NEW YORK (Reuters) – Private equity firm Blackstone Group LP (BX.N) is considering investing $500 million alongside a group that has offered to help General Growth Properties Inc (GGP.N) exit bankruptcy protection, a source familiar with the matter said on Friday. Brookfield Asset Management Inc (BAMa.TO), William Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management and Fairholme Capital […]
Affinion Group Holdings Inc., a Norwalk, Conn.-based provider of integrated marketing and loyalty solutions, has filed for a $400 million IPO. No underwriters were listed. The company reports $1.38 billion in revenue and a $66.4 million net loss for 2009, compared to $1.41 billion in revenue and a $134.5 million net loss in 2008. Apollo Management acquired […]
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Billionaire Nicolas Berggruen has made an offer to buy insolvent department store chain Karstadt a week before an extended deadline for bids runs out, A spokesman for the investor said on Friday. Until Berggruen’s offer, European buyout firm Triton was the only bidder to emerge. Berggruen Holdings is a private equity firm […]
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Goldman Sachs Group Inc’s (GS.N) private equity unit is to buy food supplier Michael Foods from private equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners THL.UL in a deal valued at $1.7 billion, Michael Foods said in a press release on Friday. THL, which invested in the eggs and refrigerated potatoes supplier in […]
The stock market has never gotten along with politics particularly well, and this week it's been really cranky. The DJIA and S&P 500 both dropped 10% from their highs, fulfilling the definition of an official correction. The markets haven't been this spooked since the early days of 2009, when there was widespread fear that banks would be nationalized. Those concerns now seem quaint by comparison. The euro is fighting for its life and upending European markets. The U.S. equity markets were kicked in the stomach by the flash crash of May 6, which seemed to end a six-month-long long bull rally. Wall Street reform legislation will drag on until July 4, as the House and Senate try to reconcile their bills. Even if no more crises happen after that, the summer slowdown will kick in. What does all of this mean? Well, we likely won't see very many private equity-backed companies coming to market until at least September, unless they're strong enough to weather volatile markets. Conventional wisdom would dictate that money managers may be wary of buying new shares of newly floated companies while they're trying to manage the massacre in their existing holdings. Six companies already have postponed or withdrawn their IPOs just since the flash crash.
The Harvard Drug Group, has acquired Spectrum Pharmacy Products, a maker of fine chemicals and laboratory products, from Spectrum Chemical Manufacutring Corp. No financial terms were disclosed. Harvard Drug is a portfolio company of Court Square Capital Partners.
(Reuters) – Terra Firma, the private equity firm run by Guy Hands, has raised its investment in renewable energy by buying the Ardrossan Windfarm in Ayrshire, Scotland from Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE.L). Terra Firma’s Infinis, which also has landfill gas operations, will pay 28.1 million pounds ($40.38 million) in cash and assume debt of […]
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L) is mulling a private sale of health group The Priory, abandoning plans for a flotation due to turbulent financial markets, the Financial Times reported on Thursday. RBS has held talks with private equity groups over a potential sale of The Priory, favoured by celebrities for its […]
MELBOURNE, May 21 (Reuters) – Troubled drug maker Sigma Pharmaceuticals (SIP.AX) said on Friday it has received a $570 million takeover offer, the second Australian healthcare firm put into play in a week, and sending its shares up 47 percent. Sigma did not disclose the name of the bidder and advised shareholders to take no […]
EN Engineering, a portfolio company of Clearview Capital, has acquired Wheatland Systems Inc., a Lawrence, Kansas-based provider of services to the power and utility industries. No financial terms were disclosed.