LONDON (Reuters) – American Express Co has teamed up with UK private equity firm Permira to bid for Royal Bank of Scotland’s payment-processing arm, the Financial Times reported in its Monday edition. French software firm Atos Origin has also joined the private equity consortium of CVC Capital Partners and Welsh Carson Anderson & Stowe to […]
Summit Partners has agreed to acquire a majority stake in European online payment processing company Ogone SA/NV. No financial terms were disclosed.
(Reuters) – Private equity firm Apollo Global Management is in talks to buy U.S. packaging maker Pactiv Corp (PTV.N) in a leveraged deal, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the situation. Pactiv has about $1.5 billion in debt and the Apollo deal would be among the largest leveraged buyouts in the past […]
LONDON (Reuters) – Alliance Boots, Britain’s biggest pharmacy chain, posted annual profit of over 1 billion pounds ($1.5 billion) on Monday, becoming only the third UK retailer to pass that milestone. The group, taken private in 2007 in Europe’s biggest leveraged buyout, also said strong growth in own-brand products like No7 cosmetics and in its […]
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – Mental health facilities operator Psychiatric Solutions Inc (PSYS.O) is close to a deal to be acquired by Universal Health Services Inc (UHS.N), a source familiar with the situation said on Sunday. Hospital operator Universal Health is expected to pay between $33 and $34 a share, the source said. Psychiatric Solutions closed at […]
First: Yes, that headline is a Britpop reference to U.K. rapper Lady Sovereign. There's a PE connection: Ms. Sovereign is, after all, signed with EMI, a label (barely) still owned by Terra Firma. Just as Ms. Sovereign's label is in a crisis, so too is much of the European continent. We have irate Germans, rioting overworked Greeks, belt-tightening Iberians and the prospect of the French storming away from the dinner table in a huff. Surely this must mean something for private equity. Perhaps the potential for collapse of entire currencies will change the whole game.
(Reuters) – Franchisees of bankrupt Fuddruckers restaurant chain objected to the sale of the company to Tavistock Group, saying they have received no assurance regarding Tavistock’s ability to carry out its obligations as a franchisor. Magic Brands LLC, the parent of the Fuddruckers and Koo Koo Roo restaurant chains, filed for bankruptcy protection in April […]
The pending - and pending, and pending - $15 billion buyout of Fidelity National may restart an old private equity love affair with financial technology companies. Financial technology, or fintech, includes everything from processing companies to stock exchanges. It includes the companies that make all the software that moves the modern financial system. It is one of those sectors that private equity lavished money on this decade, as technology fueled the globalization of finance. Think bank processing deals, like First Data ($29b), Sungard ($11.3b) and Ceridian ($5.3b). These processing and outsourcing companies have the one thing that private equity cannot resist: Regular revenue streams and strong cash flow, even in recessions. Portfolio companies need cash flow to pay off their LBO-incurred debt, and there are few other sectors who can promise that kind of regularity.
National Dentex Corp. (Nasdaq: NADX), an owner and operator of dental laboratories in North America, announced that its go-shop period had ended without a rival offer to an existing $17 per share bid from GeoDigm Corp., a portfolio company of Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe.
TMS International Inc., a Glassport, Penn.-based provider of outsourced industrial services to steel mills, has filed for a $150 million IPO. it plans to trade on the NYSE under ticker symbol TMS, with Boa Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse and J.P. Morgan serving as co-lead underwriters. The company reports $1.3 billion in 2009 revenue, with a $79 […]