Private Equity
Soap Opera Edition: Desperation, power grabs, money hoarding, name changes, and tired jokes. Reuters: Lehman’s Neuberger sales “smacks of desperation,” an analyst suggests. FT: Meanwhile, the private equity arm of another bank that’s already failed, Bear Stearns, is staying intact, albeit with a new name. Introducing JPMorgan Private Equity.
2 min read · 08 September 2008
Once a limited process, the stake sale of apparel maker Tory Burch has been opened to a wider pool of private equity bidders, peHUB has learned. The company’s namesake, Tory Burch, and her ex-husband and business partner, Christopher Burch, had hired Goldman Sachs to shop the business, but disagreements over fees led the duo to move forward with Lehman Brothers as its sell-side adviser. (Goldman was connected to Christopher Burch; Lehman’s connections were with Tory Burch.) Women’s Wear Daily reported in July that bidding for the 30% stake had been narrowed to Bear Stearns Merchant Banking and TSG Consumer Partners, though the sale hinged on the firms’ willingness to pay Tory Burch’s steep asking price.
2 min read · 08 September 2008
Instead of focusing on one deal, I’ve briefly covered a handful of the week’s most interesting transactions. After the gushing font of deal activity this week, it was hard to pick just one. After the jump, read about The Flip-Floppers, The Cross Border Challenge, The Redeemer and The Repeat Offender. Plus, an honorable mention.
3 min read · 05 September 2008
The unemployed financial engineer who grabbed national media attention after wearing an “MIT Graduate For Hire” sandwich board on Park Avenue remains without a job. In June, Josh Persky’s media stunt was all over the news and it seemed to have worked—he spoke of numerous job interviews and leads on a barrage of talk show appearances in and news articles. By now, you’d think his unconventional job hunting methods—and fame—would have paid off.
1 min read · 05 September 2008
Haphazard Edition: No real pattern today, but its bad news all around. Venture is dead, a financial tsunami is a-brewing, why Harvard and Yale have the same benefits as funds of funds, and which airline is the most delayed.
2 min read · 04 September 2008
1 min read · 04 September 2008
Bankrupt retailer Mervyn's is suing Sun Capital and Cerberus for pushing it into Chapter 11 with its sale-leaseback-driven LBO. We covered the method used by Mervyns’s PE backers to profit from the otherwise failed buyout by selling off its real estate, and also exactly how much money they made. It's also detailed on page 13 of Marvyns' 57-page claim, which I posted below. Depending on your outlook, you might see Sun and Cerberus’s move as either brilliant business or sheer evil. The sale-leaseback is nothing new, but doing it for hefty dividends to an already hurting company like Mervyns doesn’t exactly scream “turnaround saint.”
2 min read · 04 September 2008
1 min read · 03 September 2008
John Poerink of Circle Peak Capital has left the firm to launch a private equity effort alongside James Hedges of LJH Global Investments, a Florida-based hedge fund. LJH has dabbled in buyouts but the new effort, called Linley Capital, formalizes its activity, the firm announced today. Poerink was one of two partners at Circle Peak, where he led the firm through more than $400 million worth of investments, mostly in the consumer products industry. He left to work under a more flexible investment mandate than typical middle market LBO strategies require, he told me. In a time of increasing specialization, Poerink and Hedges are doing the exact opposite of the crowd.
2 min read · 03 September 2008
Today’s study: GF Data Resources first half of the year private equity study Find the report here. The study poses a handful of key credit-crunch related questions that we reporters have been asking for a year now. But instead of the vague or inconclusive answers we often get, GF DataResources has provided, concrete, measurable answers. Follow the jump for tangible proof of a "flight to quality."
2 min read · 03 September 2008
