Retreating from Japanese equities, New York-based fund Steel Partners has cut its stake in brewer Sapporo Holdings, Reuters reported. The fund reduced its stake to 7.88%, from 13.14%, but remains the largest stakeholder in Sapporo.
The Carlyle Group has agreed to buy UK-based testing and inspection company Velosi for roughly 87.8 million pounds ($138.9), Reuters reported. The deal, at 165 pence per share, represents a 61% premium over Wednesday’s closing price.
Buyout shops Cerberus Capital Management, Lone Star and Fortress Group are among the firms planning to bid on Japanese consumer lender Takefuji Corp., Reuters reported. The deal is valued at more than 60 billion yen ($716 million), Reuters said, adding that the first round of bidding will close on December 15. Takefuji filed for bankruptcy in September, owing 433 billion yen.
Wise Foods, which is backed by Palladium Equity Partners, said Wednesday that it has completed a $48 million credit facility. Berwick, Pa.-based Wise Foods, which makes and sells salty snacks like Cheez Doodles, will use the loan to refinance existing debt and provide a dividend to shareholders. Ally Commercial Finance and Siemens Financial Services were the lenders. Palladium Equity is a New York PE firm.
Stephen Schwarzman, the Blackstone Group's co-founder and CEO who is moving to Paris part-time, sees some opportunities in Europe. Blackstone has been very pessimistic about Europe for the past four to five years, said Schwarzman, who was speaking Tuesday at the Goldman Sachs financial services conference. European companies have similar or higher multiples as those in the United States, but their growth rates are much lower. "We felt that the risk reward equation was really wrong," Schwarzman said. "We pretty much just kept away."
The holidays are upon us and everyone is supposed to make merry. But don't tell that to Steve Rattner and New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. The fight between the two has grown particularly nasty. The governor-elect is considering perjury charges against the Quadrangle co-founder, according to the New York Times. NYAG Cuomo may use Rattner's former attorneys as witnesses against him, according to the New York Times. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, the law firm that represented Rattner against Cuomo's office, has hired Mary Jo White, former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District, to guard the firm against potential action, the story said. Simpson Thacher isn't repping Rattner anymore.
Los Angeles-based Caltius Equity Partners has invested an undisclosed amount of growth capital into personal care company Kiss My Face. The company, formed in 1981 in New York’s Hudson River Valley, sells its natural soaps, lotions, lip balms and other products online and through retailers across the US. No financial terms of the deal were released.
Salesforce.com will pay as much as $249 million to buy venture-backed cloud computing start-up Heroku. Salesforce will pay $212 million in cash for the company. It also plans to issue $27 million in stock to Heroku employees, and an additional $10 million in cash for unvested Heroku shares, Reuters reported. San Francisco-based Heroku is a cloud-software platform company which charges developers to host applications written in the Ruby programming language, Reuters said. Formed in 2007, Heroku is backed by investors Redpoint Ventures, Ignition Partners, Baseline Ventures, Harrison Metal Capital and Y Combinator.
Beating out bids from rival buyout shops, Apax Partners is now in exclusive talks to buy Danish cleaning company ISS, Reuters reported. ISS is currently owned by Goldman Sachs and Swedish private equity firm EQT. The deal, valued at about $8.5 billion, could become Europe’s largest buyout since the credit crisis, Reuters said. ISS is one of the world’s largest facilities services companies, with more than 500,000 employees.
The Carlyle Group is seen as a likely buyer for Dutch buyout shop AlpInvest, Reuters reported, citing Dutch financial daily Het Financieele Dagblad. A sale of AlpInvest is expected by the end of the year. At the end of 2009, the Dutch firm had 29 billion euros ($38.3 billion) invested for its owners, Dutch pension managers APG and PGGM, Reuters said.