Breaking into private equity can be tough. The firms are highly selective, the interview process is rigorous and there’s a lot of competition. Some applicants need help.
3 min read · 18 March 2014
Stock market index provider MSCI Inc said it would sell influential governance unit Institutional Shareholder Services to private equity firm Vestar Capital Partners for $364 million to focus on its risk investment products and services business. The company said in October that it was exploring the sale of ISS, which had been through a series of owners before MSCI bought it in 2010.
2 min read · 18 March 2014
Canadian private markets fund manager and adviser Northleaf Capital Partners has added four new members to its global investment team. Nadim Vasanji joins the firm as vice president on the global private equity team and will be based in Northleaf’s Menlo Park, California, office. Megan McLeese joins as legal counsel, while Chris Rigobon and Brad Blowes join as associates with the infrastructure and private equity secondaries teams, respectively. McLeese, Rigobon and Blowes will be based in the firm's headquarters in Toronto. Northleaf manages $5 billion in assets on behalf of a wide array of institutional investors.
4 min read · 18 March 2014
Private equity firms Advent International and Bain Capital have entered exclusive talks to buy Danish card payment services company Nets Holding for more than 2 billion euros (US$2.8 billion), two people familiar with the matter said on Monday, Reuters reports. Advent and Bain, which jointly own British payment processing company WorldPay and have teamed up for the Nets bid with Danish state-owned pension fund ATP, beat three other bidders in the final round of the auction, the sources said. The three other bidders were private equity fund Permira in partnership with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), French IT services company Atos and a consortium led by Swedish private equity firm Nordic Capital.
1 min read · 18 March 2014
WESCO International Inc (NYSE: WCC) has completed its recently announced buy of Pickering, Ontario-based Hazmasters Inc, a supplier of safety products to customers in industrial, construction, commercial, institutional and government markets. The financial details of the transaction were not published. Hazmasters was sold by U.S. private equity firm Trivest Partners, which recapitalized the company in 2011. According to the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based WESCO, the acquisition is expected to be accretive to earnings by approximately $0.05 per diluted share in the first year of operation.
2 min read · 18 March 2014
Trinseo SA, a plastics maker backed by Bain Capital, filed again with U.S. regulators to raise up to $200 million in an initial public offering of common stock.
1 min read · 18 March 2014
SunGard Availability Services is coming to market with a $1.275 billion credit in connection with its spinoff from SunGard Data Systems as the underperforming division is sold off, sources told sister service Thomson Reuters Loan Pricing Corp.
2 min read · 18 March 2014
Macquarie Group Ltd, Australia’s top investment bank, has agreed to sell its private equity funds management division to the unit’s three managers, a source with direct knowledge of the deal told sister news service Reuters on March 18.
1 min read · 18 March 2014
Wi2Wi Corp has named current board member Prakash Hariharan as vice chairman and interim CEO. The firm's previous CEO Dr. Reza Ahy has left his position. Hariharan is a former portfolio manager at Toronto-based Front Street Capital. Headquartered in San Jose, Calif., Wi2Wi is a maker of embedded wireless connectivity solutions.
2 min read · 18 March 2014
GS Capital Partners LP, the private equity arm of Goldman Sachs Group Inc, and Vestar Capital Partners are nearing a deal to buy Hearthside Food Solutions LLC for more than $1.1 billion, people familiar with the matter said.
2 min read · 17 March 2014
