Barry Whyte

European private equity firm AXA Private Equity has bought from Nataxis, a division of French bank BPCE, the majority of its proprietary private equity activities in France for EUR 507 million ($714.6 million). The deal includes the activities of iXEN Partners and NI Partners and those of Initiative & Finance Gestion.

Bain Capital is close to a 1 billion pound ($1.6 billion) deal for the Priory Group, a group of more than 50 hospitals dedicate to mental health, which is most famous for treating celebrities. Bain is expected to enter into a period of negotiations with the owners of the Priory, while also arranging debt financing of up to 500 million pounds. Private equity firms such as Blackstone, Advent International and Cinven Group are reportedly also interested in the Priory.

Sunny Khorana has joined Fifth Street Management LLC as managing director, the company has announced. Khorana previously worked at CIT Group Inc as director of the Sponsor Finance team. Fifth Street Management lends to and invests in small and mid-sized companies in connection with investments by private equity sponsors.

Segulah, a Nordic private equity firm, has bought Scan Coin AB, a Malmo-based automatic coin and bank note processing company. The Ovin family, which has owned Scan Coin since 1986, will retain a 30 percent stake in the company. The other details of the deal were not released.

Blackstone, in a venture with Centerbridge Partners and Paulson & Co, has bought $300 million of junior debt in 14 hotels currently owned by Columbia Sussex Group, Kentucky businessman Bill Yung III's hotel group, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Columbia Sussex had bought the hotels from Blackstone for $1.4 billion in 2006. Blackstone Group has not yet commented on the deal. Earlier this week, Blackstone, Centerbridge, and Paulson purchased hotel group Extended Stay Inc in a deal worth $3.925 billion.

ARC Capital Holdings Limited has sold its entire stake in Shanghai Jiadeli Supermarket to Shanghai Haihang Jiale Enterprise Management Co. Ltd in a deal with RMB1.1 billion (equivalent to US$164.8 million). The supermarket group is the third largest in Shanghai. ARC invested $89.1 million between January 2007 and August 2008. This is ARC’s first control investment to go full-cycle, from acquisition to sale.

Lockheed Martin is to sell its Enterprise Integration Group unit to the Veritas Capital Fund IV $815 million, according to Veritas Capital. Lockheed had been in talks with a number of private equity firms to sell EIG, which advises government agencies on military platforms. Lockheed sold the unit to avoid any conflict of interest that might be created by advising government agencies on defense and also receiving major defense contracts. According to Lockheed, EIG has earnings of $65 million before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

As it discusses selling 25 percent of its stake in Korea Exchange Bank, Texas-based private equity firm Lone Star is also getting read to sell German Bank IKB, with the deal expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2011 according to Reuters. IKB was the first German victim of the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis and Lone Star bought 91.5 percent of the bank’s shares after it was bailed out by Germany. No price has yet been announced.

Cinven, a private equity firm based in London, is close to selling its stake in Jost, a German truck and trailer parts maker, to creditors. According to Reuters, an earnings slump prompted Jost’s management, its private equity backers, and holders of just under 400 million euros ($554 million) of loans to enter into a debt-for-equity swap. The arrangement could drop Cinven’s stake in Jost from 73 percent to 65 percent, while management, which holds the other 27 percent, would lose 7 percent.

Cortec Group, a New York-based PE firm, has bought a majority interest in Franklin Energy Services through its Cortec Group Fund IV. The deal was struck in partnership with Franklin management. Franklin was founded in 1994, and works on energy efficiency programs for utilities and government agencies. The details of the deal were not disclosed.