Barry Whyte
Crescent Capital Partners, an Australian private equity firm, has sold its stake in NHC Group Pty Ltd, a hearing aid distributor, to Amplifon SA, an Italian hearing aid retailer, in a deal worth A$460 million ($441 million). Crescent had been planning an IPO with NHC, which would have been one of the few IPOs worth more than A$100 million in the Australian market this year.
Shamrock Capital, the private equity firm of the Disney family, is set to buy Screenvision from the British broadcaster ITV, the companies announced. ITV will sell its 50 percent share in the cinema advertising firm to Shamrock Capital Growth Fund II for $80 million. ITV will use the funds to pay of its net debt, which it says has decreased by 175 million pounds ($271 million) to 437 million pounds ($733 million) in the six months to June 30, 2010, and has been selling off non-core assets for a number of years.
Private equity firm Apax Partners will sell Endo Pharmaceuticals to Qualitest Pharmaceuticals for around $1.2 billion in cash, the companies announced. Qualitest is a portfolio company of Apax Partners. Endo Pharmaceuticals is a U.S.-based healthcare company that focuses on high-value branded products and specialty generics.
Private equity group LDC has sold St Tropez Holdings Limited to PZ Cussons Plc, a consumer products group in Europe, Asia and Africa, for 62.5 million pounds ($96.9 million) in cash (on a cash and debt free basis). St Tropez is a sunless tanning product range and earnings for the year ending July 2010 (before depreciation, amortization, interest and tax) were 7.4 million pounds ($11.4 million)
3i Group Plc, a British private equity company, is buying Japanese debt management company Mizuho Investment Management for 18.3 million pounds ($28.7 million) from its parent company, Mizuho Corporate Bank.
The Southern Cross Group held the final close on the Southern Cross Latin America Private Equity Fund IV, L.P., with capital commitments of $1.68 billion. This exceeded the original target of $1.25 billion. The firm closed its Fund III in 2007 with $751 million in commitments.
WI Harper Group, a Chinese private equity firm, has appointed Dr. Ge Li and Dr. Gordon Huang to its advisory board. Dr. Li is the founder, chairman and CEO of WuXi Pharmatech and Dr. Huang is an expert in green energy. WI Harper Group was founded in 1993.
Private equity firms Blackstone and PAI Partners are planning to sell United Biscuits, a British-based biscuit company, to Chinese food company Bright Food, according to a report in the Sunday Times newspaper. The reports claimed that Bright Food had pre-empted a planned auction and was planning to buy United Biscuits for between 2 billion and 2.5 billion pounds ($2.6bn to $3.2bn).
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts has bought Visma, a Norwegian software company, for $1.2 billion ($1.88 billion), from private equity firm HgCapital, the companies announced on Sunday. HgCapital retains a 17.7 percent stake in Visma.
Private equity firm Dought Hanson & Co announced on Saturday that it will sell Impress Cooperatieve U.A., a Dutch metal packaging firm, to Ardagh Glass Group, an Irish bottle-making and packaging manufacturer, for EUR 1.7 billion ($2.3 billion). Doughty Hanson say that the sale will return EUR 688 million ($902 million) to investors in its private equity funds II and III.