Energy Future Holdings, the big Texas power company that filed for bankruptcy in April, said it will present a proposal for auctioning the company after it scrapped an earlier plan to exit Chapter 11 under control of unsecured creditors.
2 min read · 28 August 2014
Centerplate, the hospitality service company backed by Olympus Partners, has put CEO Desmond Hague on “indefinite probation” after finding that he kicked a one-year-old Doberman Pinscher in his care. Hague reportedly was upset after the dog jerked its leash and dislocated his finger.
4 min read · 27 August 2014
Ivanhoé Cambridge, the real estate investment arm of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, has agreed to sell a portfolio of shopping centres and other assets to Cominar Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) for $1.527 billion. The portfolio consists of 15 shopping centres and other commercial and industrial properties in Québec and Ontario. The transaction, which is expected to be completed no later than November, includes a $250 million equity private placement by Ivanhoé in Cominar, which will make Ivanhoé the REIT's largest unitholder.
8 min read · 27 August 2014
Niagara Tools Ltd, a Canadian manufacturer of precision tooling, cutting and grinding equipment, has been bought by Apex Tool Group, a portfolio company of U.S. private equity firm Bain Capital Partners. The acquisition, the financial terms of which were not disclosed, was announced by U.S. merger and acquisition advisory firm Generational Capital LLC, which advised the St. Catharines, Ontario-based Niagara Tools on the deal. With headquarters in Sparks, Maryland, Apex is a manufacturer of professional hand and power tools. It was acquired by Bain in February 2013 in a transaction valued at US$1.6 billion.
3 min read · 27 August 2014
DBRS Ltd,, a Toronto-based credit rating agency that competes with Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC, Moody's Corp and Fitch Ratings Inc, is exploring a sale, sources told Reuters. DBRS owner Walter Schroeder has hired investment bank Perella Weinberg Partners LP to run an auction for the firm, which could fetch hundreds of millions of dollars. Private equity firms are among the parties interested, the sources said.
2 min read · 27 August 2014
Grocery story magnate Ron Burkle has had some fantastic successes during his career. But his investment firm is marketing Yucaipa American Alliance Fund III to investors on the back of a track record that has not always stacked up well against those of other buyout firms.
6 min read · 27 August 2014
The New Mexico State Investment Council has increased the private equity target allocation of its $14.2 billion land grant fund from 10 percent to 12 percent, spokesman Charles Wollman told Buyouts. In the meantime, the state has continued to sell interests in older funds on the secondary market.
2 min read · 27 August 2014
Canadian private equity firm Ironbridge Equity Partners has made an undisclosed investment in M&M Resources Inc, a Fort Nelson, British Columbia-based energy services company. The deal, which was done in partnership with the company's management, is intended to support M&M Resources' continued growth as a provider of land-clearing and trucking services to the oil and gas industry in northeast British Columbia and northwest Alberta. In April, the Toronto-based Ironbridge completed the final close of its second mid-market fund, Ironbridge Equity Partners II LP, raising $154 million in total. M&M is Fund II's third investment to date.
3 min read · 26 August 2014
Comprehensive tax reform. The phrase strikes ice in the soul of buyout professionals whenever it comes up. But could the possible ascension to a key House chairmanship by Paul Ryan, Republican from Wisconsin and Mitt Romney’s running mate in the 2012 presidential election, change everything?
3 min read · 26 August 2014
Toward the middle of last year, London-based CVC Capital Partners collected 10.9 billion euros ($14.4 billion) for its latest flagship buyout fund. It took just six months to raise CVC Capital Partners VI LP, and the firm couldn’t meet investor appetite for slots in the fund, according to sister news service Reuters.
3 min read · 26 August 2014
