LONDON (Reuters) – British bus and rail group Stagecoach (SGC.L) has made a 1.65 billion pound ($2.7 billion) all-share merger proposal to rival transport operator National Express (NEX.L), The Sunday Telegraph reported. The newspaper cited a letter written by Stagecoach Chief Executive Brian Souter and Chairman Robert Speirs to National Express Chairman John Devaney proposing […]
TORONTO (Reuters) – Cossette Inc (KOS.TO), one of Canada’s leading advertising and marketing companies, and the subject of a hostile takeover bid, is drawing the attention of other potential bidders, but has no firm offers yet. Cossette said in a statement on Friday it had received several written expressions of interest from third parties, and […]
LONDON (Reuters) – Debt-laden British yellow pages publisher Yell’s (YELL.L) lenders are inching towards a crucial loan amendment that will allow its planned 500 million pounds equity issue to go ahead, banking sources said on Friday. Lenders have until Friday to agree to a set of requests that will extend the maturity on Yell’s 4 […]
As usual, we have a week’s worth of ratings agency actions on the debt of buyout-backed companies from Standard & Poor’s Ratings Service and Moody’s Investors Service. This week was slow—two upgrades and one default leading to one withdrawal. One upgrade, interestingly, is on a very recent deal. Last month, KKR purchased $300 million in the senior secured notes of Eastman Kodak. The deal sent Kodak’s stock price down and raised questions as to what KKR’s plan for the stagnant company would be as a debt investor. But the deal at least elicited an upgrade from Moody’s. The ratings agency upgraded Eastman Kodak's speculative grade liquidity rating to SGL-1 from SGL-2 upon the closing of the company's new debt issuance. More details below.
Falconhead Capital has formed GPSI Holdings LLC, a provider of cart-mounted GPS services to golf courses. The deal is being done via the acquisition and rollup of three companies, including bankrupt GPS Industries Inc. Falconhead's partner on the deal is pro golfer Greg Norman.
PAG Capital Partners has acquired a majority stake in Corporate Technology Solutions LLC, a provider of low-voltage structured cabling installation services in Arizona. No financial terms were disclosed. CTS was advised by The March Group.
Webster Financial Corp. (NYSE: WBS) has completed its sale of $115 million worth of newly-issued common stock to Warburg Pincus.
ACON Investments has acquired Fairway Outdoor from Morris Communications Co., for an undisclosed amount. ACON will merge Fairway with Magic Media, an existing portfolio company that also focuses on the outdoor advertising space.
LONDON (Reuters) - A consortium led by Spain's Cosmen family has decided against making a takeover offer for National Express (NEX.L) after spending a month poring over the British bus and train operator's books. National Express said on Friday , however, that the Cosmen family had decided to support a proposed equity fundraising. Last month, Cosmen and private equity partner CVC Capital Partners approached National Express with a proposed 765 million pounds ($1.24 billion) offer worth 500 pence per share, an improvement on a previous 450 pence approach.
Larry Summers is turning Populist: Big Finance vs. The Middle Class (Real Times Economics) In Defense of Smart Bankers: Yesterday I linked to Calvin Trillin's NYT op-ed that proclaimed the financial collapse was caused by smart people. Here is one rebuttal from Dealscape, and one defense from Felix Salmon. Private Equity Mad Libs: Here is just about any given headline about a private equity deal, fill in the blanks. "_______(deal) signifies private equity is ______(choose one: back, still dead)." Here are two from today: Brewing deal marks dawning of new PE era A Private-Equity Rebirth Is Premature Watch out: Goldman Sachs has pissed off a group of nuns. From what I can remember of Catholic school, that is the last thing you ever want to do. (Business Insider)