Japan's government will sell around a third of its stake in Japan Tobacco Inc., the world's No.3 tobacco company, to raise about $10.4 billion for reconstruction of areas devastated by a 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The Ministry of Finance, which owns just over 50 percent of the $62 billion former state monopoly, is selling 333 million shares, according to a regulatory filing on Monday, Reuters reported. Prior to the stake sale, Japan Tobacco, whose cigarette brands include Winston, Camel, Benson & Hedges and Mild Seven, will buy back as much as 250 billion yen ($2.7 billion) worth of its own shares, Monday's filing showed.
4 min read · 25 February 2013
Investment firm Royalty Pharma has made a $6.6 billion bid approach to Elan, seeking to scupper the Irish drugmaker's plan to spend most of the proceeds from a major drug sale on deals and instead give the money to shareholders, Reuters reported. Royalty Pharma, which invests in royalty streams from pharmaceuticals, said on Monday it planned to offer $11 per share, a premium of 12.6 percent based on the $10.35 closing price of Elan's shares on Feb 15 on the New York Stock Exchange, where the company has its primary listing.
2 min read · 25 February 2013
Private equity company Doughty Hanson is preparing to float manufacturing group HellermannTyton, Sky News reported on Sunday. Doughty Hanson, which has owned HellermannTyton since 2005 when it bought the company for about 300 million pounds ($458 million), has hired Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan to work on the listing, Sky News said on its website.
1 min read · 25 February 2013
French luxury and sports-brand group PPR said on Monday its Redcats mail order unit had agreed to sell Scandinavian brands Ellos and Jotex to Nordic Capital for an enterprise value of 275 million euros ($362 million), writes Reuters. The sale of home shopping brand Ellos and textile and decoration brand Jotex to the private equity fund should be completed in the coming months, writes Reuters.
2 min read · 25 February 2013
British private equity group 3i's US debt management arm has raised a $500 million fund to invest in corporate debt and loans to back private equity buyouts, writes Reuters. The collateralised loan obligation fund, Jamestown II, is 3i Debt Management US's second since it was established in August last year as a joint venture with US fund manager WCAS Fraser Sullivan Investment Management.
2 min read · 25 February 2013
The board of Gardner Denver Inc plans to meet on Monday to review private equity firm KKR & Co LP's $3.7 billion offer for the industrial machinery maker, a source tells Reuters.
1 min read · 22 February 2013
The owners of German chemical company Evonik are preparing to float 10 percent of their shares by the end of April, Reuters reported Thursday. The RAG Foundation, a state-owned trust that will bear the liabilities of Germany's wound-down coal mines, owns 75 percent of Evonik, while private equity firm CVC Capital Partners holds the rest. Evonik makes battery chemicals, animal feed additives, acrylic glass and super-absorbents for diapers.
2 min read · 22 February 2013
Private equity firm KKR & Co LP has submitted an offer of $75 per share for Gardner Denver Inc., valuing the industrial machinery maker at close to $3.7 billion, Reuters reported on Thursday. The offer, submitted late on Thursday to meet a 1700 Eastern Time deadline, puts KKR in the pole position to buy the Wayne, Pennsylvania-based company, after sources told Reuters that other private equity bidders have abandoned the process.
2 min read · 22 February 2013
Private equity firm Forstmann Little & Company has decided to put its sports and modeling talent agency IMG up for sale and is in the process of picking an investment bank to lead the effort, Reuters reported. The decision to shop IMG, which represents top tennis player Novak Djokovic and supermodel Gisele Bundchen and owns the rights to numerous sports leagues, is being driven by the trustee that runs the estate of Teddy Forstmann - IMG's former chairman and chief executive who died in 2011.
3 min read · 21 February 2013
Germany-based Bertelsmann is in advanced talks to buy out private equity firm KKR's majority stake in joint venture music rights management company BMG, the New York Post said, citing...
1 min read · 21 February 2013
