Investment firm Ares Management is to acquire AREA Property Partners, gaining the New York-based real estate investor's US$6 billion in assets, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people briefed on the matter, writes Reuters. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed but Ares, a Los Angeles-based investment firm with about $60 billion under management, will also buy out a minority stake in AREA held by the National Australia Bank.
1 min read · 13 May 2013
Alibaba Group, China's largest e-commerce firm, will take a 28 percent stake in digital mapping company AutoNavi Holdings Ltd, part of Alibaba's move to boost its competitveness by beefing up its product lineup, Reuters wrote. Unlisted Alibaba will invest $294 million to become the largest shareholder in the Chinese-based firm, according to a statement from AutoNavi on Friday which confirmed an earlier report from news portal Sina. The move comes after Alibaba, which competes with Tencent Holidings, acquired an 18 percent stake in Sina Corp's microblogging service Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, at the end of April.
2 min read · 10 May 2013
The owners of Finnish mobile phone operator DNA and financial adviser UBS have launched a sale of the company which could be worth more than 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion), Reuters reported, citing three people familiar with the matter. Swiss bank UBS this week sent out information memorandums to prospective buyers, the people said. The sources declined to be identified because the process is private. One of the people said Swedish buyout firms EQT and Nordic Capital were likely to bid for the number three-ranked operator.
2 min read · 10 May 2013
Bob Geldof's 8 Miles African private equity fund has made its first investment, backing a start-up company that plans to build commodity exchanges across Africa and improve food security, Reuters reported. The rock star activist's $200 million fund has joined Morgan Stanley and the International Finance Corporation, in providing a total of $5 million of seed capital in eleni LLC, co-founded by Eleni Gabre-Madhin, the former head of the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange.
3 min read · 10 May 2013
Warburg Pincus LLC has secured $11.2 billion for its latest fund, one of the largest private equity funds raised since the global financial crisis, underscoring investor demand for high-return offerings at a time of record-low interest rates, Reuters reported.
2 min read · 10 May 2013
Activist investor Carl Icahn and Southeastern Asset Management Inc, two of Dell Inc's biggest shareholders, have proposed an alternative to a $24.4 billion buyout deal led by founder Michael Dell, Reuters is reporting.
2 min read · 10 May 2013
Activist investor Carl Icahn and Southeastern Asset Management Inc, two of Dell Inc's largest shareholders, have proposed an alternative to a $24.4 billion buyout deal led by founder Michael Dell, the Wall Street Journal reported.
1 min read · 10 May 2013
U.S. private equity firm TPG Capital raised about $300 million by selling its roughly 10 percent stake in Indian commercial vehicle financier Shriram Transport Finance Co Ltd to India's Piramal Group, generating a near seven times return on a 2006 investment, Reuters is reporting.
1 min read · 10 May 2013
Private equity firm Carlyle Group LP on Thursday reported flat first-quarter profit and a decline in cash generated from managing and selling assets, despite strong capital markets that helped boost earnings for its peers, Reuters is reporting.
4 min read · 09 May 2013
Bankers are looking towards the U.S. debt market to raise 900 million euros ($1.18 billion) for a buyout of industrial ceramics firm CeramTec, spurning Europe where risky debt is in shorter supply, bankers said on Thursday. U.S. specialty chemicals company Rockwood Holdings Inc has put Germany-based CeramTec up for sale in an auction process run by Lazard. CeramTec has a price tag of around 1.4 billion euros, bankers said. The U.S. market for riskier debt is more liquid than Europe's, making it easier to raise large amounts at competitive rates. A U.S. financing can be "covenant-lite", a structure that offers little or no protection for lenders via financial tests.
3 min read · 09 May 2013
