Erin Griffith

Last week, peHUB reported on two Siguler Guff funds-of-funds that are in the final stages of fundraising: It’s second BRIC fund-of-funds and its third distressed fund-of-funds. The former is within $100 million of its target; the latter has crossed its target by $800 million. Not bad for a crappy market, although massive interest in distressed investing has surely helped. Today we learned of one more Siguler Guff fund, which has the majority of its commitments in the bank: Russia Partners III. The vehicle, which makes direct equity and equity-like investments, bills itself as “one of the largest pure private equity presences in Russia and the Former Soviet Union.”

Scumbag Billionaire: Image to the left via Naked Capitalism. Bailed-Out Companies: They might not be able to take their corporate jets, but they can take out massive ads in newspapers in an attempt to win back some love from the American public. (Dealzone) Layoffs: Harvard is cutting 20% of its investment management staff. (Reuters) The Blog Stigma: Excellent post by Felix Salmon on acceptance of blogs as credible news sources, and the NYPD's insistence that websites cannot receive press credentials. Self-serving of him, and me, to post this, I recognize. (Market Movers) Is This Surprising? TARP is underwater. Down by about 30% to be exact. (CNN)

Aleris, the aerospace supplier backed by TPG Capital, is preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, according to Debtwire. The company reportedly is looking for $400 million in DIP financing, has warned its lenders that it would be restructuring, and has hired advisors for the filing. TPG purchased Aleris in December of 2006 for $1.7 billion, plus the assuming of $1.6 billion in debt. The equity check was not disclosed, but it came from fund TPG Partners V, a $15 billion pool that closed shortly after the deal. The fund includes such investments as Petco, Univision, Freescale

This week Insight Equity closed its $61.3 million take-private of Meadow Valley, a Phoenix-based construction contractor and construction material supplier. The firm struck the deal back in July, and even after the disaster that was Q4, Insight Equity and its lenders managed to close the deal at its original price, terms and conditions. Not to say Insight Equity didn't cry "MAC." Connor Searcy, Partner with Insight Equity, said, "We felt that there was a material adverse change in the business, but we still closed on the original terms and conditions from July. When we commit to a deal we get it done." Capital One and LBC provided financing for the deal. Insight Equity's new mezzanine fund contributed as well. Which leads me to the following cluster of fundraising updates.

Must Read: Not unlike peHUB's list of PE-speak clichés, Deal Journal has unearthed a fund manager's list of banned words. Favorites of mine include "Space," "Perfect Storm," "going forward," and "any gambling analogy." (Deal Journal) Whore Yourself: Seven Secrets of Media Darlings. (BusinessWeek) Clawbacks: Divorce Settlement Clawbacks. Caused by Madoff. (Wall Street Folly) Finger Pointing: Real Mature, Mr. Schwarzman. It's the London office's fault Blackstone shared one FT username and login! (New York Observer)

Yesterday peHUB reported that Credit Suisse had started a secondary intermediary group to advise LPs on the sales of their private equity interests. We also reported a rumour that Goldman Sachs has a group in the works, which will require starting from scratch since the firm doesn’t even have a fund placement group. Now we’re […]

Sun Capital has a $1.1 billion* hedge fund called Sun Capital Securities. Its stated strategy had been to take non-controlling equity stakes in public companies. To date, the fund has basically been a zero. But even though it's fully invested, the firm isn't content to passively plod along. Rather, Sun has revamped the fund into a distressed debt investor. The majority of the firm's recent round of 23 layoffs were a result of this shift, a person close to the firm said. (Eight more were performance-related.) But that presents a bit of a conundrum for the existing portfolio, which includes minority investments such companies as Berkline BenchCraft Holdings and Souper Salad.

Since December of 2007, Blackstone Group has been in the market with its Real Estate Special Situations Fund. To date, it's only accumulated $113.5 million in commitments from 40 investors, according to a regulatory filing. It has a target of $1 billion. The fund's focus, according to its website: Its investment portfolio is expected to consist of a variety of real estate and real estate-related securities, including mezzanine debt, publicly-traded debt securities, whole loans, preferred equity, bridge equity, publicly-traded equity securities, and joint venture equity. BSSF is led by Michael Nash, Senior Managing Director of The Blackstone Group L.P. and the Chief Investment Officer of BSSF.

Another Section 363 purchase-turned-Chapter 22: Fortunoff, the upscale jewelery store, has filed for bankruptcy just 10 months after NRDC Equity Partners purchased it out of bankruptcy. (A few weeks ago the same thing happened to Versa Capital, with portfolio company American Restaurant Group.) Can’t say we didn’t expect it, though. The buyout strategy always seemed like a stretch: NRDC stated it would not close a single Fortunoff store. It also purchased the company for more than $80 million and only put down $10 million in equity. How could that possibly save a retailer that had simply stopped paying its bills and had already exhausted more than one sale-leaseback? Upon closer examination, you have to wonder if it’s a sign of things to come for NRDC’s portfolio. Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal ran a perplexing story about Richard Baker, the head of NRDC and son of successful real estate investor Robert Baker. The article describes Baker as

All About the Benjamins: Felix Salmon on why capping Wall Street pay is likely to work. (Market Movers) Some People: Disagree. (NY Times) That Group: Includes Meredith Whitney, who Dealbreaker suggests enter a deathmatch with Pres. Obama. (Dealbreaker)