Kwik Fit, the European car parts retailer, is being put up for sale by its private equity owner PAI Partners for about $1 billion dollars, according to reports. PAI has already appointed Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley to handle the deal. PAI bought Kwit Fit from buyout firm CVC in 2005 for 800 million pounds ($1.3 billion).
Shamrock Capital has closed its buy of Screenvision and appointed Travis Reid as the company's CEO. Shamrock is an Los Angeles PE firm. Screenvision, of New York, is a provider of cinema advertising. Reid is the former CEO of Digital Cinema Implementation Partners.
Yahoo, the nation's second biggest search engine, is again the subject of takeover rumors but this time it's PE shops that are interested. On Wednesday, the WSJ reported that AOL and several buyout firms are considering making a play for Yahoo, which currently has a market cap of roughly $22 billion. Silver Lake Partners and the Blackstone Group are among the buyout shops interested in teaming up with AOL to buy Yahoo. But the discussions, the story said, are preliminary and don't involve Yahoo yet. Yahoo, meanwhile, has hired Goldman Sachs to field any offers. Yahoo shares closed at $15.25 Wednesday. This all seem a little too preliminary for my taste, especially since no one has apparently involved Yahoo yet. In fact, Yahoo first heard about the discussion from the press—which is oh so reliable—and from its own bankers at Goldman, Dealbook points out. Blackstone has already passed on the idea, Reuters says.
SK Capital Partners has pulled the massive $922 million dividend it planned to take from portfolio company Ascend Materials. Jack Norris, a SK Capital managing director, says there was sufficient demand for the deal, but “we didn’t think it was appropriate for us.” peHUB reported last week that SK Capital was wavering on whether to take the dividend. Ascend, in September, was in the market for an $800 million term loan to support the $922 million dividend. SK Capital bought Ascend in March 2009 for roughly $50 million cash and, due to tax issues, wanted to take three years worth of dividends at one time.
Steven Rattner, formerly of private equity firm Quadrangle and the former head of the U.S. auto task force, is close to settling with the SEC over an investigation into a state pension pay-to-play scheme, according to Reuters. Rattner will most likely have to pay $6 million and take a two-year ban from the securities industry. His former firm, Quadrangle, has already paid $7 million to New York and $5 million to resolve the SEC investigation.
Boston-based private equity investors Battery Ventures has bought Data Innovations, a designer of clinical laboratory software, though the details of the deal were not revealed. Data Innovations says it has 6,500 systems in 65 countries. Battery Ventures’ Dave Tabors and Chelsea Stoner join the Data Innovations board, while Mike Epplen has been named the new CEO.
Private equity firms have been circling around the second biggest U.S. search engine Yahoo lately, according to Reuters. Yahoo has a current market value of more than $20 billion. Silver Lake Partners was involved in early negotiations, while Blackstone was pitched the idea but was not thought to be working on a deal. According to Bloomberg, Yahoo is working with Goldman Sachs on ways to defend against takeover.
The EU has inched closer to a stand-off with the U.S. over proposed new hedge fund regulations after Britain and France disagreed on the granting of licences for foreign funds who want to operate in the EU. France wants tighter regulations for foreign firms, but Britain has defended the hedge fund industry. The finance ministers of the two countries will meet next week.
Apollo Management is hoping to get $3 billion for marketing firm Affinion Group, according to reports. After it has paid off creditors, Apollo could be left with about $1.3 billion. The news has created interest among other private equity firms, according to the New York Post. Apollo bought Affinion for $1.8 billion in 2005.
Alfa Laval refused to raise its bid for Swedish climate control company Munters, thus leaving Nordic Capital, the other private equity firm in the bidding war, with victory. Nordic Capital had made an offer of 77 crowns per share, a total value of 5.7 billion crowns ($859 million), while Alfa Laval’s offer was 75 crowns. Munters shares fell 2.5 percent after the announcement.