management and online travel technology.

PRESS RELEASE

Equistone Partners Europe Limited, (?Equistone?) one of Europe?s leading mid-market private equity investors, today announces the sale of ATPI (?the Company?) to its management, backed by Intermediate Capital Group (?ICG?), for an undisclosed amount.
ATPI is a leader in global travel management services, with operations in business travel, corporate event management and online travel technology. The Company employs over 1400 individuals across 52 offices in five continents.
ATPI?s primary offering is providing travel for corporate customers across most industry sectors in less accessible locations, notably for the marine, oil and gas and construction sectors. ATPI also manages incentives, conferences and events.
Equistone invested in ATPI in a deal worth ?73m from Fund III in 2008, since which time the business has continued to grow strongly.
Equistone worked alongside the management team to develop the business with initiatives such as:
? Backing the acquisition in 2009 of Instone, a specialist business travel company in the marine sector from 3i for ?37m. Instone specialises in arranging travel for crew and staff for shipping and offshore companies
? Strengthening ATPI?s geographic footprint, through the Instone acquisition, new partnerships, and organic growth. In recent years, the company has formed new partnerships in Vietnam, Indonesia, Spain and Portugal, and opened two new offices in Australia
? Developing ATPI?s principal business in the ?travel to work? sectors (oil and gas, marine, industrial and government), which have proven to be more resilient than some other sectors during the recession
? Rebranding ATPI?s offerings into dedicated operating brands: ATP Corporate Travel, ATP Instone, ATP Event Experts and ATP Select
? Appointing new country managers to boost the leadership team on the ground and achieving high client retention rates across the global office and partnership network
CEO Graham Ramsey will continue to lead the business following the transaction.
The sale of ATPI follows a number of other transactions by Equistone in the travel sector, including most recently the ?1bn sale of international travel-related payment services firm Global Blue, the acquisition of bespoke travel company Audley Travel and the ?200m sale of travel agency Karavel-Promovacances.
John Walker, Director at Equistone Partners Europe, commented:
?It has been a privilege to work with ATPI over the last four years, helping them to develop the business into one of the fastest growing brands in corporate travel, despite the difficult trading conditions in the travel sector during this time. This exit has generated a good return for our investors in Fund III and leaves the Company in great shape for future growth with ICG?s backing. We wish Graham and the team the very best.?

Source: http://www.pehub.com/175344/equistone-partners-europe-divests-atpi/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=equistone-partners-europe-divests-atpi

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Obama salutes entertainers taking a Washington bow

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Music legend Led Zeppelin was recognized on Sunday alongside entertainers from stage and screen for their contributions to the arts and American culture at the Kennedy Center Honors, lifetime achievement awards for performing artists.

The eclectic tribute in Washington, alternated between solemn veneration and lighthearted roasting of honorees Academy Award-winning actor Dustin Hoffman, wisecracking late-night talk show host David Letterman, blues guitar icon Buddy Guy, ballerina Natalia Makarova and Led Zeppelin.

"I worked with the speechwriters - there is no smooth transition from ballet to Led Zeppelin," President Barack Obama deadpanned while introducing the honorees in a ceremony in the White House East Room.

Friends, contemporaries and a new generation of artists influenced by the honorees took the stage in tribute.

"Dustin Hoffman is a pain the ass," actor Robert DeNiro said in introducing Hoffman, the infamously perfectionist star of such celebrated films as "The Graduate" and "Tootsie."

"And he inspired me to be a bit of a pain in the ass too," DeNiro said with a big smile.

At a weekend dinner for the winners at the State Department, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton noted that the performing arts often requires a touch of diplomacy as she toasted Makarova, a dance icon in the former Soviet Union when she defected in 1970.

Tiler Peck of the New York City Ballet, who performed in "Other Dances," one of Makarova's signature roles, said she has studied her idol's technique for years.

"This is a role she created," Peck said.

Despite the president's misgivings about his own speech, the performance at the Kennedy Center navigated the transition from refined ballet to gritty blues music when the spotlight turned to Guy, a sharecropper's son who made his first instrument with wire scrounged from around his family's home in rural Louisiana.

"He's one of the most idiosyncratic and passionate blues greats, and there are not many left of that original generation...," said Bonnie Raitt, who as an 18-year-old blues songstress was often the warm-up act for Guy.

George "Buddy" Guy, 76, was a pioneer in the Chicago blues style that pushed the sound of electrically amped guitar to the forefront of the music.

"You mastered the soul of gut bucket," actor Morgan Freeman told the Kennedy Center audience. "You made a bridge from roots to rock 'n roll."

In a toast on Saturday night, former President Bill Clinton talked of Guy's impoverished upbringing and how he improvised a guitar from the strands of a porch screen, paint can and his mother's hair pins.

"In Buddy's immortal phrase, the blues is 'Something you play because you have it. And when you play it, you lose it.'"

It was a version of the blues that drifted over the Atlantic to Britain and came back in the finger-rattling rock sound of Led Zeppelin.

Jimmy Page, 68, was the guitar impresario who anchored the compositions with vocalist Robert Plant, 64, howling and screeching out the soul. Bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, 66, rounded out the band with drummer John Bonham, who died in 1980.

The incongruity of the famously hard-partying rock stars sitting in black tie under chandeliers at a White House ceremony was not lost on Obama.

"Of course, these guys also redefined the rock and roll lifestyle," the president said, to laughter and sheepish looks from the band members.

"So it's fitting that we're doing this in a room with windows that are about three inches thick - and Secret Service all around," Obama said. "So, guys, just settle down."

The gala will be aired on CBS television on December 26.

(Reporting By Patrick Rucker and Mark Felsenthal)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-salutes-entertainers-taking-washington-bow-022723490.html

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Powerball prize-sharing joke hits 1M shares on Facebook

11 hrs.

Devin Coldewey , NBC News

A joke?Facebook post by a man claiming to have a winning Powerball lottery ticket has been shared over?a million times just in the 24 hours since it was posted.

Nolan Daniels?posted an image of himself on the social network?holding a Powerball ticket?Thursday evening. He claimed it was a winning ticket and that if his friends shared the photo, he would give a million dollars to one of them at random. As the post was made public (and remains so as of this writing), it went viral, spreading from Facebook to blogs and various websites.

Even a cursory examination of the photo shows it to be the crudest of manipulations, with the telltale signs of simple copying and pasting to make the numbers appear to be a winning permutation. And those familiar with the rules may also have noticed that the numbers are not printed in numerical order, as they would be on a real ticket.

Despite the ruse being?glaringly obvious, the photo???and some folks'?hopes for a cut of the dough???has spread like wildfire. At this moment it is at just over a million shares, and is increasing at a rate of over?a hundred per second. NBC News has contacted Daniels for comment, and will update this post if we hear back from him.

Curious about the real Powerball winners? You can read about them and watch a video of their introduction here.

Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for NBC?News Digital. His personal website is?coldewey.cc.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/powerball-prize-sharing-joke-hits-1m-shares-facebook-1C7365122

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Long-term research reveals how climate change is playing out in real ecosystems

ScienceDaily (Dec. 1, 2012) ? Around the world, the effects of global climate change are increasingly evident and difficult to ignore. However, evaluations of the local effects of climate change are often confounded by natural and human induced factors that overshadow the effects of changes in climate on ecosystems. In the December issue of the journal BioScience, a group of scientists writing on long-term studies of watershed and natural elevation gradients at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in New Hampshire and in the surrounding region report a number of surprising results that may shed more light on the complex nature of climate change.

According to Peter Groffman, one of the lead authors and a principal investigator at the Hubbard Brook Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) program, these studies highlight the value of long-term integrated research to assessments of the subtle effects of changing climate on complex ecosystems.

"This analysis shows the power and value of long-term ecological research," says Groffman. "The ability to use long-term data streams as a platform for asking detailed questions about complex changes in the environment is the only way that society will be able to grapple with how climate change is playing out at the local scales that most directly affect people."

While the scale and pervasive nature of climate change can motivate scientists to try approaches that depict atmospheric and ecosystem processes at regional and global scales, these approaches may not give a complete and accurate assessment of the effects of climate change on ecosystem structure, function, and services at local scales.

Because climate change plays out on a complex and dynamic landscape with intertwined patterns of soils, vegetation, and hydrologic flowpaths and interacts with many human and natural factors over many areas and time periods, the report says the various effects of climate change cannot be predicted purely from the broad effects of temperature and precipitation on ecosystem properties.

The authors argue that long-term integrated studies, such as those conducted over the past 50 years at Hubbard Brook, should be an essential component of climate change research and assessment. In their estimation, a combination of long-term and in depth measurements is essential for understanding the interplay between climate and forest ecosystem dynamics.

At Hubbard Brook, that interplay has produced surprising effects on hydrologic variables such as evapotranspiration, streamflow, and soil moisture; the importance of changes in periodic biological occurrences on water, carbon, and nitrogen fluxes during critical transition periods; climate change effects on plant and animal community composition and ecosystem services in winter; and the effects of human induced disturbances and land-use history on the composition of plant communities.

The report recommends further research on how climate change affects multiple components of ecosystem structure and function at specific sites to investigate what determines the composition of plant and animal communities, the rate of flow of water, and other natural and human elements that impact ecosystems in many areas of the globe.

Groffman says the results from these detailed studies should be incorporated into broader approaches that include modeling, experiments and long-term monitoring at multiple scales. The report suggests that coordination of long-term research efforts and development of common approaches will improve the scientific understanding and response to the overarching challenge that climate change presents to science and society.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of New Mexico, Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network. The original article was written by Thomas McOwiti.

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Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/dlYOIKF_eaQ/121201085917.htm

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Estate-Tax Plan Divides Democrats (WSJ)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/267626532?client_source=feed&format=rss

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The international appeal of Toronto ? Real Estate ? All about buying ...

The City of Toronto used to be a hidden gem, but no longer. Our city is now considered one of the most cosmopolitan and desirable in the world, says Barbara Lawlor.

In real estate, we use the phrase ?location, location, location? to refer to the top criterion people consider when shopping for a new home.

One of the great things about Toronto is the vast array of different locations within the city that appeal to our diversity of buyers. Downtown, our black-tie district attracts luxury-lovers who want to live in the hub of entertainment venues and close to the lake.

Toronto?s midtown Bloor-Yorkville area offers fabulous world-class shopping and fine dining. And uptown, our celebrated Forest Hill neighbourhood is lush with trees and rich with coveted amenities.

Toronto?s east and west ends are desirable as well, with condominiums popping up in both established and up-and-coming locations in Etobicoke and Scarborough.

North of the city we have a brand new Downtown Markham and fabulous condos in Richmond Hill. And of course, the city?s waterfront is a popular residential destination spot for those who appreciate the many benefits of living on the water.

Whatever your condominium pleasure, there is sure to be the perfect residence in the area of the city that speaks to you. This applies to the international buying public, who are coming here in droves each year because of the lifestyle we offer. The City of Toronto used to be a hidden gem, but no longer. Our city is now considered one of the most cosmopolitan ? and desirable ? in the world.

Toronto is home to world-class shopping, entertainment, fine dining and culture, one of the many reasons why condominium sales here have outpaced the other major international cities such as London, Tokyo, Shanghai and New York. We live in a wonderful city with some of the world?s finest chefs delivering mouth-watering delicacies in an array of restaurants.

Located at one of Canada?s finest address, One Bloor will offer residents easy access to world-class shopping and fine dining.

Thai, Italian, Indian, French, Greek, Canadian cuisine ? we have it all at our doorstep. Culture-lovers appreciate the internationally renowned Royal Ontario Museum, Textile Museum of Canada, Museum of Canadian Contemporary Art, Redpath Sugar Museum, and Toronto Aerospace Museum. For those who thrive on the arts, Toronto is home to the Art Gallery of Ontario, which was transformed by internationally celebrated architect Frank Gehry, the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery and many more.

Sports fans revel in proximity to Air Canada Centre and Rogers Centre, and opportunities for keeping active are many and varied. Toronto?s waterfront features marinas, parks and boardwalks, including the Martin Goodman Trail for walking, biking and inline skating.

Best of all, those who live downtown can walk or take public transit to access all these fabulous amenities. AND we have the underground PATH system, which connects 27 km of shops and services in weather-protected convenience. It is literally the world?s largest underground shopping complex!

Over the years, Toronto has earned phenomenal accolades from a variety of sources, such as being ranked in the top 10 American Cities of the Future 2011/2012 by FDi Intelligence, a division of the Financial Times. We place high in many other rankings such as livability, sustainability and a great place to do business.

No wonder condominiums in all areas of Toronto are a natural choice for immigrants from foreign countries, many of whom are used to apartment-style living. This goes for families as well as singles and couples. Toronto also has excellent schools, including campuses of some of the world?s most prestigious universities. We also enjoy relative safety compared to many other major urban centres of comparable size.

When it comes to condominium selection, what we offer over and above other cities is relative affordability, especially when you consider apples to apples. Just try to find anything comparable in the United States, for example. Our developers offer glorious choices so that buyers can personalize their suite surroundings, whereas in the U.S., you take what is offered, pure and simple.

Our forward-thinking developers are creating residences that can accommodate every lifestyle, from first-time homeowners seeking value, to families wanting spacious living quarters and move-up purchasers looking for luxury. By all means, you can travel the world in search of the perfect condo, but chances are, it?s right here in our own backyard!

? Barbara Lawlor is president of Baker Real Estate Incorporated and an in-demand columnist and speaker. A member of the Baker team since 1993, she oversees the marketing and sales of condominium developments in the GTA and overseas. Keep current with The Baker Blog at blog.bakerrealestate.com

Tags: City of Toronto, condominiums Bloor-Yorkville, condos in Richmond Hill, fDintelligence

Source: http://homes-extra.ca/home-garden/homes/the-international-appeal-of-toronto/

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All About: Green Conscience Home and Garden

If you?ve done a recent home renovation or have become a little more conscious of environmental toxins, you?re probably already familiar with Green Conscience Home and Garden in Saratoga. ?I chatted with owner Karen Totino recently, who is such a wonderful person to know!

Karen has a genuine way about her that is not at all preachy or over-the-top. ?Her solutions for non-toxic and sustainable living are extremely attainable. ?She is a wealth of knowledge and a great resource for this community.

?I opened Green Conscience in June 2009.? The store features non-toxic and sustainable interior finishes, lawn and garden products and lifestyle goods,? Karen said.

Karen?s vision for Green Conscience Home & Garden was to offer products that would create not only a non-toxic landscape and exterior of the house, but also a non-toxic interior.

She looks to educate and empower homeowners to make healthier choices for their families.

Now at Green Conscience: Green Nursery Registry!

Green Conscience is pleased to now offer healthy baby furniture, bedding, flooring, paints, wall coverings, diapers, and baby toiletries! ?All are invited to a kick-off event next week on December 5th 2012 called Creating a Green Baby Nursery.

Join them for lunch and a sneak preview of green baby products in the Green?Conscience Nursery Registry!

When: Wednesday, December 5th, 11:30 am ? 2 pm

Also presenting Dr. Jessica Davis, the ?new mom?s Family Doctor? to talk about creating a safe, nontoxic?home environment.

Where:?Green Conscience, 33 Church Street, Saratoga Springs NY

Luncheon:?Locally sourced, courtesy of Green Conscience & Tidy Tots Diapers

RSVP to?cmaxwell@tidytotsdiapers.com?? you?ll be entered in a drawing for a Tidy Tots Twin Set!

Healthy Home Improvement at Green Conscience

From flooring, to wall coverings and paint, nursery furniture to beds and bedding, Green Conscience has a wide variety of products to suit your needs and budget.

Floors

The floors in your home don?t need to be chemical laden.? Natural wool, for example, was one of the first carpet fibers. Durable, naturally fire resistant, and warm, it just makes more sense.? Wood floors can also come with low VOC finishes. Not only that, you can reuse flooring from a reclaimed lumber distributor and keep the whole process sustainable! From reclaimed wood to cork flooring to wool carpeting, there are plenty of non toxic and low VOC options.

Walls

Everyone?s heard about the horror of lead paints, but even traditional paints carry their own load of dangerous chemicals. There are paints out there that are high performance and don?t agitate asthma, allergies, or leave a smell.

Some people want a little more character, so go with expensive wall coverings or stylized faux finishes. These all come with their own toxic impact. Another option is to go with an all natural finish such as clay plaster for walls. Why apply the faux finish when you can just as easily (and less dangerously) use the real thing?

Beds

Most people spend around one third of their life in their bed yet never think about the quality of their bedding.? Mattresses, pillows, and sheets pack quite a chemical punch.? You get a chance to breathe in flame retardants until your blue in the face!? Fortunately, there are cotton, wool, and natural latex options for bedding that let you sleep easier and deeper.? Studies have shown that adults and babies alike keep a more consistent and slower heartbeat when sleeping on natural fibers!

You?ll notice that all of these ?new? healthy products are not new at all! They are not claiming to contain non-toxic chemicals; they are simply utilizing basic, old world, natural materials.

It?s time to make the choice to keep ourselves and families healthy!

Visit Green Conscience

For more info call?518-306-5196?or email:?Karen@green-conscience.com

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Source: http://www.saratogamama.com/all-about-green-conscience-home-and-garden/

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