Bain, Advent and the Blackstone Group emerge as the most active U.S. buyout shops in Europe.

Littlejohn & Co., a private investment firm based in Greenwich, CT, has promoted Antonio Miranda from principal to managing director. Miranda joined Littlejohn in 2004. Prior to that, he served as an associate at Clayton, Dubilier & Rice where he evaluated, structured and monitored private equity investments. He was also a financial analyst at J.P. [...]

Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) and its partners AXA Private Equity and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec today announced the closing of the acquisition of French based multi-technical services company, SPIE, from PAI partners for  €2.1 billion. CD&R-managed funds, including co-investment vehicles, invested approximately €510 million; AXA Private Equity and Caisse de depot et placement [...]

Buyout firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice will buy a 60% stake in Hussmann International, a maker of refrigerated display merchandising equipment and refrigeration systems for the retail food industry. The private equity firm is investing $195 million to acquire convertible participating preferred stock of Hussmann. Ingersoll-Rand, the current owner, will retain a 40% stake.

Terry Leahy, the former chief executive of food retailer Tesco PLC, is joining buyout shop Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, Reuters reported. He will become a senior advisor to the firm and will be based in London.

The New York-based private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice announced today that it has completed its transaction to acquire a 42.5% stake in Univar, a San Jose, Calif.-based chemicals distributor, in a deal that values the company at $4.2 billion. PRESS RELEASE: Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, LLC today completed a transaction in which CD&R-managed [...]

Private equity firms Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, and GS Capital Partners just closed their acquisition of HGI Holding, a Cleveland-based medical supplies distributor for an undisclosed amount of funding. Back in July, a source told the Wall Street Journal that the purchase price was $850 million. PRESS RELEASE: HGI is a leading mail-order, direct-to-home provider [...]

Clayton, Dubilier & Rice and CVC Capital Partners have taken a 42.5% stake in industrial and specialty chemicals distributor Univar for $4.2 billion. PRESS RELEASE: Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, LLC and CVC Capital Partners today announced a definitive agreement for CD&R to acquire a 42.5% ownership interest in Univar, a leading global distributor of commodity [...]

As usual, we have a week’s worth of ratings actions on the debt of LBO-backed companies from ratings agencies Standard & Poor’s Investors Ratings Services and Moody’s Investor Service. This week we’ve got two bankruptcies and even more distressed debt exchanges.

Company: NCI Building Systems
Sponsor: Clayton, Dubilier & Rice
Action: S&P raised its corporate credit rating on Houston-based metal building components manufacturer NCI Building Systems Inc. to ‘B+’ from ‘SD’ (selective default) and affirmed its ‘B+’ issue-level rating on the company’s $150 million senior secured term loan.
Highlight: “The upgrade follows the conclusion of our review of the company’s new capital structure upon completion of its recapitalization,” said Standard & Poor’s credit analyst Thomas Nadramia.