(Reuters) – Moody’s Investors Service on Monday cut its ratings on Clear Channel Communications to a deeply speculative grade and warned the company may be likely to breach terms in its bank loans this year and seek to restructure its debt. Moody’s cut Clear Channel’s corporate family rating four notches to “Caa3,” nine steps below […]
HM Capital Partners has acquired SunTerra Resources LLC, a Houston-based oil and gas exploration and production company focused that will use under-balanced drilling techniques. No financial terms were disclosed.
Wilks Broadcast Group LLC, a platform acquisition company of The Wicks Group of Cos., has acquired three Denver-area radio stations from CBS Corp. The deal was valued at $19.5 million in cash, and included KWLI-FM, KIMN-FM and KXKL-FM. In early 2007, Wilks Broadcast bought seven stations from CBS in Kansas City and Columbus, Ohio, for $138 million.
Greek investment firm Marfin Investment Group (MIG) is to acquire Olympic Airlines, the Greek carrier being sold by the government. The deal with MIG was agreed despite a rival offer from private airline operator Aegean Airlines which was nearly twice as much as MIG’s offer. Concern that Aegean’s bid would be rejected by EU Competition […]
LONDON (Reuters) – JJB Sports Plc (JJB.L), the struggling British sportswear retailer, said it was considering a number of second-round offers for its fitness clubs business as a March 16 deadline set by its lending banks approaches. “The board is currently considering the terms of these offers with its advisers and its lending banks,” it […]
French smart card provider Gemalto will buy NXP Semiconductors’ wireless chip services business, which develops and markets software for chip technology MIFARE, the two companies said on Friday. Dutch company NXP, founded by Philips, is restructuring and wants to cut debt after being hit by the economic slump. Gemalto did not disclose the financial details […]
UK private equity house LDC continues to defy the UK’s otherwise stalled buyout market, leading the £72m merger of its portfolio company Pro-Bel with Snell & Wilcox, a company owned by private equity firm Advent Venture Partners. Both companies operate in the broadcasting technology space. The deal sees LDC roll-over its investment in Pro-Bel and […]
LONDON (Reuters) – Heavy writedowns by European private equity firms are an extra worry for the struggling companies they own, sparking fears they may end up in the hands of the banks as their current owners drop support. This week alone, both Candover CDI.L and SVG Capital SVI.L wrote down to zero investments in companies […]
(Reuters) – Australian investment groups have put swathes of British infrastructure, including ports in northeast England, up for sale in a bid to raise cash and pay down their debts, the Sunday Times newspaper reported. Babcock & Brown (BNB.AX), a high profile Australian victim of the global financial crisis, has hired investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort […]
LONDON (Reuters) – Indicative bids for Essent Milieu, the waste management unit of Dutch utility Essent, are due next Wednesday, a source familiar with the matter said. Earlier this year banking sources said Essent, which is selling its much bigger power production and delivery businesses to Germany’s RWE (RWEG.DE), hoped to fetch more than 1 […]