Industrial and construction supplies distributor HD Supply Holdings Inc, a former division of Home Depot Inc, filed for a $1 billion initial public offering of its shares to take advantage of the rebounding U.S. housing market. Bain Capital, Carlyle Group and Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, who took the company private for $8.5 billion in 2007, each own about 28 percent of the company. Home Depot continues to hold a 12.4 percent stake in the company, according to HD Supply's prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday.
2 min read · 12 April 2013
Dutch brewer Heineken plans to sell its Finnish unit Hartwall to Hartwall Capital, an investment firm owned by the family which started the beverage business, Reuters reported. The report in the Finnish business magazine Talouselama cited unnamed sources and gave no deal value.
1 min read · 12 April 2013
Japanese railway and real estate group Seibu Holdings said on Friday it opposed Cerberus Capital Management LP's renewed attempt to boost its stake in the company to 44.7 percent, heating up a public battle between the two parties. Cerberus last week said it wanted to increase its stake to 44.7 percent from 32.4 percent, a higher target than the U.S. investment fund had initially set. Cerberus has been in the process of buying Seibu shares through a public tender offer. Seibu also opposes Cerberus's plans to send eight members that they recommend to Seibu's board, saying that some of the candidates are not independent from Cerberus.
2 min read · 12 April 2013
U.S. buyouts firm KKR & Co L.P. has agreed to buy a controlling stake in Alliance Tire Group from Warburg Pincus, the three companies said on Friday, without disclosing details of the transaction. The deal would be the biggest private equity transaction in India after Bain Capital paid about $1 billion to buy a 30 percent stake in business process and technology services provider Genpact in August 2012. The U.S. private equity firm will put in slightly over $300 million of its own money to buy an over 75 percent stake in Alliance, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday.
2 min read · 12 April 2013
Professional social network LinkedIn Corp said it will buy Pulse, a news reader and mobile content distribution platform, for $90 million in cash and stock. More than 30 million users have activated Pulse news reader apps on Apple Inc's iOS and Google Inc's Android operating systems. LinkedIn will pay about 90 percent of the deal value in stock.
1 min read · 12 April 2013
J.C. Penney Co Inc. has hired the financial advisory arm of Blackstone Group LP as it explores ways to bolster its balance sheet, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters Thursday. The ailing retailer is seeking to raise about $1 billion in cash, according to the Wall Street Journal, which reported the news earlier. Citing sources familiar with the matter, the paper said options could include selling a minority stake in J.C. Penney and that J.C. Penney has already reached out to possible investors including private equity firms.
2 min read · 12 April 2013
Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives criticized top officials at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday for missing congressionally mandated deadlines to complete new rules designed to help small businesses raise capital. In a hearing that at times grew tense, several Republicans on a House small-business panel vented their frustrations after they did not get clarity from the SEC on when the rules would be completed, Reuters reported. The rules at the center of Thursday's hearing stem from the 2012 Jumpstart Our Business Startups, or JOBS Act.
3 min read · 12 April 2013
A private equity firm spun off from Bank of America Corp in 2010 has raised its first fund, allowing it to continue making investments in mid-sized companies as the No. 2 U.S. bank pulls back from the business, Reuters reported. Ridgemont Equity Partners executives told Reuters that the firm received total commitments of $735 million from institutional investors in the United States, Europe and Asia. They include AlpInvest Partners Inc and the State of Wisconsin Investment Board, but not Bank of America. Charlotte, North Carolina-based Ridgemont raised the capital at a time when dollars are scarce for first-time funds.
3 min read · 12 April 2013
(Reuters) - Foursquare has raised $41 million in debt financing from Silver Lake, Andreessen Horowitz, O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, Spark Capital, and Union Square Ventures, Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley wrote in a blog.
3 min read · 11 April 2013
Ellen Pao, a former Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers junior partner who is suing the venture capital firm for gender discrimination, has landed a new job heading up strategic partnerships at social-news website Reddit.
2 min read · 11 April 2013
