Western Europe

Lion looks to private bidders for Wagamama(2)

Lion Capital, the European buyout firm, has called off a planned listing for Japanese restaurant chain Wagamama because a trade sale will fetch a better price as it looks to exit after two years ownership.

Investors flock to Wendel’s €1bn float of consultancy(2)

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.

Cinven secures bolt-on for hospital group

LGV Capital, the UK mid-market buyout firm, has exited the hospital group it bought from BUPA in 2005. Rival Cinven is reuniting the hospitals with a larger group it acquired from the UK private healthcare insurer.

KKR signs Turkey’s largest deal(2)

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, the US buyout firm, has bought UN Ro-Ro in its first transaction in Turkey, making it the latest firm to gain exposure to the country and the neighbouring MENA region.

Index Ventures in double deal

The European venture firm is backing two cash generative internet businesses, an open source ad server and a provider of real-time, personalised recommendations to millions of users of eCommerce websites.

Halyard to net 12x return on secondary sale to VSS(3)

VSS has agreed to pay $185 million for direct marketing company TRANZACT, generating for its owner, Halyard Capital, a return of 12 times its investment and an 85 percent IRR.

TPG, Bain, Goldman to sell $450m of Burger King stock

The private equity consortium that five years ago paid $1.5 billion for Burger King continues to profit from its investment in the fast food chain. A secondary offering will raise $450 million for the firms.

Bridgepoint partially exits training company after eight years(3)

European buyout firm Bridgepoint has sold vocational skills company Protocol Skills to Close Brothers Private Equity. This represents a partial exit for Bridgepoint after eight years invested in parent company Protocol Group.

Sainsbury’s family demands adequate pensions settlement(4)

Qatari investment company Three Delta may be thwarted in its attempts to buy UK supermarket Sainsbury’s by the founding Sainsbury family. The family has reiterated in a statement that its acceptance of any bid is conditional on the Qatari firm providing an adequate pensions settlement.

GIP and Zeus pick up Indian oil and gas company(2)

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.