Steve Rattner, who founded private equity firm Quadrangle Group and later headed up Barack Obama’s auto task force, is resisting the proposed penalty from the SEC for his role in a pay-to-play scheme involving the $132 million state pension fund, according to the Wall Street Journal. A proposed settlement case between Rattner and the SEC was dropped from the calendar last week, unexpectedly.
Yahoo Inc, the center of much buyout speculation, has announced a disappointed quarterly sales forecast. According to reports last week, a number of private equity firms, including Silver Lake Partners, have been eyeing a buyout expected to be worth around $20 billion. Meanwhile, shares in the company were slightly up, 16 cents higher to $15.65, in extended trading despite the lackluster quarterly financial results.
Manatron, a Thoma Bravo portfolio company, said Tuesday that Cynthia Williamson had joined the company as a senior project manager. Most recently, Williamson owned and operated her own company that provided property tax and assessment software consulting services for state and local government. Manatron, of Portage, Mich., provides software and services for state and local governments. Thoma Bravo is a PE firm.
IPOs can be worth the wait. Just consider NetSpend, which went public Tuesday and surged 18% in afternoon trading. The offering will provide a strong gain for investors JLL Partners and Oak Investment Partners. The NetSpend IPO was slated to launch last week but opened today at $11.20 a share. The stock closed Tuesday at $13.00, up $2 from its $11 offer price.
Management Health Solutions, a portfolio company of Enhanced Equity Management, has acquired Hospital Inventories Specialists. Financial terms were not announced. MHS, of Fairfield, Conn., is a hospital supply chain services provider. Tampa, Fla.-based Hospital Inventories provides inventory management services. Enhanced Equity is a New York PE firm.
NewNet Communication Technologies, which is backed by Skyview Capital, has completed its buy of 3ple-Media BV. Financial terms were not announced. NewNet, of Shelton, Conn., provides text messaging and network signaling services for wireless, IP, and wireline networks. Beverly Hills, Calif.-based Skyview is a private investment firm. 3ple-Media also provides multi-media services to wireless carriers.
SKF Group, of Sweeden, has agreed to buy Lincoln Holdings Enterprises for $1 billion cash from Harbour Group. The deal is subject to regulatory approval. St. Louis-based Lincoln supplies lubrication systems, tooks and equipment. Harbour Group, also of St. Louis, is a privately-owned operating company. Robert W. Baird advised Harbour.
Viom Networks, the Indian telecoms infrastructure company, is planning an initial public offering for the first quarter of 2011 to raise up to $1.5 billion. A fund jointly-managed by State Bank of India and Macquarie – SBI-Macquarie Infra Fund – holds an 11 percent stake in the company. Viom is a joint venture between Tata Teleservices and Quippo Telecom.
Last week, the media went into overdrive on the supposed PE takeover of Yahoo. Now, the speculation has turned to what company may be next on the LBO menu. Luckily, Barron’s has compiled a list of the top dozen LBO candidates. PE firms need to do deals because they are sitting on tens of billions of commitments from institutional investors and will be forced to free investors from those commitments if they don’t invest the funds, the story said. There’s also been a lot of talk about how a $10 billion deal is possible now (although we haven’t see it yet).
Power company Dynegy Inc has sent a letter to all its shareholders arguing for the proposed sale to private equity firm Blackstone, which has been criticized by investor Carl Icahn. The letter argued that remaining a standalone company would not be permitted under its present credit facility and would impact the company’s balance sheet negatively. Blackstone agreed to buy Dynegy for $4.7 billion in August, with a $1.36 billion deal signed at the same time to sell four natural gas power plants NRG Energy Inc. Icahn is arguing that the deal undervalues the company.