Western Europe

Macquarie consortium in $7.4bn US utility deal(4)

Puget Sound Energy, Washington state’s largest utility company, will be taken private in a $7.4 billion transaction by a consortium including Macquarie, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and British Columbia Investment Management Corporation.

Investors flock to Wendel’s €1bn float of consultancy(3)

Wendel, the French investment company, has partially floated industry standards consultancy Bureau Veritas, although it retains a majority stake. The float was ten times oversubscribed.

Actis backs Halliburton spin-out for oil & gas push(2)

Actis, the emerging markets buyout firm, has made its first investment in Pakistan in nine years making a growth capital investment in ex-Halliburton oil and gas services company LMKR.

Enterprise Investors makes 10x return from IPO(4)

Central and eastern European buyout firm Enterprise Investors has made a ten times return on its partial exit from financial services company Magellan.

GIP and Zeus pick up Indian oil and gas company(4)

Indian infrastructure firm Zeus Infra-management and Global Infrastructure Partners have bought East India Petroleum as private equity firms continue to invest strongly in the oil and gas sector.

Olivant drops Rock bid

The Virgin consortium has tabled a largely unchanged bid while the struggling UK bank’s management seeks to retain control via a rights issue. Olivant was put off by a three year repayment schedule for the UK government’s more than £20 billion of loans to the bank.

Oakley holds first close on €140m(4)

Peter Dubens, a UK-based entrepreneur, has taken a first step towards his €550 million target for his debut fund, using proceeds from an AIM flotation and capital from external investors and his team.

UK venture firms back vibration harvesting technology(4)

A trio of VCs have clubbed together in a series B-funding round of Perpetuum, which is developing a clean tech generator to capture energy from small vibrations and convert it to electricity.

Terra Firma LPs co-investing £200m in EMI

Terra Firma will tomorrow launch its overhaul of the UK record business after buying it for £3.2 billion at the height of the buyout boom. It is expected to confirm job cuts at the company.

Boots syndication could take up to a year(3)

The syndication of the remaining tranche of Alliance Boots debt could take up to a year after a double blow to the company.