On The Market: Blackstone Group Chief Executive Stephen Schwarzman has listed a 2.1-acre property in East Hampton, N.Y., for $7.2 million. Don't worry. He's wrapping up work on a house he's building on a 9.9-acre estate in nearby Water Mill, which he bought for $34 million in 2005. (NY Times) Rebuttals: The Private Equiteer takes issue with the Economist's "scathing" piece on the puzzle of private equity. Particularly the line which states that you are far more likely to achieve billionaire status by running an asset management business than by setting up an operating business. (Private Equiteer) Deals Deals Deals: Terra Firma purchased a wind energy business for $350 million. (Reuters) Deal Journal calls the deal "a bold move." (DJ) The Most Powerful Banker You've Never Heard of: Lewis Kaden is the ultimate behind-the-scenes power player. Lobbying the White House for Citi may be his biggest role yet. (BusinessWeek) Good News and Bad News: For the FDIC there's a long tunnel and little light. (Rolfe Winkler) But, you know, don't worry about the FDIC. (Felix Salmon)
Mergermarket today released its half-year private equity review, suggesting that private equity may have hit a bottom. Between Q1 and Q2, deal volume only decreased 4%. That’s a relatively shallow fall, when compared with the 49% plummet between Q3 and Q4 of last year. Exit data looks similar:
After declining 44% from Q3 to Q4 last year, exit volume this year has been on a slow but steady rise, gaining an average of two deals in each quarter.
Financial services and dominated deal activity, taking 70% of aggregate deal value in the first half of the year, thanks to deals like IndyMac, iShares and BankUnited. Many of the deals were in the asset management subsector, “which offered and continues to offer a variety of healthy, attractively priced businesses.” Thanks to parent company distress, forced divestitures have provided a fertile buying ground.
(Reuters) – The owners of the New York Mets will be forced to sell the pro baseball team due to huge losses suffered in the Bernard Madoff swindle, the author of a book about the disgraced money manager said on Friday. The Wilpon family, led by Mets owner Fred Wilpon, lost about $700 million because […]
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Indebted German cable provider Tele Columbus could be sold soon and is being circled by several potential buyers, sources close to the deal told Reuters on Friday. The selling process could begin in the next couple of weeks, the sources said. Financial sources said the deal could be valued at 400-500 million […]
As usual, we have a week's worth of ratings actions on the debt of sponsor-backed companies, via ratings agencies Standard & Poor's Ratings Services and Moody's Investors Service. A rare occurrence this week: S&P lowered its ratings on an actual private equity firm: American Capital, the BDC/buyout firm that's facing some creditor troubles, was downgraded to ‘B-'. No word on the progress of those creditor negotiations since the firm's earnings call earlier this month (which also provided no update). However, the firm did register to sell a $1.5 billion mixed-shelf offering on August 20. Company: American Capital Ltd.
Sponsor: -
Downgrade: S&P lowered the long-term counterparty credit rating on American Capital to 'B-' from 'BB-'.
Highlights: "The rating action reflects the accelerated deterioration in the firm's realized earnings and reported leverage in second-quarter 2009, as well as the weakening performance of its portfolio companies. The firm's coverage of interest by realized earnings that are not dependent on investment exits declined significantly to 1.0x in the second quarter from 1.8x in the previous quarter and 2.9x for 2008. Moreover, while we had expected further portfolio depreciation, the unrealized write-downs in the second quarter, coupled with the slowdown in investment exits, has driven leverage to 2.3x--well above the 1.0x that had been required by covenants and is required for compliance with business development company (BDC) regulations."
LONDON (Reuters) – British transport group National Express (NEX.L) rejected a proposed 600 million pound ($977.2 million) takeover approach led by its main shareholder, saying an equity fundraising is now its main goal. The company, which operates buses in North America and Spain as well as the UK, said it had consulted major institutional shareholders […]
NEW YORK, Aug 27 (Reuters) – NYSE Euronext (NYX.N) said on Thursday it would buy NYFIX Inc (NYFX.O) to improve its trading platform in a deal that almost doubled the stock price of the provider of systems to buy and sell stocks. The transatlantic exchange operator offered $1.675 per share of NYFIX common stock, a […]
Select Comfort Corp. (Nasdaq: SCSS) shareholders narrowly rejected a deal in which Sterling Partners would have invested $35 million for a 52.5% equity position. www.selectcomfort.com
(Reuters) – FormTech Industries LLC, a supplier of forged metal automotive components, filed for bankruptcy protection and said it would sell its assets to a newly formed unit of HHI Holdings LLC, a portfolio company of U.S. private equity group KPS Capital Partners. FormTech filed a motion with the bankruptcy court, seeking approval to sell […]
IK Investment Partners has agreed to acquire a majority stake in Vistra Group, a European provider of international trust and corporate services. No financial terms were disclosed for the deal, which also includes Reggeborgh Groep as a co-investor.