Shares of private equity-backed Bankrate Inc. rose in their stock market debut on Friday, closing at $15.34, or 2.3% above their $15 IPO price. Apax Partners took the company private for $571 million in 2009. Following the IPO, the private equity firm remains the majority shareholder with approximately 70% ownership of Bankrate’s common stock. Bankrate publishes personal finance content online. The company is based in North Palm Beach, Florida.
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Dentsply International beat out a number of private equity firms to buy AstraZeneca’s dental implants and medical devices unit, Reuters reported. Dentsply is paying $1.8 billion in cash for the unit, Astra Tech. The unit, with revenue last year of $535 million, is the third largest dental implants maker in the world, Reuters said. A number of prominent firms were interested in buying Astra Tech, including Bridgepoint, Cinven, PAI Partners and Warburg Pincus.
Taiwan regulators have rejected Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.’s planned $1.6 billion joint buyout of component maker Yageo Corp., Reuters reported. Still, the buyout firm remains “fully committed to its investment” in Yageo, according to a statement on Wednesday by Orion Investment, a company jointly held by KKR and Yageo founder and Chief Executive Pierre T.M. Chen, Reuters reported. KKR initially invested in Yageo in 2007.
Vanguard Health Systems Inc., which is controlled by the Blackstone Group, on Tuesday sold 25 million shares for $18 each, raising about $450 million, Reuters wrote. It had previously filed to sell shares for $21 to $23 each and was expected to price its IPO after the close of U.S. markets on Wednesday. Underwriters on the Vanguard IPO are being led by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital, Citi, Deutsche Bank Securities and JPMorgan, Reuters reported.
NEW YORK, June 21 (Reuters) – Online video site Hulu has been approached by a potential buyer and is weighing whether to sell itself, according to a person familiar with the matter. The approach presents another decision point for the jointly owned company, which has shown an unclear strategy and last year spent six months […]
Aurora Capital, the Los Angeles-based private equity firm with about $2 billion under management, is preparing now to raise its latest fund, a source tells peHUB. The private equity firm earlier this year became embroiled in the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) pay-to-play scandal when investment staff told auditors that former pension CEO Federico […]
Resilience Capital Partners LLC, a Cleveland-based buyout shop, has raised at least $132.25 million for its third fund, according to a recent regulatory filing. The firm expects to close on another $30 million by June 25, a source close to the fundraising effort told Buyouts. The target for the fund, Resilience Fund III LP, is […]
GTCR is tuning in to radio. Today, the Chicago PE firm agreed to buy a majority stake in three radio stations from Emmis Communications. Two are located in Chicago--WLUP-FM (The LOOP) and WKQX-FM (Q101)--while another, WRXP-FM, is in New York. The LOOP is classic rock, while Q101 and WKQX focus on alternative rock (Merlin Media is the entity formed by GTCR to buy the stations). GTCR has agreed to pay Emmis between $110 million to $130 million cash at the close of the deal....
Is there a pause in the M&A market? Maybe. Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported the M&A market has lost momentum in recent weeks. Deal activity slowed to its lowest point in May, totaling $67.9 billion for the month, the Journal said, citing Dealogic data. This compares to $96.7 billion in April and $105.3 billion in March, the WSJ said. In fact, fewer deals have been announced in 2011 but their valuations are higher. So far there have been 4,525 announced U.S. transactions raising $559.2 billion as of June 21, according to Dealogic. This compares to the 5,193 deals for the same time period in 2010, valued at $401.9 billion.