The Blackstone Group won the dismissal of an investor class-action lawsuit, accusing the firm of failing to disclose prior to its 2007 initial public offering that some of its holdings were losing value. View the judge's ruling after the jump:
1 min read · 22 September 2009
A labor union is criticizing KKR for stripping too much value out of Dollar General, as part of the retailer’s proposed IPO. No, not the SEIU (that’s so 2008), but rather the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The Teamsters last week sent a letter to KKR, expressing concerns over the dividend and fees that KKR and fellow shareholder Goldman Sachs will pay themselves via the IPO. The letter also raises issues such as Dollar General’s ability to repay its debt (in light of expansion plans and the company’s perceived counter-cyclicality), executive compensation, board structure and possible regulatory risks related to OSHA compliance. I spoke with a couple union execs yesterday, who said this is an investment issue rather than a labor issue. After all, it isn’t like Teamsters are manning the cash registers (quite the image). More specifically, most Teamster pension funds invest a majority of their assets in public equities – and the parent group wants to warn those sub-investment managers of possible pitfalls to investing in the Dollar General IPO, in particular, and private equity-backed IPOs in general (which the Teamsters correctly sense are increasing in volume). I asked if this is the beginning
2 min read · 22 September 2009
peHUB has learned that Microsoft has acquired Interactive Supercomputing, a VC-backed maker of the Star-P interactive parallel computing platform. An official announcement is expected tomorrow. No word yet on price. Interactive Supercomputing's website is currently down for maintenance (perhaps being reskinned?), but a recent press release describes Star-P as "technical computing software that enables users to code computing problems on their desktops using familiar mathematical software such as MATLAB and Python,
1 min read · 21 September 2009
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters last week sent a letter to buyout firm KKR, expressing concerns about the proposed IPO of KKR portfolio company Dollar General. The union suggests that it would consider Dollar General as a pension investment, but not until it receives more information on issues like debt repayment, executive compensation and possible regulatory risks related to OSHA compliance. Copy of the letter after the jump...
1 min read · 21 September 2009
We've already sold more than 120 tickets for our first-ever peHUB Shindig in Dallas, which is taking place on October 14 at the Uptown Bar & Grill. Cocktails & conversation with Big D's venture capital and private equity community. I'm expecting it to be sold-out by this time next week, so get yours today (ticket proceeds go to a local charity to be picked by event attendees). More info is available here, or you can just buy your ticket below:
1 min read · 21 September 2009
Having trouble raising that next fund? Then perhaps it's time you hit the airwaves, with a radio ad asking listeners to invest. Maybe you could even come up with a clever jingle... I know what you're thinking: "That's illegal solicitation, and the SEC would be on us before the thirtieth second." And I'd normally agree with you, save for an unusual item in this morning's Commercial Mortgage Backed Alert. It describes a firm called Wilshire Finance Partners, which next month will run radio ads for a $100 million-targeted fund that would originate bridge loans on commercial properties in California. The trade pub writes:
2 min read · 21 September 2009
On Monday, Manhattan federal judge Jed Rakoff rejected a proposed $33 million settlement between the SEC and Bank of America, over the issue of whether BoA had lied to shareholders about bonuses paid to Merrill Lynch employees. Near the end of his ruling, Rakoff wrote: Oscar Wilde once famously said that a cynic is someone “who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.” Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892). The proposed Consent Judgment in this case suggests a rather cynical relationship between the parties: the S.E.C. gets to claim that it is exposing wrongdoing on the part of the Bank of America in a high-profile merger; the Bank’s management gets to claim that they have been coerced into an onerous settlement by overzealous regulators. And all this is done at the expense, not only of the shareholders, but also of the truth. This characterization also could be applied to the New York pay-to-play investigation, with Andrew Cuomo playing the role of Mary Shapiro.
3 min read · 18 September 2009
Steve Pagliuca, a managing director with Bain Capital, today announced that he's running for the Democratic Party nomination to succeed Ted Kennedy in the U.S. Senate. We discussed his potential candidacy earlier this week, including how it would affect ongoing operations at Bain. We've since received a copy of a letter Bain sent to its limited partners, which says Pagliuca will take a leave of absence rather than tender his resignation. What follows is a copy of the letter: Dear Bain Capital Private Equity Investors:
2 min read · 17 September 2009
Andrew Cuomo has just announced that his office has settled with four more private equity firms, relating to a pay-for-play scandal at the New York Common Retirement Fund. The firms will "return" over $4.5 million related to their NYCRF investments, and also sign Cuomo's code of conduct that prohibits the future usa of placement agents when soliciting fund commitments from public pension systems. The four firms are: Falconhead Capital, HM Capital Partners, Levine Leichtman Capital Partners and Access Capital Partners. HM and Falconhead directly hired indicted "finder" Hank Morris, while Levine Leichtman and Access Capital hired other finds who allegedly split fees with Morris (apprently unbeknownst to the PE firms).
8 min read · 17 September 2009
1 min read · 17 September 2009
