Italian state-controlled fund Fondo Strategico Italiano has made a binding offer for a minority stake in Finmeccanica's power engineering unit AnsaldoEnergia, sources close to the matter said on Tuesday. AnsaldoEnergia, of which the Italian aerospace and defense group owns 55%, has attracted interest from German industrial giant Siemens as well as from Korean group Doosan and a group of Italian investors headed by FSI.
2 min read · 18 December 2012
Private equity owner Apax will hand over British medical courier Marken to lenders this week, losing 600 million pounds ($972 million) of the investment it made in the company three years ago, Reuters reported. The lenders will take over the business in a so-called pre-pack administration process - a pre-arranged debt restructuring through the UK court - which is expected to take place by Friday. Marken, which ships vaccines and blood from clinical trials around the world, has struggled with too much debt and a drop in earnings, Reuters wrote.
2 min read · 18 December 2012
Asset manager Duet Group plans to make about $100 million of private equity investments in Ghana next year, taking a big bet on the fast-growing west African country, Reuters reported. London-based Duet's Africa private equity arm is in talks about buying into around four Ghanaian companies, said Ayo Salami, chief investment officer of the Duet Africa Opportunities Fund which invests in companies listed on sub-Saharan African stock exchanges.
2 min read · 18 December 2012
Morgan Stanley, the lead underwriter for Facebook Inc.'s initial public offering, will pay a $5 million fine to Massachusetts for violating securities laws governing how investment research can be distributed, Reuters reported. Massachusetts' top securities regulator, William Galvin, charged on Monday that a top Morgan Stanley banker had improperly coached Facebook on how to disclose sensitive financial information selectively, perpetuating what he calls "an unlevel playing field" between Wall Street and Main Street. Morgan Stanley has faced criticism since Facebook went public in May for revealing revised earnings and revenue forecasts to select clients before the media company's $16 billion initial public offering.
4 min read · 18 December 2012
Electronic trading firm Knight Capital Group is considering two competing acquisition offers following a board meeting on Monday that included presentations from suitors Getco Holding LLC and Virtu Financial LLC, sources familiar with the talks said. Getco recently increased the amount of upfront cash to its cash and stock offer, valuing it near $1.8 billion, while Virtu's all-cash bid of $3.20 a share amounts to around $1.6 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal.
3 min read · 18 December 2012
The California State Teachers' Retirement System said on Monday it was reviewing its investment with Cerberus Capital Management LP, the private equity firm that controls Bushmaster Firearms International, in light of last week's school shooting in Connecticut. With $155 billion in assets under management, CalSTRS is the largest teachers' fund and the second-largest pension fund in the United States, making it a powerful voice in the investment community that may influence others in reaction to the shooting, Reuters wrote Monday.
3 min read · 18 December 2012
Ancestry.com Inc. must provide more details about the $1.6 billion sale of the genealogy website before its shareholders vote on the acquisition by private equity firm Permira Investment Advisors, a Delaware judge ruled on Monday. Delaware Court of Chancery judge Leo Strine made his ruling from the bench, saying he wanted to give Ancestry.com time to comply and hold its Dec. 27 shareholder vote as scheduled. Shareholders had sued to block the vote on the deal, arguing the sale was riddled with conflicts, lacked disclosures and used legal steps that locked out competing bids. Ancestry.com agreed in October to be bought by the Permira-led group.
3 min read · 18 December 2012
U.S. private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management said on Tuesday it will immediately begin selling its investment in gunmaker Freedom Group in light of last week's school shooting in Connecticut.
1 min read · 18 December 2012
Hulu, the privately held Internet streaming TV service, will generate about $695 million in revenue in 2012 and finish the year with more than 3 million paying subscribers, the company's CEO said on Monday.
2 min read · 17 December 2012
Navigation device maker Garmin Ltd named Chief Operating Officer Clifton Pemble as chief executive, succeeding co-founder Min Kao. Pemble, who joined Garmin in 1989 as one of the company's first engineers and has been serving as COO since October 2007, will start in his new role from January 1. Kao will assume the role of executive chairman, and continue to serve as the chairman of the board.
1 min read · 17 December 2012
