Bertram Capital, a San Mateo PE shop, has promoted Jared Ruger and Kevin Yamashita to partner. Bertram made the announcements in separate releases. Ruger is founding member of Bertram and was formerly with Oak Hill Capital Management. Yamashita was previously with Calera Capital.
Warburg Pincus has committed to invest CDN$35 million in Protox, which develops receptor targeted fusion proteins for the treatment of diseases of the prostate and cancer. Warburg is a global PE firm.
Kaseman, which is backed by DC Capital Partners, said that Herbert Lanese has joined its board. Fairfax, Va.-based Kaseman provides security services. DC Capital is a PE shop with offices in Washington D.C. and Alexandria, Va.
American Securities said Wednesday that it has made a "significant" investment in Advanced Drainage Systems, of Hilliard, Ohio, which produces corrugated polyethylene pipe products. American Securities is a New York PE firm. Financial terms were not disclosed. Earlier this week, Berkshire Partners said it had sold ADS but didn't identify the buyer.
David Rubenstein, head of the Caryle Group, said that China encourages private equity investments more than any country, including the U.S. “The government of China encourages people like us to come there,” Rubenstein says. “I feel more welcome there than in the halls of Congress. Rubenstein, who was speaking at the Dow Jones private equity analyst conference Wednesday, says that China, because of its booming population, will have the world’s biggest economy by 2035. India will likely have the second largest economy while the U.S. will come in third. Brazil will probably rank fourth.
Wind Point Partners is expected to announce Thursday that it has bought Global Tube Form and Peoria Tube Forming Corp. The companies will serve as a new platform, called Global Tube, for further acquisitions. Tom Gosnell, who was president of ArvinMeritor’s commercial vehicle systems group, will be CEO of Global Tube. Both companies make tubes used in emissions, coolant, heating, air intake and exhaust handling systems used in heavy and medium duty trucks and off-road vehicles.
Middle market M&A is sizzling. “We’ve never seen the level of deal flow that we’ve seen in the last four to five months,” said Andrew Janower, a managing director at at Charlesbank Capital Partners, during a panel Tuesday at the Dow Jones Private Equity Analyst conference. Janower said he spoke recently to a boutique firm that claims to have 100 active M&A processes underway currently and 200 investment bankers at work. “That’s an indicator of how busy the M&A market is,” he said.
Cidron, a firm owned by private equity fund Nordic Capital VII Limited, bought Swedish engineering firm Munters for 5.4 billion crowns ($787 million), sweeping in ahead of another engineering firm, Alfa Laval. Cidron offered 73 crowns per share, more than Alfa Laval’s 68 crowns offer.
Shamrock Capital has agreed to buy a majority of Screenvision, a provider of cinema advertising. The sellers are ITV Plc and Technicolor, which had each owned 50%. ITV is selling all of its holding in the deal while Technicolor will retain "just shy of 20%," says Steve Royer, a Shamrock managing director. Shamrock will end up owning 60% while Carmike Cinemas will have the rest, Royer says. ITV will receive $80 million for its holding while Technicolor will get $60 million, according to separate statements from the companies.
Private equity firm JLL Partners intends to sells its share in McKechnie Aerospace Holdings to aircraft parts maker TransDigm Group Inc in a deal worth $1.27 billion in cash. It will be TransDigm’s biggest ever acquisition. Shares of TransDigm were $64.65 on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday, a year high, before dropping to $62. The deal will bring TransDigm's total debt to about $3 billion.