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peHUB Second Opinion 3.12
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Uh Oh: Will Meg Whitman's investments pose a conflict of interest problem? The former eBay CEO and current Republican gubernatorial candidate has invested in private equity and hedge funds. (Dealbook)
Kabletown: It didn't take long for 30 Rock to parody the NBCU merger with Comcast, and last night's episode was excellent. (Dealbook) Is it a sign? Deal rumours are running rampant, particularly in the retail chain arena. As Reformed Broker says, "This market is circulating more rumors than Fleetwood Mac's record company." Cheap Cigars: There was a "who's who" of Wall Street meeting in January to hash out the financial reform that's on the table today. Here's the story behind it. (Reuters) FYI: KKR's NYSE listing values the firm at $7.5 billion. (FT) Read more »
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A Rough Week — and Likely Future — for WiMax
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 That may be what investors in a number of heavily capitalized WiMax startups were asking themselves again earlier this week, when Cisco announced that it’s no longer developing or investing in any WiMax equipment. The move followed the same recent decision by Alcatel Lucent, which has turned its focus instead to a technology called LTE, or long term evolution, that both AT&T and Verizon are using to build out their 4G wireless networks. The announcements weren’t terribly surprising. The market has been cooling to WiMax’s po...
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PE Debt Watch (Upgrades & Downgrades)
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 This week Moody’s has some distaste for the Intergraph dividend recap, downgrading the company’s corporate family rating and calling the payment, which increases the company’s leverage by one and a half turns, “aggressive.” Company: HCA Inc. Sponsor: Bain Capital, KKR. Action: Moody's Investors Service assigned a Ba3 rating to the company’s proposed offering of $1.0 billion of first lien senior secured notes due 2020. Moody's also affirmed the existing ratings of HCA, including the B2 corporate family and probability of default ratings. Highlight: "Much like the secured note offerings completed in 2009, the current transaction continues to chip away at the considerable amount of bank debt scheduled to mature in the 2012 and 2013 time frame," said Dean Diaz, Vice President -- Senior Credit Officer at Moody's. Read more »
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Cinemark Holdings, a publicly traded movie house operator, completed a $660 million fundraising from a joint venture between AMC and Regal Entertainment Group, led by JPMorgan and Blackstone Advisory Partners. The company's backers, Madison Dearborn Capital Partners, Syufy Enterprises LP Mitchell Special Trust, will sell some of their shares, leaving Madison Dearborn with a 32.1% stake, Syufy Enterprises with 5.3% and the Mitchell Special Trust 4.9%.
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(Reuters) - Private equity fund CVC Partners has agreed to sell Paperbox Holdings Ltd to Japan’s Oji Paper Co Ltd for an undisclosed amount, Oji said on Friday. CVC acquired Paperbox, a unit of Malaysia’s GS Paper & Packaging, in 2007 from Malaysian gaming group Genting (GENT.KL) for $212 million. The deal comes amid a series of private equity exits in Asia, helped by an improvement in market sentiment. Asia-focused buyout fund Affinity Partners has appointed advisers to sell Australian pallet maker Loscam, in a deal estimated to be around $450 million. On Thursday, U.S. buyout firm TPG Capital [TPG.UL] sold out its minority stake in Singapore’s Parkway Holdings (PARM.SI) to Indian hospital chain Fortis Healthcare Ltd (FOHE.BO) for $68 |
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Private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co KKR.UL has filed to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange, moving forward with its two-year effort to become a publicly traded company. Read more » |
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The British rock band Pink Floyd won its court battle with EMI on Thursday, with a ruling that prevents the record company from selling single downloads on the Internet from the group’s concept albums. But the effect of the ruling by a judge in London on the level of royalties the band receives remained unclear, however, as that part of the judgment was held in secret, the Press Association reported. A source close to the band said those talks were “ongoing.” Lawyers said it was the first time a royalties dispute between artists and their record companies had been held in private, after EMI successfully applied for a news blackout for reasons of “commercial confidentiality.” The ruling is the latest blow to EMI, the smallest of the four major record compa |
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Willbros Group, Inc. agreed to acquire InfrastruX Group, Inc., a utilities services company backed by Tenaska Capital Management, for $480 million in cash and stock. The company had previously filed to undergo a $290 million IPO. Tenaska acquired InfrastruX from Puget Energy Inc for $275 million in 2006. Read more » |
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Hopes for a recovering auto industry buoyed car parts maker Sensata Technologies Holding (ST.N) in its market debut on Thursday, sending its shares up as much as 5.6 percent. Read more » |
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(Reuters) - Kabel Deutschland’s premium pricing for its $1 billion IPO could invite a similar fate to other recent failed private equity-led offerings, and some still think it’s a ploy to smoke out trade buyers. On Wednesday, the price range emerged on the offering, valuing KDG at an enterprise value of 6.75-7.25 times earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EV/EBITDA), about a 10 percent premium to European cable peers. Asking equity investors to pay a premium when they typically expect a 10-15 percent IPO discount is ambitious. “They need the market to be very robust for next week,” said a London-based fund manager who is considering the offering. KDG’s offering is being closely watched by other IPO candid |
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peHUB First Read
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 Police are the New Tax Collectors: Virginia hands out almost 7000 traffic tickets in one weekend to raise money for the government. (Economic Collapse via Clusterstock) Regret Nothing? John Kay says it's a bit disarming that Warren Buffet and George Soros are the only financiers to take personal responsibility for the financial collapse and bad performance numbers, rather than blaming it on "unprecedented" things like a "perfect storm." (FT) Need Those Soft Skills: If there is anyone in finance right now who feels the pain of lacking "soft skills," its Harry Markopolis. (FINS) Read more »
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The company will trade on the Nasdaq under ticker symbol AVEO, while J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley served as co-lead underwriters. AVEO had raised around $151 million in VC funding, from firms like Biogen Idec (14% pre-IPO stake), MPM Capital (10.7%), Highland Capital Partner |
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peHUB Second Opinion 3.11
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Dodd: "We don't need Republicans." (NY Times)
Excited for Wall Street 2? Well you'll have to wait. The movie, which was slated to come out in April, has been pushed back to the fall now that it may get invited to Cannes. (Variety) Tricky Tricky: Is the Kabel Deutschland IPO an ambitious IPO or a cunning ploy to smoke out trade buyers? (Reuters) In the weirdest news you'll see today: Wondering what to do with leftover breast milk? This guy decided to make cheese out of it. Just, wow. (Reuters via WSJ) Who Hates Avatar the Most? I felt a little robbed after seeing Avatar (shouldn't it have been Pocahontas II?), but I certainly didn't hate it as much as these whiny mining executives. Reuters reports: "Let me put it this way, my kids saw the movie, and my kids know I'm a miner, and they didn't say anything to me," said Peter Kukielski, head of mining operations for ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steelmaker. (Reuters) Happy Birthday: VC-Backed Foursquare turns one today. Use that as a cheap excuse to try for the "Sweet 16" badge. I did! (Foursquare) Read more »
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He’s Back: Dan Rosensweig on Becoming CEO of Chegg — and How He Feels about Yahoo Today
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 Ten years ago, Rosensweig was still president of Ziff Davis, where he spent a total of 18 years. He then went on to become the chief operating officer of Yahoo; a principal at the private equity firm Quadrangle Group; and the president and CEO of Red Octane, the Activision unit responsible for Guitar Hero. In February, Rosensweig made another move, becoming the CEO and president of three-year-old Chegg.com, a startup that claims to be “number one in textbook rentals,” and that has raised a stunning $144 million in ...
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Look, Forget the Yacht; Think Camper Trailer
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 That doesn’t mean you can’t travel in the luxury to which you’d like to become accustomed. Indeed, if you aren’t averse to land travel, an affordable yet sleek alternative may be the Opera trailer, a uniquely stylish camper that was designed by Belgian architect Axel Enthoven and is handmade in the Netherlands. I know, a camper modeled after the Sydney Opera House ...
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Harbourvest Cleantech FOF Preparing for Close
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 Harbourvest launched fundraising just over a year ago with a target of $150 million and hard cap of $250 million. peHUB first flagged the fund in March 2009. The management company, called HarbourVest Cleantech Associates, was formed in April 2008. Harbourvest declined to comment. Read more »
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Inside One Very Private Equity Firm
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 But Centerbridge is in the market with its second fund, and nothing draws a ...
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CA Inc. has agreed to acquire Nimsoft, a Redwood City, Calif.-based provider of IT service-level management solutions, for $350 million in cash. NimSoft had raised $22.3 million over two rounds of VC funding, from Goldman Sachs, JMI Equity and Northzone Ventures. Read more » |
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Laundry Room Chronicles: Pay-to-Play Plea
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I did a Reuters video hit yesterday about David Loglisci, the former chief investment officer for New York state's largest public pension fund, pleading guilty to his role in a pay-to-play scheme that involved private equity firms. Per usual, filming just a stone's throw from the home office:
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