Erin Griffith

As the weather (slowly) warms up, plenty of M&A bankers are hoping the market for deals will as well. We've noticed a few more targets coming to market in recent weeks and have compiled a list of some of those we've come across. Our sources are various news reports and the Buyouts "Seeking Buyers" list. The following companies (among many, many others) are either formally considering "strategic alternatives," reported to be on the block, or rumored to be in sale talks. I can't be comprehensive, but I can try. Here is last week's list; send any additions my way. Madison Square Garden: The arena's parent company, Cablevision, may spin off the unit as a result of shareholder pressure. Read more... Exxon: The company may sell 800 Australian fuel outlets as part of a strategy shift away from fuel retailing, according to reports. Patriot Capital: The BDC is exploring strategic alternatives because one of its credit facilities was terminated after its collateral declined in value.

Get Funded: What types of innovation and invention might attract funding dollars in the downturn? (BusinessWeek) Vindication: The FT points to the secondary market issues we've been writing about, including negative premiums. They've called private equity a "trap," but didn't allude to the real trap (US safe harbor laws). (FT) Tax Man: How Obama's tax plan hurts private equity-and we don't mean carried interest, we're talking about debt. (Deal Journal) Stock Analysis: TPG made money on J. Crew, did you? (Investopedia)

Any private equity investor facing cash constraints would have read this story from Reuters in complete horror. The article, from this morning, proudly declares that private equity is getting ready for its comeback. The so-called "haves" of the buyout world--the funds that raised money before raising money became impossible--are gearing up to put all that sidelined capital to work. "There are plenty of private equity firms with significant funds available to invest and a growing impatience to invest them," said Michael Berry, head of debt advisory firm Versatus. Once those firms start putting money to work, as we're already starting to see with deals like KKR's buyout of Oriental Brewery and CVC Capital's deal for iShares, industry pros expect there to be a period where investors shell out millions of dollars to fund capital calls but receive no distributions from exits.

Julio Ramirez, a former placement agent at Wetherly and, a month ago, Blackstone Group, is the latest to become entangled in the New York State pension fund pay-to-play scandal. Ramirez has plead guilty to a criminal misdemeanor charge, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing anonymous sources. An announcement from the New York Attorney General is expected. Ramirez is accused of being part of Hank Morris' "'national network of actors who often acted in concert across the country' to help firms secure investments from pension funds and allow agents to collect lucrative fees." Ramirez accepted the fraudulent fees while he was working at Wetherly Capital Group in Los Angeles, sometimes funneling the money through his company Ramirez Partners. In 2005, Ramirez joined to Park Hill Group, a placement agent owned by Blackstone Group, as its sole Los Angeles partner. In April peHUB reported that Ramirez had left Park Hill for reasons unclear. He announced his intention to leave in January and his last day was March 31, but said nothing of the investigation. The spokesperson said after his departure, rumors began to swirl and Blackstone did an internal investigation into his work while at Park Hill. The firm concluded Ramirez did not violated the firm's "high standards of conduct" or "evaded our rigorous controls." Read more coverage of the New York Pay-For-Play Scandal here.

Traders aren’t the only ones calling a bottom these days. According to a cover story on the latest issue of Buyouts, turnaround investors may be doing the same thing. These turnaround firms have been licking their chops for the past 15 months of the recession, waiting to pounce, as seller expectations on good but poor-performing […]

Madoff Junkies: Behind the banks and asset managers which lost money, some names appear again and again. (Dealzone) Start Worrying: Infrastructure isn't taking off like it should, PE pros say. (Dealscape) Happy Mothers Day: And by the way, when it comes to investing, women feel it is much more important than men did to avoid incurring large losses, falling below a target rate of return and acting on incomplete information. (WSJ) Operational Shift: No surprise that this private equity survey reveals a shift to operational performance improvement for buyout firms. (Roland Berger)

The two largest buyout deals of 2009 have had one thing in common: seller financing. KKR’s $1.8 billion deal to buy Oriental Brewery and CVC Capital’s $4.4 billion deal to purchase iShares from Barclays were each made possible, in part, because the seller put up some of the capital. According to the Times Online, the […]

As the deleveraging process continues, yet another over-levered buyout-backed company faces a covenant breech. GS Capital and Onex Partners-backed aircraft maker Hawker Beechcraft is expected to inject more cash into the company, according to Debtwire. The company has “burned through” $140 million in the past five weeks and is expected to fully draw down its revolver to buy back bonds before GS Capital or Onex infuse any more cash, the news service reported. An injection of cash, above the firms’ $1 billion equity check in 2007, is expected in exchange for covenant relief. This indicates the company’s backers aren’t planning to push it into Chapter 11. Last month S&P lowered the company’s corporate credit rating to ‘B-’ from ‘B+’. The ratings agency cited the potential for distressed redemption offers for the company’s debt as one reason for the downgrade. Amendments and exchange offers are becoming more common as buyout-backed companies seek to avoid costly bankruptcy proceedings. The trend could very well strengthen after the U.S. government managed to turn the entire Chapter 11 bankruptcy process on its head this week.

Buyout firms should really avoid messing with nostalgia-shrouded companies. When they do, they run the risk of falling into an unsavory PR battle. At least that’s how things have played out with Brynwood Partners’ investment in Stella D'oro Biscuit Company. The 79-year-old Bronx company’s workers have been on strike ever since Brynwood cut its bakers wages and vacation days ten months ago. Their chant? “No Contract, No Cookies.” According to a story in yesterday’s NY Post, Brynwood is “slowly squeezing the life out of the city jewel by having inexperienced replacement workers produce poor quality cookies as they pursue their profits.”

Here's a look at the past week's scoops, opinions and analysis from the peHUB blogging team. It was Q1 earnings week, and we covered the Blackstone and American Capital calls. Dan liveblogged Blackstone's media call. I posted some of the highlights, including Tony James on how "portfolio companies are like humans." As for American Capital, shareholders are pretty worried about the possibility of bankruptcy or a reverse stock split (we didn't even realize that was possible!). Private Equity deal activity dipped in April, but that doesn't meant there aren't a ton of companies on the block-here's our Midweek M&A Madness roundup. Not to mention, KKR landed the second largest deal of the year even though it submitted the lowest bid, and there's a heated bidding war for software services company SumTotal. We learned that private equity-backed IPOs in Europe have out-performed their non-PE-backed peers. Meanwhile, CNBC frustrated us not once, but twice. On the VC side, we dug up scoops on six new fundings. Connie reported on new money for Gist, and Dan provided details on investments with 23andMe. Venture firm vSpring backed an aggressive buyout roll-up. Alex profiled a new start-up founded by Willard MacDonald. Connie noticed that Twitter-watching has gone so, so wild. In entrepreneur celebrity news, Google's cofounder got sentimental and Facebook's founder cozied up to college students. Skype's co-founders launched a new venture fund and eCast's founders were accused of fraud. Meanwhile, global warming activist Al Gore is taking some heat on his role as a partner with VC firm Kleiner Perkins and software titan Peter Norton is still very rich. We posted Q&A's with two VCs and one CEO: Cliff Friedman, Constellation Growth Capital Samuel Schwerin, Millennium Technology Value Partners And Joel Strellner, the CEO of Twitt(url)y Meanwhile, DFJ is facing fundraising difficulties and VC firm Omidar Network laid off a handful of employees, not long after hiring. HIG Capital's investment in Spring Air Mattresses is losing its bounce (and maybe its backing). The fountain of news that is the New York pension scandal continued to gush. We took stock of Aldus Equity's diminishing client list. Dan approved of CalPERS plan to monitor placement agents rather than ban then, and laid out five issues facing pension funds that are bigger than placement agents. New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli released a detailed list of placement agents that were involved with investments made by NY Common Retirement Fund under former Comptroller Alan Hevesi. The accompanying press release also pretty much dissed Hevesi at every opportunity it got. Vox Populi contributor Chris Bulger pointed out the NVCA's two big blind spots. Michael Butler detailed future of financial regulation with a post titled, "How a Changing Investment Banking Industry Will Finance the Future." Denise Palmieri offered some expert pointers on how to (and how not to) ace a phone interview. Tim McMahon outlined the opportunities for small caps (and why they're on their way.) The weekly downgrade wrap-up was light for once. And of course, First Read and Second Opinion covered plenty of ground, including the Silver Lining for Cerberus on Chrysler, once place where MBA life is good, TPG's transition into a buyer of debt, leverage gone very, very wild, Firefox versus Facebook, the return of junk bonds, the arrival of vulture investors from China, and reverse PIK toggling. Previous Weeks: peHUB Rewind May 3, peHUB Rewind April 17, peHUB Rewind April 10, peHUB Rewind April 27