Kohlberg Kravis Roberts has agreed to acquire a majority stake in Sedgwick Claims Management Services, a provider of technology-enabled claims and productivity management solutions, for about $2.4 billion. KKR is partnering with company management on the deal. The firm is buying the stake from existing investors including Hellman & Friedman and Stone Point Capital. KKR is investing from its North America Fund XI. UBS, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, Mizuho, KKR Capital Markets and MCS Capital Markets provided financing for the transaction, which is expected to close in the first quarter.
Cyprium Partners has sold its investment in Ridgway, Pennsylvania-based Alpha Sintered Metals, Inc., a maker of high-precision powder metal components. Management and O2 Investment Partners are buying Cyprium's stake in the business. Stout Risius Ross advised Cyprium on the sale.
Sentinel Capital Partners has agreed to acquire Tampa Bay-based Checkers Drive-In Restaurants, Inc., which operates and franchises about 800 restaurants. Wellspring Capital Partners is selling the company. Wellspring put Checkers up for sale in 2012 after acquiring the business in 2006.
21st Century Fox is to acquire a majority stake in the Yankees Entertainment and Sports Network (YES Network). This provides an exit for Providence Equity which is securing an approximately 4.5x gross multiple and a 26% IRR on the investment.
Olympus Partners and Goldman Sachs are acquiring PSAV, an event technology and audiovisual company. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Hutton Collins is backing Italian healthcare IT systems company Dedalus Group. The investment will be made through a subordinated loan and a minority equity interest.
Highland Capital Partners Europe has led an investment into AMCS Group, an end-to-end software provider for the recycling & waste management industry. The UK is AMCS Group’s largest market, with 30 staff based in its recently expanded Glasgow site.
Partners Group and Equis Funds Group have closed a $250 million investment to develop a dedicated Japanese solar platform. The investment consortium, co-led by Partners Group and Equis Funds Group on behalf of their clients and including investors such as Babson Capital, LGsuper and Qantas Superannuation, will fund the construction of utility-scale solar power plants across Japan, with the first plants expected to start generating electricity in the second half of 2014.
Canadian private equity firm TriWest Capital Partners has in partnership with company management made an undisclosed majority investment in Landmark Cinemas, a Calgary-based movie exhibition chain with theatres and screens in cities across Western Canada. Concurrent with the investment, TriWest financed the equity for the company's buy of Western Canadian and select Ontario theatres of Empire Theatres. TriWest senior managing director Cody Church said the Empire deal creates the second largest movie exhibition company in Canada and the tenth largest in North America. The Landmark investment closely follows several TriWest deals done in late 2013, including the acquisition of Source Energy Services, the acquisition of Colter Energy, and the acquisition of Triple M Housing. All of these investments we made by TriWest Capital Partners Fund IV, which closed in 2012.
Final bids for French construction and concessions firm Vinci's parking concession business are due by early February, in a deal expected to fetch around 2 billion euros ($2.7 billion), three people close to the deal told Reuters. Potential buyers who are expected to submit bids include private equity firms KKR, Charterhouse and Ardian, infrastructure fund Antin and Canadian pension funds Ontario Teachers Pension Plan and the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), the sources said. Vinci Park operates 2,600 parking-lot assets in 14 countries and posted 615 million euros in revenue in 2012. Analysts say the unit is profitable but exposed to the mature, slow-growing French market.