NEW YORK/DETROIT (Reuters) – The U.S. government has retained two law firms with extensive bankruptcy experience and the investment bank Rothschild to advise officials on the taxpayer-backed restructuring of General Motors Corp (GM.N) and Chrysler LLC, a person with direct knowledge of the work said. New York law firm Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP was […]
Sun Capital has a $1.1 billion* hedge fund called Sun Capital Securities. Its stated strategy had been to take non-controlling equity stakes in public companies. To date, the fund has basically been a zero. But even though it's fully invested, the firm isn't content to passively plod along. Rather, Sun has revamped the fund into a distressed debt investor. The majority of the firm's recent round of 23 layoffs were a result of this shift, a person close to the firm said. (Eight more were performance-related.) But that presents a bit of a conundrum for the existing portfolio, which includes minority investments such companies as Berkline BenchCraft Holdings and Souper Salad.
Another Section 363 purchase-turned-Chapter 22: Fortunoff, the upscale jewelery store, has filed for bankruptcy just 10 months after NRDC Equity Partners purchased it out of bankruptcy. (A few weeks ago the same thing happened to Versa Capital, with portfolio company American Restaurant Group.) Can’t say we didn’t expect it, though. The buyout strategy always seemed like a stretch: NRDC stated it would not close a single Fortunoff store. It also purchased the company for more than $80 million and only put down $10 million in equity. How could that possibly save a retailer that had simply stopped paying its bills and had already exhausted more than one sale-leaseback? Upon closer examination, you have to wonder if it’s a sign of things to come for NRDC’s portfolio. Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal ran a perplexing story about Richard Baker, the head of NRDC and son of successful real estate investor Robert Baker. The article describes Baker as
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. regional retailer Fortunoff filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Thursday and said it will try to sell the business but if it cannot it will close its doors. The company, which sells jewelry, dinnerware and furniture in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut, began suffering a “severe liquidity […]
Vendor loans, equity swaps, all-stock combinations, and sovereign wealth funds are going to be facilitating M&A in 2009 proposed a panel of experts at Acquisitions Monthly’s Webinar this morning. “Vendor financing used to be the last resort to fill a gap but now we’re seeing deals where it is the only financing,” said Brian McKay, co-head of European M&A, Houlihan Lokey. The increasing tendency of vendors to staple 2.5x or 3x of leverage to an asset in order to open up a sale to private equity firms was “a remarkable phenomenon” he said.
World-Check, a provider of a global database of heightened-risk individuals and businesses, has acquired IntegraScreen, a provider of due diligence services to corporations and governments. No financial terms were disclosed. World-Check is a portfolio company of Spectrum Equity Investors.
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Station Casinos missed an interest payment on its debt and said it may consider filing for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 as part of a restructuring plan, as the deepening U.S. recession batters the gaming sector. The company, which owns 13 casinos and gaming centres and operates a number of others, mainly […]
Jon Moulton has added his firm Alchemy Partners to the list of potential buyers of assets belonging to Icelandic investment group Baugur, which has entered a ‘moratorium’ period. “We have been reported as looking at some of those assets and we are looking at those assets,” Moulton told Reuters at the Super Return conference in […]
Best Vinyl Inc., am American Fork, Utah–based portfolio company of Marwit Capital, has acquired R&L Fence & Deck LLC, a Layton, Utah-based fabricator and installer of vinyl fence and related products in the Mountain West region. No financial terms were disclosed.
Permira and News Corp. have completed their $3.6 billion take-private buyout of NDS, a UK-based company that had been listed on the Nasdaq. Permira now holds a 51% stake, while News Corp. holds the remaining 49 percent. NDS provides end-to-end digital technology and services to digital pay-television platform operators and content providers.