Private equity investor EQT said it would buy bulk liquid storage provider Westway Group Inc. for about $419 million, a year after the company spurned a similar buyout bid. Westway has also agreed to sell its liquid feed supplement business and certain bulk liquid storage terminals to an affiliate of ED&F Man Holdings Limited, the company's largest stockholder, for about $115 million.
1 min read · 21 December 2012
U.S. conglomerate General Electric has agreed to buy the aviation business of Italian aerospace company Avio for 3.3 billion euros ($4.3 billion), or 8.5 times Avio's 2012 EBITDA, the companies said on Friday. Avio will strengthen GE's global supply chain capabilities as its engine production rates continue to rise to meet growing customer demand, GE said in a statement on Friday.
1 min read · 21 December 2012
Specialty financial services company FirstCity Financial Corp. said it would be acquired by investment firm Varde Partners Inc. for about $106 million in cash. Varde will pay $10 per share - a 21 percent premium to FirstCity's Thursday's close of $8.30. The deal is valued at $225 million, including debt.
1 min read · 21 December 2012
The year isn't out yet, and it's another opportunity for The Carlyle Group to put a notch in its belt as the deal-making-est LBO firm of 2012.
1 min read · 20 December 2012
Oracle Corp agreed to buy Eloqua Inc, a maker of marketing automation software that listed on the Nasdaq in August, for about $810 million, underlining Oracle's efforts to drive growth through cloud-computing services.
1 min read · 20 December 2012
Display-advertising provider Focus Media Holding Ltd. said on Wednesday it had agreed to be acquired by a consortium led by Carlyle Group for about $3.7 billion in what would be the largest ever private equity deal in China. Focus Media, which operates advertising screens in offices, elevators and supermarkets across China, has faced persistent allegations from short-seller Muddy Waters that it overstated its assets and overpaid for acquisitions, Reuters reported. This did not faze Carlyle and some of China's top private equity funds, which made an offer for the company in August together with the chief executive of the company, Jason Nanchun Jiang.
3 min read · 20 December 2012
Private equity firm KKR & Co. on Thursday kicked off a joint venture with Suez Environment to run the water and wastewater systems of a New Jersey city it hopes will become a model for cash-strapped local authorities in the United States. KKR and Suez subsidiary United Water will pay $150 million to the city of Bayonne for the rights to a 40-year concession, allowing them to collect water and wastewater revenues but also requiring them to come up with another $157 million over the life of the contract to manage and upgrade the systems, Reuters reported.
3 min read · 20 December 2012
Pinnacle Foods Inc., backed by private equity firm Blackstone Group LP, filed with regulators to raise up to $100 million in an initial public offering of its common stock. Barclays and BofA Merrill Lynch will be the lead underwriters for the offering, Pinnacle Foods said in a preliminary filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company, which was acquired by Blackstone in April 2007, manufactures branded food products in North America and had sales of $2.5 billion in fiscal 2011.
1 min read · 20 December 2012
Eastman Kodak Co. agreed to sell its digital imaging patents for about $525 million, a key step to bringing the photography pioneer out of bankruptcy in the first half of 2013. The deal for the 1,100 patents allows Kodak to fulfill a condition for securing $830 million in financing. The patent deal was reached with a consortium led by Intellectual Ventures and RPX Corp., and which includes some of the world's biggest technology companies, which will license or acquire the patents. Those companies are Adobe Systems Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc., Facebook Inc, Fujifilm, Google Inc, Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, HTC Corp, Microsoft Corp, Research In Motion Ltd, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Shutterfly Inc, according to court documents.
3 min read · 20 December 2012
Videogame maker THQ Inc. said on Wednesday it filed for bankruptcy protection, and entered into an agreement with private investment firm Clearlake Capital Group for a potential sale of its assets, in a bid to tackle its financial troubles, Reuters reported. The assets to be sold include THQ's four studios and games in development. The filing was made in U.S. bankruptcy court in Delaware.
3 min read · 20 December 2012
