NEW YORK (Reuters) – The biggest private equity groups are sitting on $400 billion of debt that needs to be repaid over the next five years, the Financial Times reported, citing data from S&P LCD. The private equity firms face more than $21 billion of debt maturities in the next two years, another $50 billion […]
LONDON (Reuters) – Food groups Nestle (NESN.VX) and Mars are among the companies interested in London-based chocolate dessert maker Gu, which has been put up for sale by its founders, the Financial Times reported. The paper, which did not cite sources, said private equity firms including Langholm Capital were interested in the company, whose asking […]
LONDON (Reuters) – Private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. is preparing up to six companies for initial public offerings (IPOs) in the next year, the Financial Times reported in its Saturday edition. The newspaper quoted a person familiar with KKR as saying the companies it was preparing to float included toy retailer Toys […]
There have now been more PE-backed bankruptcies in 2009 than in all of 2008, based on data compiled by peHUB and Buyouts Magazine. Five more companies filed in July, bringing the yearly tally to 53 -- compared to just 49 last year. Station Casinos was the month's largest bust (in terms of purchase price), having been acquired by Colony Capital in 2007 for $5.4 billion. The others were all originally sub-billion deals, including CCS Medical (Warburg Pincus) and RathGibson (DLJ Merchant Banking). You can download the entire 2009 chart after the jump. But first, a bunch of disclaimers: Our data is only for control-sponsored deals that included at least one U.S. sponsor. As such, we exclude foreign-sponsored companies (like Arclin), VC-backed companies (like ProtoStar) and PIPEs (like BearingPoint). We do track
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A blank-check company controlled by hedge fund manager Warren Lichtenstein will acquire Frontier Financial Corp (FTBK.O), a troubled Washington state bank with $4 billion in assets. The deal is the latest in a recent series of financial services takeovers by so-called special purpose acquisition vehicles — listed companies that raise capital […]
(Reuters) – Unity Media, Germany’s No. 2 cable operator, is preparing for an initial public offering towards the end of this year, raising as much as 1 billion euros ($1.4 billion), people familiar with the matter said. The company, which is owned by private equity firms BC Partners and Apollo Management, provides broadband Internet, telephone […]
Today is the last day of July, so the Thomson Reuters data team sent over some monthly M&A deal activity info. It shows one of three things: (1) Most deal-makers spent the past 31 days on vacation; (2) There were few good deals left after June’s relative bonanza; or (3) The July numbers will increase over time, as new data gets entered into the system (i.e., deals not yet disclosed). Thomson Reuters reports that global M&A fell to just $99 billion in July, compared to $287.9 billion in June and $357 billion in July 2008. All of the decrease, however, was on the strategic side. Private equity-sponsored deal volume actually increased from $7.36 billion in June to $13 billion in July. It was the industry’s busiest month since last August, although the vast majority of deals were still outside of the U.S. You can view and/or download the data after the jump...
RailAmerica Inc., a Jacksonville, Fla.-based short line and regional rail service provider, has filed for a $300 million IPO. It plans to trade on the NYSE under ticker symbol RA, with JPMorgan, Citi, Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley serving as underwriters. Fortress Investment Group took the company private in 2007 for $1.1 billion, including $450 […]
PlayCore Holdings Inc., a Chattanooga, Tenn.-based portfolio company of Irving Place Capital, has acquired GT Grandstands Inc., a Plant City, Fla.-based maker of grandstands and bleachers. No financial terms were disclosed.
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A U.S. judge ruled on Thursday that auto parts maker Delphi Corp can sell itself to a group of lenders, paving the way for the company to end its near four-year trip through bankruptcy court. Earlier this week, Delphi’s board accepted a bid from its debtor-in-possession lenders, including several hedge funds, […]