Palladium Equity Partners said Friday that it has completed the sale of Castro Cheese Co. to Dairy Farmers of America. Financial terms were not disclosed. Palladium is a PE firm from New York. Houston-based Castro Cheese makes and markets queso fresco and other varieties of Hispanic cheeses and creams.
James Brown Contracting, owned by Navigation Capital Partners, has acquired West Brothers' Cos. Financial terms weren't announced. Durham, N.C.-based West Brothers provides transportation, logistics and leasing of commercial fleet services in the Southeast. James Brown Contracting, of Lithonia, Ga., is a dedicated short-haul truckload carrier. Navigation Capital is a PE firm from Atlanta.
KANA Software, which is backed by Accel-KKR, said Friday that Michael Fields, its former CEO, passed away on Oct. 24. Fields had struggled with cancer for 10 months, the statement said. KANA, of Sunnyvale, Calif., offers software that helps companies hold conversations with their customers via phone, email, chat, and web. Accel-KKR is a tech focused PE firm.
It’s been months since LPL Investment Holdings, which is owned by Hellman & Friedman and TPG, initially filed for an IPO and now we have more information First up, LPL is expected to price its IPO on Nov. 17 and will likely go public the next day, sources said. The Boston-based independent broker this week reduced the size of its planned offering to $515 million. In June, LPL initially filed to raise as much as $600 million. It's also important that LPL is even going public. The broker had been expected to sit in registration until the markets rebounded. The broad market did gain ground this week. Yesterday, the Dow Industrials closed at their highest level since the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy two year ago. However, one PE exec thinks it's still not a good time to go public, since IPOs are shaky. "PE firms are anxious to show realizations generally," the source said. "PE investors want to get capital gains treatment this calendar year before taxes go up," a banker said.
The ever-prolific Riverside Company is expecting a flurry of deal activity by year end, according to Co-CEO Béla Szigethy. Szigethy told Buyouts in an interview for an unrelated story that the firm expects to buy up to six new platform companies and put around $200 million of equity to work by year end.
There’s some news today on the “pay to play” scandal. Henry “Hank” Morris, former adviser to ex-New York Comptroller Alan Hevesi, has agreed to plead guilty to a single felony in the state’s long running corruption investigation, according to press reports. Morris had been charged last year in a 123-count indictment. Last month, Hevesi pleaded guilty to a single charge of felony corruption. Andrew Cuomo, the New York attorney general who this week won his bid for governor, has been investigating the “pay to play” practices at the New York Common Retirement Fund for the past three years. Hevesi was sole trustee of the fund, which is valued at $124.8 billion. Cuomo has charged that the fund became “a piggy bank” for Morris, who reaped millions of dollars in fees from individuals and firms seeking to invest the state’s money, Reuters has said.
After lengthy negotiations, HSBC Holdings has agreed to sell U.K.-based train leasing business Eversholt to a consortium of infrastructure funds in a 2.1 billion pound ($3.39 billion) deal, Reuters reported. Morgan Stanley Infrastructure, 3i Infrastructure and Star Capital comprise the group buying Eversholt, which owns close to a third of Britain’s trains. HSBC bought Eversholt in 1997 for 726.5 million pounds.
Saudi investors with ties to the royal family will pay 250 million euros ($353.6 million) to buy the Hotel de Crillon from U.S. investment group Starwood Capital, Reuters reported, citing an article from the French daily Le Figaro. The unnamed buyers may also need to spend another 100 euros ($140 million) to restore the famed Paris hotel, which is located near the Champs Elysees.
A consortium of Canadian pension funds, including the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan and Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, will pay $2.1 billion pounds ($3.4 billion) to operate Britain's only high-speed railway, Reuters reported. The deal - by which the consortium will operate the line, called High Speed 1, for 30 years - represents Britain’s recent efforts to cut the national debt, Reuters said. The High Speed 1 route links St Pancras station in north London to the Channel Tunnel, and became fully operational in November 2007.
Miami-based private equity firm H.I.G. Capital has invested an undisclosed amount in San Antonio-based Cardell Cabinetry. Terms of the deal were not released. Formed in 1976, Cardell designs and manufactures semi-custom kitchen and bath cabinetry.