LONDON (Reuters) - Debt-troubled UK heating products maker Baxi said on Friday it had agreed to merge with Dutch rival De Dietrich Remeha to boost its capital position and create one of Europe’s biggest heating products companies.

Private equity-owned Baxi, which had debt of around 630 million pounds ($1 billion) at the end of 2008, revealed on June 12 that it was in merger talks with its smaller rival, and said the combined company would have a turnover of 1.8 billion euros and employ some 6,400 staff.

The merged group will be majority-owned by the Remeha Group and be led by De Dietrich Remeha Chief Executive Rob van Banning. It will be the third-biggest boiler maker in Europe, after German groups Vaillant and Robert Bosch [ROBG.UL], boasting products including Heat

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DETROIT/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross is among those considering a bid for the assets of bankrupt auto parts supplier Delphi Corp (DPHIQ.PK), two people with knowledge of the matter said on Thursday.

Hedge fund Elliott Management is also preparing a credit bid for Delphi, which was spun off by

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Global investors Carlyle and Primus are among the bidders for AIG’s (AIG.N) Taiwan insurance unit, sources said on Friday, as the troubled U.S. insurer looks to divest some of its global assets.

Friday is the deadline for interested companies to submit their proposals to purchase Nan Shan Life, AIG’s Taiwan unit, in a deal that could be worth more than $2 billion, sources close to the bidders told Reuters.

“I think almost everybody in the industry is interested in Nan Shan, but the only problem is of course price, so those who decide to submit bids will be really brave and aggressive investors,” one source told Reuters.

Chinatrust Financial (2891.TW) and Cathay Financial (2882.TW) groups in Taiwan, which Taiwan media reported are also interes

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Private equity groups would have to meet strong capital requirements and pledge to maintain long-term investments before being allowed to buy failed banks, under controversial guidelines proposed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp on Thursday.

The bank regulators who serve on the board of the FDIC openly clashed about the proposals, with some officials arguing the guidelines go too far and could scare away needed capital for troubled banks.

The heads of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision both voted for the proposals, but said they need to be clarified and may need to be scaled back before final approval.

“I do fear that the current articulation of the proposal has standards that go too f

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SandRidge Energy Inc. (NYSE: SD) has sold its gathering and compression assets in Piñon Field, located in Texas’ Pecos and Terrell counties, to TCW Asset Management for $200 million.

PRESS RELEASE
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, June 30, 2009 – SandRidge Energy, Inc. (NYSE:SD) today announced the closing of the two previously announced transactions. Total proceeds of approximately $258 million were used to pay down borrowings from the company’s revolving credit facility.

SandRidge completed the sale of gathering and compression assets receiving proceeds of $200 million. These assets are located specifically in the Piñon Field, part of the West Texas Overthrust, located in Pecos and Terrell counties. The purchaser of

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department is expected to name as many as nine fund managers to operate the long-awaited Public-Private Investment Program (PPIP) to cleanse banks of toxic assets, a person familiar with the plan said on Wednesday.

An announcement from Treasury could come as soon as Thursday, the person said, adding that the roster of firms is likely to include Allianz SE’s (ALVG.DE) Pacific Investment Management Co, or Pimco, BlackRock Inc (BLK.N), billionaire investor Wilbur Ross and pri

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Private-equity firms are cautiously looking for ways to exit investments by bringing portfolio companies to market, after seeing a sliver of opportunity for new stock flotations.

Bankers and lawyers report a rise in the number of portfolio companies in their IPO pipelines and a increased level of talks with private-equity firms.

“There’s a slow snowball picking up,” said Richard Truesdell, co-head of the global Capital Markets Group at law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York. “We are miles away from the frenetic activity of 2007 but we are also hopefully miles away from the complete absence of IPOs that we had.”

A tentati

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - GMAC said on Wednesday that it has converted to a corporation from a limited liability company, a move that could allow the auto and mortgage lender to sell shares to the public.

In a regulatory filing, the Detroit-based company said holders of common membership interests in the former GMAC LLC on Tuesday received an equal number of common shares in GMAC Inc.

It was not immediately clear when or if GMAC might sell shares to the public. A call to the company was not immediately returned.

GMAC has received $12.5 billion of government aid since December, when it became a bank holding company, to combat mounting mortgage losses as well as falling vehicle sales.

Some of that aid came in a May rescue package after regulator concluded that GMAC

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. bankruptcy judge on Wednesday denied a request from auto supplier Delphi Corp (DPHIQ.PK) to pay private equity firm Platinum Equity up to $30 million in expense reimbursements if its bid for the company is topped.

At a U.S. Bankruptcy Court hearing in Manhattan, Judge Robert Drain said $30 million was “not reasonable or appropriate,” but that his ruling would not preclude Platinum from seeking another kind of expense reimbursement later.

Delphi, which was spun off from General Motors Corp (GMGMQ.PK) in 1999 and filed for bankruptcy in 2005, said last month that it had reached a deal to sell most of its global operations to private equity firm Platinum Equity, in a plan that with the participation of GM would allow Delphi emerge from

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July 1 (Reuters) - Bank of America Corp’s (BAC.N) primary investment management unit is drawing lower than expected bids after its likeliest suitor, BlackRock Inc (BLK.N), inked a blockbuster deal to buy Barclays Global Investor (BARC.L), the Financial Times reported, citing people close to the matter.

Bank of America has been trying to sell its Boston-based Columbia Management unit since earlier this year, but the bank has so far not announced a deal for t

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MUMBAI (Reuters) - India’s United Spirits (UNSP.BO), the world’s third largest spirits maker, has received term sheets from private equity firms Blackstone (BX.N), KKR and Capital International interested in buying a stake worth $250-300 million in the company, the Economic Times said on Wednesday.

The company’s talks with financial investors were proceeding along with other plans to raise cash and pay down a part of its debt, the report said citing people familiar with developments.

The three private equity firms were doing a due diligence an

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LONDON (Reuters) - Last-minute talks have delayed the restructuring deal for French building materials company Monier Group, a portfolio company of PAI Partners, three sources with knowledge of the situation said.

The 1 billion euro ($1.41 billion) debt-for-equity deal is now due to sign on Thursday, the sources said. It had been expected to be signed on Monday. 

The lenders driving the deal had aimed to complete the agreement before June 30 when Monier is due to make a large interest payment on its debts, which total nearly 2 billion euros.

(Reporting by Tom Freke; editing by Quentin Webb)

($1=.7077 Euro)

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Basketball legend David Robinson has conquered the sports landscape, collecting professional and college player of the year awards, two Olympic gold medals, two NBA titles and earning recognition as one of the greatest players ever.

Now the former San Antonio Spurs center is playing for gold of a different kind.

Robinson formed private equity firm Admiral Capital Group last year with a former Goldman Sachs executive, and this week they made their first investment, buying an undisclosed stake in food service c

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Avenue Capital Group and DDJ Capital Management have received bankruptcy court approval for their acquisition of Milacron Inc., a plastics processing and industrial fluids company. Bayside Capital, an affiliate of H.I.G. Capital, had acquired a 29% stake in Milacron in 2007.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgian Ontex, which makes diapers and wet wipes, is under no pressure from private equity owner Candover (CDI.L) to be sold off, the head of the group told Reuters, adding a price tag reported in media was “lousy”.

“They (Candover) are not forcing us in any way to be put up for sale. The business (Ontex) is doing very well, performing very well, very strongly,” chief executive Michael Teacher said in a telephone interview on Tuesday.

Candover has received approaches from trade buyers for Ontex, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing people close to the company as valuing the group at 950 million euros ($1.3 billion).

Candover declined to comment.

“There are always approaches, and now is no different

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HONG KONG (Reuters) - Earlier this month, Henderson Land Development Co, a Hong Kong-based blue chip property developer, hoped to raise HK$5 billion ($641 million) from the syndicated loans market.

Even with lending sluggish in most parts of the globe, 34 banks lined up at Henderson’s door step, offering up to HK$12 billion for a three-year revolving credit line.

Less than a year since Wall Street titan Lehman Brothers collapsed, causing a chain reaction that brought the world’s financial system to its knees, companies in Asia are slowly getting more access to credit. But not every company has access.

Bank loans are flowing mainly to companies with high credit ratings and the bond market is booming. In the end, Henderson turned down some offers, closing

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By Taro Fuse and David Dolan

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s Shinsei Bank and Aozora Bank, two loss-making lenders backed by U.S. investors, are likely to announce plans on Wednesday to merge by next year, two sources familiar with the matter said.

The deal, which will create Japan’s sixth-largest bank by assets, will likely be completed by the autumn of 2010, said the sources, who declined to be identified because the information is not yet public.

The merger ratio is likely to be set at one-to-one, the Nikkei newspaper said, without saying where it got the information. That would give Shinsei (8303.T) 55.5 percent of the new entity and Aozora (8304.T) 44.5 percent, according to Reuters calculations.

“Shinsei has a retail franchise and deposit ne

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HONG KONG (Reuters) - The Carlyle Group on Tuesday said it raised $1.04 billion for its fourth Asian growth capital fund, a 46 percent increase from the previous fund size.

CAGP, one of four investment funds Carlyle has in the region, invests in high growth private companies in China, India, Korea and other Asian markets.

Carlyle said it raised the money in 14 months, adding that it reflects improving investor sentiment towards China and India as the two major economies begin to stabilize.

Nearly 40 percent of the fund’s investors are new, Carlyle said.

“Despite the economic downturn, most of our growth capital portfolio companies have achieved growth rates in the range of 20-50 percent over the last year,” Wayne Tsou, Managing Director and

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Private equity firm Blackstone Group (BX.N) has hired a Deutsche Asset Management executive to a new position running its capital raising and other operations across Asia Pacific, the firm said on Monday.

The hire comes as Blackstone, one of the world’s largest private equity companies, increases its presence in Asia. Sources told Reuters earlier in June that the firm is in talks with the Shanghai city government to set up a wholly owned China subsidiary as it prepares to launch a local currency private equity fund.

Philip Levinson joins from RREEF, the global real estate, infrastructure and private equity unit of Deutsche Bank’s (DBKGn.DE) Asset Management division.

He will be responsible for raising capital for Blackstone’s f

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Court Square Capital Partners has completed its acquisition of Wyle Holdings Inc. from Littlejohn & Co. for an undisclosed amount. Wyle is an El Segundo, Calif.-based provider of engineering, professional and information technology services to military and civilian government agencies. It was acquired by Littlejohn in 2003, and currently generates approximately $800 million in annual revenue and has more than 3,800 employees.

JEN Partners and Real Estate Capital Partners have agreed to acquire substantially all the tax credit equity business of MMA FInancial, an Municipal Mortgage & Equity LLC (OTC: MMAB). The deal is valued at approximately $31 million.

PRESS RELEASE
JEN Partners, a New York-based private equity real estate firm, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire substantially all of the Tax Credit Equity business of MMA Financial, an operating subsidiary of Municipal Mortgage & Equity, LLC (MuniMae, OTC: MMAB). Coincident with the transaction, industry veteran Kenneth J. Cutillo will be named Chief Executive Officer of the company.

MMA

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