Blackstone Group LP is preparing to launch a multibillion-dollar fund that will buy stakes in hedge fund managers in the secondary market, as traditional buyers such as banks pull back amid disappointing fund performance and regulation.
3 min read · 24 October 2012
German real estate group TAG Immobilien and private equity investor Lone Star are likely to buy a portfolio of properties that the German government is selling, Reuters reported Wednesday. TAG looks set to pay around 500 million euros ($653 million) to acquire the 12,000 flats of state-owned TLG Immobilien, while Lone Star is likely to scoop up 300 commercial properties for slightly over 1 billion euros, they added. The two groups outbid trade rivals like KWG Kommunale Wohnen and investors like Blackstone and Cerberus.
2 min read · 24 October 2012
Private equity firms KKR & Co., Apax Partners and Madison Dearborn Partners are bidding for Heartland Dental Care Inc., one of the largest U.S. dental practice management companies and which could be worth around $1.3 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, Reuters wrote. The buyout firms submitted final bids on Monday for Heartland Dental, which has been exploring a sale after hiring investment banks Jefferies and Moelis earlier this year, the people said. Heartland Dental, in which Chicago-based private equity firm CHS Capital Partners has a stake, has about $120 million in annual earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization and could be sold for 10 to 12 times EBITDA, Reuters reported previously.
2 min read · 24 October 2012
The University of California must try to obtain and then disclose closely guarded information on the investment performance of venture capital funds managed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sequoia Capital, a state judge said in a tentative ruling, writes Reuters. The lawsuit, filed earlier this year in California state court in Oakland by Reuters America, a unit of Thomson Reuters Corp, argues that the state Public Records Act requires disclosure of specific investment-return information for the university system's $10.65 billion endowment fund.
4 min read · 24 October 2012
Blackstone Group is preparing to launch a multibillion-dollar fund that will buy stakes in hedge fund managers in the secondary market, as traditional buyers such as banks pull back amid disappointing fund performance and regulation, writes Reuters. Blackstone, whose hedge-fund solutions business has $46.2 billion in assets under management, sees an opportunity to provide an exit for banks, insurers and other financial institutions that need buyers willing to take on what are particularly illiquid investments, writes Reuters.
3 min read · 24 October 2012
Apple Inc will begin to sell an 8-inch version of the iPad on Friday to compete with smaller tablets including Amazon.com Inc's Kindle, but set a higher-than-expected price tag of $329 that Wall Street fears could curb demand.
5 min read · 23 October 2012
Heelys Inc, the maker of children's sneakers with wheels in them, is selling itself to a private equity firm, Evergreen Group Ventures, after suffering years of fading sales and a sliding share price. The value of Heelys, once worth more than $1 billion as children flocked to its shoes, had faded to a market value of just over $50 million at Monday's close on the Nasdaq, Thomson Reuters data showed.
1 min read · 23 October 2012
British credit information firm Experian has agreed to buy a further stake in its Brazilian affiliate Serasa from a group of banks for $1.5 billion in cash to take its holding to 99.6 percent, it said on Tuesday. Experian, best known for checking consumers' credit records on behalf of banks and retailers, is buying the 29.6 percent stake in Serasa from a group of four lenders - Itau Unibanco and Banco Bradesco Financiamentos of Brazil, Spain's Grupo Santander and Britain's HSBC.
2 min read · 23 October 2012
Private equity firm CVC Partners has hired CIMB, Morgan Stanley and UBS to sell a stake in Indonesian group PT Matahari Department Store, sources told Reuters. CVC is looking at a deal that would value the whole company at more than $2 billion, having paid less than half that 2-1/2 years ago, one of two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.
1 min read · 23 October 2012
Restoration Hardware Holdings Inc. said it expects to sell about 5.2 million shares at between $22 and $24 each in its initial public offering, Reuters reported. At the midpoint of the range, the offering will raise about $120 million. The high-end furniture maker and retailer will sell 4.9 million shares in the offering, while selling stockholders will sell the rest. Founded in 1980, Restoration Hardware sells furniture, bath linen, lighting fixtures and other items for homes at its stores, online and through catalogs. Private equity firms Catterton Partners and Tower Three Partners LLC, along with Restoration Hardware Chief Executive Gary Friedman, bought a controlling equity stake in Restoration Hardware in 2008 and took it private.
2 min read · 23 October 2012
