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NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. bankruptcy judge on Monday said Champion Enterprises Inc (CJHBQ.PK), a maker of factory-built homes and modular buildings, could go ahead with an auction of its assets next month. Champion, which sought bankruptcy protection in November, has said it wants to complete the sale process no later than March 18. Judge Kevin Gross of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware in Wilmington, on Monday approved bid procedures for an auction, according to court papers. A group of the company’s secured creditors including its bank lenders and investment firms Ce |
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peHub Second Opinion 2.8
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Wall Street's Rising Stars: Ten to watch in ‘10. (Barron's)
Q&A: View from the top with Tony James. (FT) New Investors Topple Masters of the Universe: Asian sovereign wealth funds and venture capitalists, rather than big firms of the past, were the most active investors last year (Wealth Bulletin) Update: The Kleen Energy plant explosion has claimed five identified casualties. The company, backed by Energy Investors Fund, won Goldman Sachs a Deal of the Year award from Project Finance. (Courant.com) Watch Your Backs Guys: Four pensioners have appeared in a German court charged with kidnapping a financial adviser they blamed for making rotten US property investments. (BBC) Tired of Complaining Customers? Ban them! That's what Tim Horton's, which happens to be owned by none other than Sun Capital, did! (CBC News) (PS: To clarify, Sun Capital sold Tim Hortons' wholesale coffee business to Green Mountain earlier this year and sold its retail business to own of its own affiliates.) Read more » |
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More on Obama’s Proposal To Eliminate Small Biz Cap Gains
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 Many of our readers wondered what those words meant, exactly. So we looked for answers from Steven Franklin, head of the tax and venture capital and private equity funds practice at Gunderson Dettmer in Silicon Valley: Read more » |
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M&A Monday
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 PLC Systems Inc., an OTC-traded medical device maker has hired investment advisory firm Natixis Bleichroeder to help it raise capital and examine "strategic alternatives." German cable provider Kabel Deutschland is for sale. Carlyle, BC Partners and Advent are currently in the bidding pool. Miramax is for sale, and Lionsgate is interested in it. That could change the bidding dynamics of the auction for MGM. Iteration Energy, a listed Canadian oil and gas explorer, initiated a process to explore strategic alternatives. The company engaged FirstEnergy Capital Corp and Scotia Waterous Inc as co-financial advisors to assist it in this process. Hanmi Financial Corporation's Board of Directors authorized the Company's management team to explore a broad range of strategic alternatives. Cappello Capital Corp. has been engaged as the Company's financial advisor in this process. Hanmi is parent to Hanmi Bank, which provides multi-ethnic banking services in L.A. Read more » |
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Illinois TRS Gets “Bold” About Bribery
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Last month, the Teachers' Retirement System of Illinois issued an RFP to handle legal work related to the system's private market investments. Like other Illinois TRS requests for proposal, it included the following line:
Unlike other system RFPs, however, this request put the warning in bold (see bottom of page 8). Seems to be something Illinois TRS believes the private markets need made particularly clear... Read more » |
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LONDON/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - A trio of private equity firms, Advent, BC Partners and Carlyle, are set to submit bids for German cable provider Kabel Deutschland, four people familiar with the matter said. Buyouts are finding favour while market volatility undermines plans for public share sales. The business could sell for up to 5 billion euros ($6.8 billion), bankers said, in what could be the largest leveraged buyout in more than two years as private equity firms look to put cash to work. Banks will offer up to four billion euros of leverage in support of a deal, one of the sources said. “(Bidders) need 30 percent equity … an IPO is highly unlikely now thanks to the good offers,” one of the people said. Kabel Deutschland is also weighing |
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 Craton Equity Partners and Espírito Santo Ventures co-led the round, and were joined by return backers Element Partners, Blue Run Ventures, OnPoint Technologies and Kuwait's National Technology Enterprises Company. Read more » |
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It’s Official: Markstone Settles with Cuomo
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 Cuomo's office declined to comment at the time, but today announced that the report was legit. Israel-focused Markstone will pay back $18 million in fees related to a $250 million investment from the New York State Common Retirement Fund into Markstone's debut fund. It also has signed Cuomo's "code of conduct," which basically promises not to use placement agents for future fundraising efforts in the U.S. Not sure how much that last part matters, considering that: (A) I really can't imagine Markstone raising another fund, and (B) If Markstone does try to raise, it could focus on investors in Israel, where the code of conduct has no legal bearing. Read more » |
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Areva did not disclose financial details about the deal to purchase the Silicon Valley company, which had raised $130 million in venture capital from high-profile firms including Kleiner Perkins and Khosla Ventures. The solar power industry has started to consolidate after struggling in 2009 wi |
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Wharton PE Conference Notebooks
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 Get some thoughts from the conference organizers, thoughts on keynotes by John Megrue (Apax) and Dalip Pathak, notes on a mid-market PE panel and notes from a pair of venture capital panels. Big thanks to Rohan Deuskar, Daniela Stefovska and Carmen Feliciano. Read more » |
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Bain Capital Ventures Raises Fund, Hires Operating Partner
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Bain Capital Ventures has quietly closed its fourth fund with $525 million in capital commitments. The Boston-based firm also has hired John Connolly, former CEO of Institutional Shareholder Services, as an operating partner focused on portfolio company management. A few notes:
Fund: This vehicle comes in a bit larger than its $500 million predecessor (raised in 2007), but below the $750 million cap that BCV had listed in a regulatory filing last February. Unclear if BCV aimed for $750m and failed, or reevaluated due to: (a) The hellish fundraising environment, and (b) A realization that the current VC market has better early-stage opportunities than later-stage ones (BCV is stage-agnostic). Read more » |
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HONG KONG (Reuters) - CITIC Capital, the flagship investment arm of CITIC Group, China’s No.1 financial conglomerate, said on Monday that it had completed raising $925 million for its second China buyout fund. The closing size was bigger than the firm’s original target of $750 million and the fund, named CITIC Capital China Partners II, will target buyout and privatisation investments in Chinese companies driven by domestic economic growth, particularly in the consumer products and manufacturing sectors. “We are delighted by the strong support we have received from both existing and new investors,” said Zhang Yicheng, chief executive of Hong Kong-headquartered CITIC Capital. CITIC Capital is owned by China Investment Corp [CIC.UL], China̵ |
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peHUB First Read
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 * A private equity firm is majority owner of the Connecticut power plant that exploded yesterday, killing five workers. * The SEC is rethinking its proposed ban on PE placement agents. As it should. I'm all for rooting out corruption in PE fundraising -- hell, I've written about little else for the past year -- but the SEC's original language is the regulatory equivalent of using an anvil to swat a fly. * Morning Call: U.S. futures point higher, London rises early, European shares fall on banks, the Nikkei hits 2-month closing low and both China and Hong Kong shares keep slipping. * Q&A with Blackstone Group's Tony James * Economists, crises & cartoon (h/t Kedrosky) * James Surowiecki: The perils of economic populism * New white paper from BCG on how PE firms add operational value, and where LPs believe they still fall short. Read more » |
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - The fact that Frank Quattrone is working alongside Credit Suisse to bring Internet marketing company QuinStreet Inc’s initial public offering to market next week might help QuinStreet, despite the duo’s rocky history. “In a world when there are so many investment opportunities, I think quite frankly it’s a positive to have Quattrone involved because I think it’s going to cause people to look twice at the offering,” said David Dietze, Chief Investment Strategist at Point View Financial Services in Summit, New Jersey. Quattrone is known for his hot tech deals — he helped bring Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) and C |
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Alberto Vilar, a New York money manager convicted of fraud in 2008 after riding the dot.com tech stock boom and donating tens of millions of dollars to the arts, education and hospitals, was sentenced to nine years in prison on Friday. Vilar, 69, and his business partner at the now-defunct Amerindo Investment Advisers Inc, Gary Tanaka, were arrested in mid-2005 on charges of defrauding millions of dollars from investors. In November 2008, a jury found them guilty of securities fraud after an eight-week long trial. Their lawyers said at the time they would appeal. Both men have spent the years since they were charged either in jail or under house arrest. Vilar stood in Manhattan federal courtroom in loose-fitting blue and brown prison garb and to |
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Thain, 54, immediately replaces interim CEO Peter Tobin, who will remain a director. Former CIT chief Jeff Peek, another past Merrill executive, retired on January 15. CIT said Thain was hired |
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Make Your Meetings Suck Less: Here’s How
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 To help my managers and yours, earlier today, I called Boston-based communications consultant Nick Morgan -- author of “Running Meetings: Expert Solutions to Everyday Challenges” -- for constructive ways on how to structure a meeting, as well as how to politely escape one. Read more » |
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