Steve Bills

Bain could earn 4x on Applied Systems: Source

Bain Capital LLC stands to make more than 4x its invested capital when it completes the sale of insurance software maker Applied Systems Inc in a secondary sale to Hellman & Friedman LLC, a person with knowledge of the transaction told Buyouts.

Despite best-laid plans, succession often leads to spin-outs

Many sponsors have done their best to transition toward more institutional structures that can survive the retirement or death of an iconic dealmaker. But the latest generational transitions in the business show just how hard it is for firms to hang together.

Groom your next generation early

Partners Group sets $800 mln for leveraged loans

The Swiss investment firm Partners Group AG seeks to seize on an economic recovery in northern Europe by sharply expanding its leveraged lending strategy, Scott Essex, managing director for the firm’s private debt team in New York, told Buyouts.

Outlook lowered for Willis Stein's Roundy's chain

The store chain Roundy’s Supermarkets Inc was expected to be one of the last best chances for the Chicago buyout shop Willis Stein & Partners to wring out an additional return on its long-gestating third fund, but those chances were dimmed when Moody’s Investors Service lowered the outlook on the company’s debt.

Need to meet Lennine Occhino, partner, Mayer Brown

The JOBS Act gives buyout shops unprecedented ability to market their funds to investors broadly but limits the actual sale of partnership interests to investors who are accredited — the same standard that always has applied. But for fund sponsors seeking to reach the vast retail market, suggests Lennine Occhino, a partner at the law firm Mayer Brown, maybe the most direct route would be to market themselves to defined contribution retirement plans, such as target-date funds.

Five questions with James J. Zenni, founder, president, chief executive officer, Z Capital

Dealflow to remain slow till next year: SPP Capital

The anticipated “deluge” of deals that has been expected for the second half of 2013 is unlikely to develop, according to boutique investment bank SPP Capital Partners LLC, which predicts the pickup in dealflow now is unlikely to begin before the spring of 2014.

TPG, prepping Fund VII, keeps eye on public rivals

TPG Capital LP has always followed its own path. Will the so-far lackluster performance of a mammoth $19.6 billion, 2008-vintage fund force it to change directions—and even go public one day?

Five Questions With Todd Dittman, Managing Director-Head Energy Credit Team, Angelo Gordon & Co