LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s largest gas retailer, Centrica (CNA.L), faced a setback in its battle to take over Venture Production (VPC.L) on Monday, when the North Sea gas producer’s two largest investors backed management’s rejection of the $2 billion bid. U.S. investment firm ArcLight Capital Partners and one of Venture’s founders, Larry Kinch, which between […]
MUMBAI (Reuters) – Blackstone (BX.N) will not raise its stake in India’s Nagarjuna Construction Co (NGCN.BO) through warrants after the plan failed to get regulatory approval, the second time the private equity firm has hit a regulatory hurdle in the country. Blackstone, which in late 2007 announced a $150 million deal to buy shares and […]
MSouth Equity Partners has acquired BC Technical Inc., a West Jordan, Utah-based service provider to the nuclear medicine market. No financial terms were disclosed.
LONDON (Reuters) – British private equity firm Terra Firma has asked Citigroup (C.N) to inject up to 300 million pounds ($486.1 million) into its debt-laden music group EMI, according to a report in the Sunday Times newspaper. The buyout group led by Guy Hands, who is also chairman of EMI, has proposed an injection of […]
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Kellwood Co, one of the largest U.S. apparel suppliers, could be forced to file for bankruptcy after it failed to reach an agreement with bondholders with a $140 million bond issue maturing next week, the Wall Street Journal reported. Kellwood, which was taken private in 2008 by buyout firm Sun Capital Partners […]
Harrison Street Capital has acquired a majority stake in MCR LLC, a -based provider of program management services to the federal government. In related news, MCR has bought aeronautical and technical services consulting firm Aerodyne Inc. from Abraxas Corp. No financial terms for either transaction were disclosed.
(Reuters) – Hoku Scientific Inc (HOKU.O), a supplier of raw materials to the solar industry, said it may explore the sale of the company as it struggles to raise capital for a polysilicon plant in Idaho, sending its shares down 15 percent. Last month, Hoku had said it may not be able to continue as […]
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – A financial investor group has emerged as the final candidate to buy Vattenfall’s German power grid in what would be one of the few European infrastructure deals this year, people familiar with the matter said. A group consisting of the infrastructure funds of Goldman Sachs (GS.N), Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) and Allianz (ALVG.DE) […]
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Bankrupt autoparts maker Delphi Corp said on Friday that it had received no additional bids for the company as part of a court-mandated auction that seeks to create alternatives to a previous deal it reached with a private equity firm. Delphi, which has been trying to emerge from bankruptcy, was told […]
As usual, we have a week’s worth of ratings actions on the debt of LBO-backed companies from Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s Investor Services. This week saw downgrades on yet another distressed debt exchange (Duane Reade) and a post-debt exchange upgrade. Rounding it out were a handful of bankruptcy-related withdrawals. Company: Duane Reade Inc.
Sponsor: Oak Hill Capital Management
Downgrade: S&P lowered its corporate credit rating on the company to 'CC' from 'CCC+' and lowered the subordinated debt rating to 'CC' from 'CCC-'. Moody’s downgraded the company’s probability of default rating to Ca from Caa2.
Highlight: The downgrade follows Oak Hill’s announcement to launch a distressed debt exchange for the company. “We view this offer as being tantamount to default given that Duane Reade's highly leveraged capital structure that we believe may be unsustainable over the intermediate term, and the company's weak financial profile.”