Firms and Funds

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. said on Wednesday that a partnership deal to make three of its portfolio companies more environmentally friendly had saved $16.4 million. The partnership, started in May with the nonprofit organization Environmental Defense Fund, reduced fuel and emission costs at food distributor U.S. Foodservice […]

Velocity Financial Group has opened an office in Santa Clara, Calif. It also hired Tony Huang as a vice president. Huang previously was a VP of tech banking at United Commercial Bank.

Mercer has agreed to merge its investment consulting business with Callan Associates. No financial terms were disclosed for the deal, which is expected to close later this quarter.

Candover, a London-headquartered private equity firm, has announced that it has entered into discussions with its fund investors regarding a restructuring of its Candover 2008 fund, which was understood to be targeting approximately €5 billion. A statement yesterday said that Candover had taken action due to the “current economic and market backdrop” and anticipates that […]

HOUSTON/ST JOHN’S, Antigua (Reuters) – Texas billionaire Allen Stanford and three of his companies were charged with “massive” fraud on Tuesday as federal agents swooped on his U.S. headquarters. In a civil complaint filed in federal court in Dallas, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused Stanford, a high-profile cricket promoter, and two executives of […]

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Lone Star Funds, the U.S. private equity manager that pushed deeper into distressed real estate as the credit crunch took hold in 2008, is raising another $20 billion for troubled assets, according to sources. Half of the new cash will be earmarked for commercial real estate, including commercial mortgage-backed securities, said […]

This space hasn’t always been too kind toward Bain Capital, in regards to the extraordinary fees it charges its (submissive) limited partners. Today, however, we need to give some credit where it’s due. The Boston-based buyout firm is proposing an amendment to all of its active private equity funds, which would temporarily waive all of its quarterly management fees. Those funds would instead be available for follow-on investment in existing portfolio companies, with the fees to ultimately be paid back out of the fund’s gross profits (assuming there are some). This strategy won’t matter much for relatively-uncalled Bain funds – like its tenth general PE fund or its third European fund – but is a big deal for a vehicle like Bain Capital IX, which is around 98% invested. Rather than using that final $160 million for fee payments, Bain would use it to inject additional equity into select existing investments.

Praesidian Capital is preparing to raise $300 million for its third mezzanine fund, according to LBO Wire. Unlike past Praesidian offerings, this fund will not use leverage. www.praesidian.com     

CDC Group has committed $15 million each to a pair of microfinance funds: India Financial Inclusion Fund, managed by Caspian Capital Partners, and Catalyst Microfinance Investors.

There has been a lot of recent coverage in peHUB about rising interest in the secondary market, and a rising interest of bankers looking to become secondary market intermediaries. Some have argued that what the market needs is more buyers and not more intermediaries, but there hasn’t been a lot of discussion of what intermediaries […]