Foundation Capital has unveiled its seventh fund, a $282 million pool of money that the venture firm plans on investing in early-stage startups, according to VentureBeat, writes Reuters. Menlo Park, Calif.-based Foundation Capital primarily invests in early stage companies and plans to focus this current fund on consumer technology, information technology, and clean technology.
1 min read · 10 April 2013
US private equity firm KKR has hired Hirofumi Hirano from AlixPartners Asia to serve as its chief executive officer of KKR Japan as it expands its presence in the country, writes Reuters. Shusaku Minoda, the current chief executive of the local unit, will become chairman of KKR Japan, KKR said in a statement.
1 min read · 10 April 2013
Thermo Fisher Scientific made a binding offer for Life Technologies Corp as private equity firms raced to finalize a consortium to take the genetic testing equipment maker private, writes Reuters. Life Tech, with a current market value of more than $11 billion, has become an attractive target due to its strength in advanced diagnostics and gene sequencing and if Thermo Fisher were to prevail, the deal would make it a major player in the genetic sequencing market.
3 min read · 10 April 2013
Brazilian airport agency Infraero will put off going public until 2017, after the agency bolsters its assets with proceeds from the upcoming auction of licenses to run two airports, its president said on Monday, Reuters wrote. Infraero is still considering a plan to list shares on Brazil's equity markets but first it wants to strengthen the balance sheet, Infraero President Gustavo do Vale said.
2 min read · 09 April 2013
IT outsourcing company CompuCom Systems Inc said Monday it is being bought by private equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners, and a source close to the matter said the price tag will be $1.1 billion. Dallas, Texas based CompuCom had been owned by Court Square Capital Partners, a private equity firm that was spun out of Citigroup Inc in 2006. Platinum Equity had previously sold the technology services company to Court Square in 2007 for approximately $628 million. CompuCom, which provides a broad range of technology that help clients through deployment, management and retirement lifecycle of their IT assets, touts Fortune 100 and 500 businesses among its clients. It reported gross revenue of $2.3 billion in 2012, Reuters wrote.
2 min read · 09 April 2013
Nepoch Capital, a new private equity firm founded by the son of a former member of China's politburo, has launched the first 'princeling' fundraising since the new government took power last month vowing to clamp down on cronyism and nepotism, writes Reuters. China's so-called princelings, the sons and daughters of the country's elite, have a long association with private equity funds, and their investments - and sometimes bumper profits from a swift exit from lucrative initial public offerings - have drawn accusations of favoritism and corruption, according to Reuters.
4 min read · 09 April 2013
AXA Private Equity is selling Duplomatic Oleodinamica to Progressiosgr. The PE business will sell its majority 88 percent stake in Duplomatic Oleodinamica.
1 min read · 09 April 2013
Malaysian shipping group MISC Bhd said a revised $3 billion offer from shareholder Petronas to buy out all remaining stock was not fair, because it was lower than the combined valuation of its different divisions, Reuters wrote. State oil company Petroliam Nasional Bhd, which already owns nearly 63 percent of MISC, on Friday raised its offer to 5.50 ringgit per share from 5.20 ringgit after the Employees Provident Fund, MISC's other major shareholder with nearly 10 percent, said the original bid was unattractive.
2 min read · 08 April 2013
The gap between what major corporations will owe retired workers and how much they have put aside grew last year despite a strong stock market rally, according to a study set to be released on Monday by Wilshire Associates. The cumulative liability among defined benefit pension plans sponsored by companies in the benchmark Standard and Poor's 500 index increased to $1.56 trillion in 2012 from $1.38 trillion the year before, outpacing the growth in assets. As a result, the overall funding ratio - a measure of a plan's assets divided by its commitments - for all plans fell from 79.7 percent to 78.1 percent, the study found.
3 min read · 08 April 2013
Former News Corp president Peter Chernin has bid around $500 million for Hulu, the online video streaming service he helped create in 2007, writes Reuters. The website, jointly controlled by News Corp and Walt Disney Co, reached out to potential buyers in March after initially contemplating a deal in which one would buy out the other. It is not clear whether that transaction is still being contemplated, writes Reuters.
2 min read · 08 April 2013
