When private equity firm Carlyle Group LP bought a controlling stake in Getty Images Inc in October last year, debt investors fell over one another to help finance the $3.3 billion deal, sister news service Reuters reported.
4 min read · 17 October 2013
Blackstone Group LP, the largest publicly-listed alternative asset manager, said its third-quarter earnings increased by 3 percent from a year ago, as fee revenue and profits from sales of its holdings rose, sister news service Reuters reported.
2 min read · 17 October 2013
Canadian buyout firm Onex Corp has completed its sale of TMS International Corp (NYSE: TMS) to interests of Thomas J. Pritzker and Gigi Pritzker, advised by The Pritzker Organization LLC, for US$410 million. Since it invested in the company in January 2007, Onex has received proceeds totaling US$504 million, including proceeds from TMS’ earlier initial public offering and prior distributions. This gave Onex and its partners a multiple of capital invested of 2.0 times and a 13% rate of return. Based in Glassport, Pennsylvania, TMS is a provider of outsourced industrial services to steel mills.
2 min read · 16 October 2013
Egyptian telecom magnate Naguib Sawiris said on Wednesday the lack of clarity around Ottawa's telecom policy has put Wind Mobile, the largest new entrant in the Canadian wireless market, at risk of going bust. Sawiris bank-rolled the start-up of Wind in 2008, but lost his ties to the firm after his controlling stake in Orascom was sold to European telecoms company Vimpelcom in 2011. Orascom had put up most of the funding for Wind's launch. Sawiris, whose investment firm Accelero Capital Holdings had bid C$520 million ($500 million) for the Allstream business, said he was livid with the Allstream ruling and he vowed not to invest any further funds in Canada.
4 min read · 16 October 2013
San Antonio, Texas-based DPT Laboratories and Saint-Hubert, Québec-based Confab Laboratories, two businesses owned by Renaissance Acquisition Holdings LLC, have integrated organizations. The integration includes a re-branding for Confab, a provider of turnkey solutions for manufacturing and packaging clinical and commercial solid, liquid, and semi-solid products, which becomes a DPT company. Management teams for both companies will remain in place. The Longueuil, Québec-based Renaissance Acquisition Holdings, an investor in pharmaceutical businesses in Canada and the United States, is a portfolio company of U.S. private equity firm RoundTable Healthcare Partners.
4 min read · 16 October 2013
Toronto-based private equity firm Altas Partners, launched in 2012 by former Onex executive Andrew Sheiner, has made its first disclosed investment. The firm, together with its partners and senior management, has bought NSC Minerals Ltd, a Saskatoon, Saskatchewan-based provider of salt for highway de-icing, industrial and agricultural applications. The acquisition price was not released. The seller in the transaction was U.S. mid-market private equity firm Wynnchurch Capital, which acquired NSC from TriWest Capital Partners in 2011. The company was also a portfolio investment of Manulife Capital. Altas Partners, which focuses on owning businesses of high quality and strong market positions over long time horizons, was profiled by peHUB Canada last March.
1 min read · 16 October 2013
The Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association has re-upped into an interesting structure for its exposure to co-investments and was able to negotiate some friendly terms in today’s “competitive environment,” sister publication peHUB reported.
2 min read · 16 October 2013
Privately-held natural gas exploration and production company Rice Energy is planning for an initial public offering that could value the company at as much as $2.5 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, Reuters reported.
1 min read · 16 October 2013
Birch Hill Equity Partners has withdrawn its application to take part in an auction of prized Canadian wireless airwaves, the country's industry ministry said on its website. The private equity firm had previously been tipped as a possible bidder for small wireless providers Wind Mobile and Mobilicity, with sources saying in August that market leader Rogers Communications Inc would help fund the push in return for a network-sharing deal. The Canadian government last month released a list of 15 companies that registered to bid on the 700 MHz spectrum in an auction that kicks off on January 14.
1 min read · 16 October 2013
U.S. private equity firm TPG and Ivanhoé Cambridge, the real estate investment arm of pension fund manager the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, have acquired PointPark Properties (P3) from Bahrain alternative investment firm Arcapita. Based in Prague, Czech Republic, P3 is a specialist investor, developer and asset manager of warehouse properties located in Europe. While the deal's value was not disclosed, one source has estimated it at around US$1 billion. As part of the transaction, TPG and Ivanhoé will commit additional capital to strengthen P3's balance sheet and support future growth.
4 min read · 16 October 2013
