Barry Whyte

Argo Capital Partners and Saban Capital are among six bidders to have made offers for Greek telecom Wind Hellas, according to reports. Wind Hellas has a debt payment due on Friday which it is expected to miss. Other bidders include Norwegian telecom group Telenor, while the current owner, Naguid Swiris, is attempting to hold on to the company.

NB Private Equity Partners Limited, a private equity fund-of-funds, is planning to sell off its interest in eight large-cap buyout fund investments for around $101.8 million, with details about the sales portfolio to be launched later. The funds will be used to launch a capital return policy and for strategic portfolio repositioning.

Jan Amathier has been named new head of Corporate Finance at Handelsbanken Capital Markets, leaving London-based private equity firm Doughty Hanson & Co. Amathier takes up the position on December 1, 2010.

Kwik Fit, the European car parts retailer, is being put up for sale by its private equity owner PAI Partners for about $1 billion dollars, according to reports. PAI has already appointed Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley to handle the deal. PAI bought Kwit Fit from buyout firm CVC in 2005 for 800 million pounds ($1.3 billion).

Steven Rattner, formerly of private equity firm Quadrangle and the former head of the U.S. auto task force, is close to settling with the SEC over an investigation into a state pension pay-to-play scheme, according to Reuters. Rattner will most likely have to pay $6 million and take a two-year ban from the securities industry. His former firm, Quadrangle, has already paid $7 million to New York and $5 million to resolve the SEC investigation.

Boston-based private equity investors Battery Ventures has bought Data Innovations, a designer of clinical laboratory software, though the details of the deal were not revealed. Data Innovations says it has 6,500 systems in 65 countries. Battery Ventures’ Dave Tabors and Chelsea Stoner join the Data Innovations board, while Mike Epplen has been named the new CEO.

Private equity firms have been circling around the second biggest U.S. search engine Yahoo lately, according to Reuters. Yahoo has a current market value of more than $20 billion. Silver Lake Partners was involved in early negotiations, while Blackstone was pitched the idea but was not thought to be working on a deal. According to Bloomberg, Yahoo is working with Goldman Sachs on ways to defend against takeover.

The EU has inched closer to a stand-off with the U.S. over proposed new hedge fund regulations after Britain and France disagreed on the granting of licences for foreign funds who want to operate in the EU. France wants tighter regulations for foreign firms, but Britain has defended the hedge fund industry. The finance ministers of the two countries will meet next week.

Apollo Management is hoping to get $3 billion for marketing firm Affinion Group, according to reports. After it has paid off creditors, Apollo could be left with about $1.3 billion. The news has created interest among other private equity firms, according to the New York Post. Apollo bought Affinion for $1.8 billion in 2005.

Alfa Laval refused to raise its bid for Swedish climate control company Munters, thus leaving Nordic Capital, the other private equity firm in the bidding war, with victory. Nordic Capital had made an offer of 77 crowns per share, a total value of 5.7 billion crowns ($859 million), while Alfa Laval’s offer was 75 crowns. Munters shares fell 2.5 percent after the announcement.