Erin Griffith

Yesterday, Glassdoor.com released its "CEO Watch List," which ranks CEOs by employee approval ratings. The blog post doesn't explicitly state its methodology but it appears they create the list from extensive employee surveys. Although I'm not sure what conclusions can be drawn from this statement, only one of the companies on the list is backed by a private equity firm. One more is a public company with a PE minority stake, another is a recent exit, and a handful of others may have private equity fingerprints in their histories (but not that I found). The CEO of Sports Authority, the athletic gear retail chain owned by Leonard Green & Co., is the seventh lowest-rated CEO that received 50 or more employee reviews. Doug Morton has a 13% approval rating. Ouch.

Start your Engines: Private equity is ready (raring to go, even) for bank deals. (IDD) In Case You're Following: Bonds are bad, says Dr Doom. (FT Alphaville) PE Target? With KKR and KPS's beer deals lately, it wouldn't surprise me if a buyout firm went after Pabst Brewing Company, which is shopping itself via Bank of America Merrill Lynch. (NY Post) This is a Large Deal But Maybe Not a Big Deal: Warren Buffet enters the mega-buyout game, precisely when no one else is. (WSJ) Want to be an accountant? Here is some resume advice. (FINS)

On Friday we reported that Chicago buyout firm Willis Stein & Partners would take a second dividend on Roundy's, its Midwestern supermarket chain. Today we've learned more details. Willis Stein has used the dividend to take excess capital off Roundy's balance sheet while pushing back debt maturities from 2010 to 2012. Willis Stein will take a dividend on the company worth $75 million. That does not change the company's leverage rate of 3.1x debt-to-Ebitda. Roundy's has $728.5 million in debt and $235 million in Ebitda, a source familiar with the deal said. J.P. Morgan has served as lead arranger on the deal, with participation from Credit Suisse, Bank of America and Rabobank.

Private equity's fingerprints are nowhere near the largest deals of 2009. Unless you consider Berkshire Hathaway a private equity firm, a title which Warren Buffet would be horrified to hold. (He likes to refer to buyout firms as porn shop operators, you may recall) Berkshire Hathaway's deal for Burlington Northern Santa Fe, announced today, is the fifth-largest deal in the world this year. It's Buffet's largest deal ever. Below, we've posted the full list, courtesy of Thomson Reuters.

Sankaty Advisors, the credit affiliate of Bain Capital, has closed on $672 million from 740 investors for its DIP Opportunities Fund, according to regulatory filings. That includes $388.4 million in commitments from 446 U.S. investors and $284.58 million in commitments from 294 offshore investors. Since our last update on this fund (yes, slow news day), we've learned that the reason Sankaty has so many investors to dollars is that the firm is marketing this fund to high-net-worth individuals rather than the traditional investors in private equity funds (pensions and endowments) or usual sources of DIP lending (banks). Specifically, a J.P. Morgan Securities feeder fund is obtaining many of the commitments. It's obviously been a successful fundraise, considering we had pegged the fund's original target at $400 million. According to an investor, the fund has a two-year investment period with fees of 1.75% on commitments, and Sankaty anticipates returns of between 12% and 15% for the entity.

Now Hiring: Meredith Whitney (Fierce Finance) Unpopular: PE-backed companies wanting to IPO have an uphill battle, including, "not least a wary public that won't be keen to take on companies whose owners have a reputation for piling on debt and asset-stripping." (WSJ) Op-Eds: Nouriel Roubini writes for the FT that the "mother of all carry trades faces an inevitable bust." (FT) Lawyer-y Stuff: The Place Of Private Equity In The Investment World, as told by Sean Hill of Proskauer Rose. (Metro Corp Counsel)

When CIT's potential bankruptcy was pushed into the spotlight earlier this year, we ran a list of 133 LBO-backed companies which CIT has lent to in the past five years. In the spirit of sharing, we've posted it again! CIT has served as a lead lender to 30-some middle market portfolio companies, but the firm's reach as part of the lending club extends to mega-buyout deals like HCA, Dollar General and Dunkin Brands as well. You can access and download the full list of CIT-led deals at Scribd: LBO-Backed Companies With CIT As the lead arranger And I've pasted the entire list of 133 companies with CIT in its capital structure after the jump.

In late September, we reported that Rob Long was let go as head of Allied Capital's asset management group, as the troubled lender attempted to sell off assets. Now that Allied has sold the entire company to Ares Capital, Long has popped up, somewhat unsurprisingly, at Ares. According to a research report from Stifel Nicolas, Long is now working at Ares Capital. I reached his office by calling the firm's switchboard but my voicemail was not returned by the time of publication. The report deems this move as a positive sign for the Allied-Ares merger, as it is a sign that Long, who knows where "the bodies are buried," was likely involved in the deal's due diligence. Further, the report states that Long will help Ares in its loan extension negotiations. "We believe that Rob was instrumental in ARCC's purchase of the Senior Loan Fund with GE Capital as Rob was the point man for all of ALD's asset management which helps create a smooth transition as ARCC and GE negotiate terms to extend that fund relationship," according to Stifel Nicolas.

Here's a look at the past week of scoops, opinions and analysis from the peHUB blogging team. Read ‘em before they go behind our subscriber paywall... Advanstar Hasn't Had Amazing Luck with Private Equity CIT Mess Leaves Edgeview Partners In Limbo Is Leverage Really Coming Back? Not All Apollo Fees Were Created Equal Endowments Pulling the Purse Strings Watercooler Talk: Social Gamer Raises $5.5M Will Facebook End Up Like Netscape? Y Combinator And Twitter Strike A Deal Oppose Bailouts for Venture Capital Investors ScanSafe, Too, Got An Offer It Couldn't Refuse DOE Funding Very-Early-Stage Clean Tech

Happy Halloween! New Money: Oklahoma Teachers has $400 million to invest in private equity, via Franklin Park. (Global Investor) The Scourge of Private Equity: Meet Fed Reserve boardmember Daniel K. Tarullo. He's taking a hard line against private equity investment in banks. (Dealscape) Priority Readjustment: One in four people are glad the world's economy slumped like it did. (CNBC) New Target: Has Andrew Cuomo moved on from targeting private equity? Today he announced a big kickback scandal at Amgen, yet we haven't heard anything for awhile on PE pay-for-play, especially regarding the elephant in the room, Steve Rattner and Quadrangle. What gives? (Clusterstock) Buyout Blackball: Buyout deals in banking have hit a ton of roadblocks. So much for that great opportunity... (The Deal)