KA First Reserve, a partnership between First Reserve and Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, has agreed to invest $100 million in K-Sea Transportation Partners L.P. KA First Reserve will receive 18.4 million convertible preferred units. The deal is expected to close, in two steps, in September. K-Sea will use proceeds to cut debt and pay fees and expenses related to the deal. K-Sea is a leading coastwise tank barge operators.
Crescent Financial Partners has bought a minority stake in IT Trading's proprietary quantitative trading software for $3.2 million. The software uses a trading model known as "statistical arbitrage." Crescent, of Beverly Hills, Calif., is a PE merchant banking firm.
Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe has bought a majority stake of Peak 10, a Charlotte, N.C.-based data center operator and managed services provider. Peak 10's management will also have a stake. The sellers were Seaport Capital and McCarthy Capital. Financial terms were not disclosed. The deal is expected to close in early October.
After owning the company for more than a decade, Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe has put Concentra on the block, peHUB has learned. Barclays is advising on the sale, sources say. In 1998, Welsh Carson acquired Concentra, which provides healthcare and wellness services to employers and general public, in a deal valued at $1.1 billion. It’s not clear how much Welsh invested. Concentra has $752 million in annual revenue, according to the Welsh Carson web site.
McCarthy Capital Corp. led a growth equity investment in Advantor Systems LLC, which is an Orlando, Fla.-based designer and integrator of physical security systems. Terms were not disclosed. McCarthy Capital of Omaha, Neb., is a private equity firm that exclusively invests in middle market companies with operating profits of $3 million and $25 million. The shop’s typical investments range from $10 million to $30 million.
Today’s big news is that Burger King is holding potential sales talks with buyout shops. The Wall Street Journal, which reported the discussions, says BK has been in talks with PE firms for weeks and one interested firm was 3i Group. However, 3i is denying the discussions. “We are not in talks to buy Burger King,” a 3i spokeswoman wrote in an email Wednesday. This isn’t the first time BK has sought out help from PE firms. In fact, buyout firms once owned Burger King. Diageo, in 2002, sold the home of the whopper to TPG, Bain Capital and Goldman Sachs for $1.5 billion. Burger King then went public in 2006 and the PE firms sold much of their holdings. TPG still owns a roughly 11% stake, Bain has 10% and Goldman Sachs also holds about 10% as of June 30, according to Yahoo Finance.
Platinum Equity and The Gores Group acquired Alliance Entertainment from Source Interlink Cos. Financial terms were not disclosed. Alliance Entertainment is a wholesale distributor of CD, DVD and videogame titles. It has a distribution center in Shepherdsville, Ky. The transaction was completed through Project Panther Holding Corp., a joint venture between Platinum Equity and Gores Group.
(Reuters) – Burger King Holdings Inc (BKC.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the No. 2 U.S. hamburger chain, has been considering a possible sale and has held talks with potential buyers, a source familiar with the situation said on Wednesday. The company, which has a market capitalization of about $2.3 billion, has been public since […]
(Reuters) – Lazard Ltd’s (LAZ.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Australian private equity arm said on Wednesday it has sold the credit monitoring business Dun & Bradstreet Australia for A$233 million ($209 million), deciding against an initial public offering. Lazard Carnegie Wylie Australia managing director John Wylie said the sale produced a profit of A$100 […]
(Reuters) - British private equity firm 3i Group Plc said it had hired Citigroup to conduct a "strategic review" of Global Energy Services (GES), the Spanish builder of wind farms it bought four years ago. Two people familiar with the matter told Reuters that 3i was hoping ultimately to sell the company, and the buyout firm hoped GES could fetch roughly 500 million euros ($632 million). GES could interest both rival private equity firms and trade bidders, the people said. "Citigroup has been brought on board to undertake a strategic review of GES, but all options are open at the moment," 3i spokeswoman Kathryn van der Kroft said on Tuesday.