Firms and Funds

TOKYO (Reuters) – Struggling Citigroup Inc (C.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) plans to sell NikkoCiti Trust and Banking Corp, its trust bank unit in Japan, as part of its global restructuring efforts in a deal that could raise up to 40 billion yen ($420 million), Japanese media reported on Sunday. An auction could be […]

Tembusu Partners, a Singapore-based private equity firm, is forming a $100 million fund in partnership with the government of Nanjing, China. The vehicle will be used to invest in companies based and/or operating in the Yangtze Delta region. www.tembusupartners.com

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Dutch financial services firm ING (ING.AS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) has cut the size of its leveraged finance team in Asia but remains in that business, the company said on Thursday. ING joins a spate of institutions that have cut bankers specialising in lending for private equity deals as the […]

MUMBAI (Reuters) – Blackstone Group LP’s (BX) India head said on Wednesday the private equity firm is considering an infrastructure fund, as the industry and the companies that serve it offer excellent value, particularly in India. Akhil Gupta, chairman of Blackstone India, said he expected it would be three months or so before the firm […]

Hudson Clean Energy Partners, a private equity firm formed last year by alternative energy bankers from Goldman Sachs, has been hit with a lawsuit by wind power giant Renewable Energy Systems Ltd. The complaint was filed in New Jersey District Court, and includes allegations of trade secret misappropriation and inducing, aiding and assisting breach of fiduciary duty. At issue is Hudson’s July hiring of Mike O’Neill, who had been second-in-command at RES and a director on the company’s board. According to the complaint: For several months before O’Neill gave notice to RES, he was actually serving in part as Hudson’s top-level “inside man” within RES, helping Hudson develop its competitive venture, working on numerous business planning and other documents for Hudson, and inevitably providing to Hudson the benefit of RES’ proprietary, trade secret and confidential information. If RES had not discovered that O’Neill was secretly helping Hudson to develop its competitive venture while remaining in the employ of RES, and thereafter commenced an investigation, it is unknown for how much longer Hudson would have continued to use him in this manner. The “competitive venture” to which RES refers is Element Power, a global platform focused on utility-scale wind and solar energy development. O’Neill was officially hired to launch

Earlier this year, there was lots of talk about how private equity firms were buying up discounted debt in their own portfolio companies. Leaving aside the now-obvious pricing folly, here is my question: How are firms going to handle the obvious conflicts of interest? For example, imagine Turkey Capital bought Gobble Corp. by using capital […]

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Private equity firm The Carlyle Group [CYL.UL] has raised nearly $14 billion towards a fund that is targeted at $15 billion, a source familiar with the situation said on Tuesday. Washington, D.C.-based Carlyle launched the U.S. buyout fund in the spring of 2007. The fund has not yet closed, the source […]

LONDON (Reuters) – Private equity firms’ prime objective over the next year should be maintaining the health of their portfolio companies, Charles Sherwood, a partner and board member of European buyout house Permira, said on Tuesday. “The top priority [for senior partners] would have to be protecting value in portfolio companies and if it isn’t […]

Apollo Investment Corp. (Nasdaq: AINV) has promoted James Zetler to CEO, from president and chief operating officer. In related news, executive vice president Patrick Dalton will take Zetler’s president and COO roles. Outgoing CEO John Hannon will retain his chairmanship of the company’s board.

You may remember American Capital’s ugly quarterly earnings report earlier this month, in which the firm reported a $548 million loss, purchased its European Capital arm and suspended its quarterly dividend. You may also remember my skepticism toward the firm's stated goal of successfully selling 14 portfolio companies. It’s only been two weeks since then, and ACAS understandably hasen’t announced any sales, but today the firm did release details on six company exits and some senior loan syndications from the prior quarter. Pulling off an exit in Q4 of this year is going to be nearly impossible, but that was said of Q3, too, and American Capital managed to swing six deals. The news hasn’t completely renewed my faith that the firm’ll close many exits in the coming month, but it is