French perfume and cosmetics retailer Nocibe has received expressions of interest from German perfume-to-books retailer Douglas Holding and from French private equity firm LBO France in an alliance with Chinese conglomerate Fosun, French daily Le Figaro said, writes Reuters. The seller, British private equity group Charterhouse, has pushed back the deadline to enter firm offers to the end of June, the paper said, writes Reuters.

Investcorp, a global provider and manager of alternative investment products, has agreed the sale of Armacell to Charterhouse for over 500 million euros ($653.6 million). Based in Germany, Armacell is a manufacturer of flexible technical insulation materials.

Reuters – A debt financing of more than 2 billion euros ($2.62 billion) backing the 3.1 billion euro ($4.06 billion) purchase of German metering firm Ista by private equity firm CVC will be a mix of leveraged loans and high-yield bonds, writes Reuters. CVC trumped rival BC Partners to buy a 76 percent stake from co-owner Charterhouse last week in Germany’s largest private equity deal since 2008, writes Reuters.

The sale of German insulation firm Armacell by its Bahrain-based private equity owner Investcorp has attracted six bidders as interest grows in companies making energy-efficient products, writes Reuters. Private equity investors Charterhouse, Pamplona, Equistone, HgCapital, Goldman Sachs Private Equity as well as a US-based producer of building materials have placed tentative bids, writes Reuters.

The owners of the AA have hired accountants Ernst & Young to begin work on valuing the 107-year-old motoring services company, writes Reuters. The process could see the AA eventually sold or floated on the stock market for as much as 5 billion pounds ($8.1 billion), writes Reuters. Acromas is backed by Charterhouse, CVC and Permira and was formed in 2007 through a 6.1 billion pound merger of AA and Saga.

AXA Private Equity has signed an agreement with the management team of Fives Group, led by Frédéric Sanchez, to acquire a stake in the company. As part of the same transaction, the management team becomes the majority stakeholder and previous owner Charterhouse fully exits its stake in the company. Fives designs and supplies production lines [...]

PE firms are saying ‘Cheese!’ and LBO shop Hellman & Friedman may come away with the biggest smile of all in this sponsor-to-sponsor deal.

Private equity-backed French broadcasting group TDF is considering the sale of its Finnish business Digita, writes Reuters. Digita could fetch about 400 million euros ($520 million) and could appeal to rival broadcast network operators and private equity firms, writes Reuters. TDF is backed by buyout groups TPG, AXA Private Equity and Charterhouse. (Reuters) – TDF [...]

Advent International, Carlyle Group, Charterhouse, Avista and Clessidra all submitted second round bids for Italian drugs company Rottapharm, Reuters reported Thursday. The company is hoping to be valued at up to 2 billion euros ($2.7 billion), Reuters wrote.

Buyout shop Charterhouse has collected roughly 510 million euros ($724 million) in loans to back its buyout of Dutch company Bureau Van Dijk Electronic Publishing from rival firm BC Partners, Reuters reported Thursday. The debt includes 370 million euros of senior loans and roughly 140 million euro of mezzanine loans, Reuters wrote. Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Nomura are arranging the senior financing.