Barry Whyte

Aspen Technology, a Burlington, Mass-based software company, is offering 18,000,000 shares of common stock at $9.00 a share in its second public offering. The shares are being offered by funds managed by Advent International Corporation, a private equity fund. The offer has increased from the originally-intended offering of 15,000,000 shares.

ACON Investments, a private equity firm based in the U.S. and Latin America, has sold one SAE Towers Holdings, a manufacturer of transmission lattice towers, to KEC International Limited, an India-based power transmission company. The deal cost approximately $95 million.

Discovery Group, which owns 13.8 percent of Maryland-based communications company Tessco, has made an offer to buy the rest of the company for $15.50 a share. The Discovery offer values the company at $117.4 million. The share price, at Wednesday’s close, was $12.34, a significant drop from May’s high price of $20.5.

Shruthi Reddy Kinkead has joined Sagent Advisors Inc as a senior banker. Kinkead has worked on more than 70 healthcare-related transactions in M&A, public and private equity. She previously worked at the Global Healthcare Group at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Private equity company WL Ross has entered into a strategic partnership with The Capital Markets Cooperative, a mortgage capital markets firm. CMC has a client base of banks that originates over $25 billion in mortgages annually. WL Ross owns American Home Mortgage Servicing, which services $85 billion of non-prime mortgages.

Private equity firm WL Ross & Co completed a $106.7 million purchase of stock in Sun Bancorp, Inc. Other investors included the bank’s founding Brown family and other institutional and accredited investors. The sale comprises around 4.7 million shares of common stock, 88,000 shares of preferred stock and it is estimated it will generate around $98.5 million in funds to the company.

BD White Birch Investment, which is backed by Black Diamond Capital Management, has submitted the highest and best offer for the White Birch Paper Company. White Birch Paper Company is the second-largest newsprint manufacturer in North America. White Birch expects approval for the sale at hearings in Canada and the U.S. on September 24 and 30, respectively.

Australia’s $21 billion private equity funds could be cut by up to a quarter thanks to a loss of investor confidence, according to Reuters. Australia is home to about 50 buyout firms, 15 venture capital firms and 10 global private equity firms.

Clairview Capital Partners, a California-based real estate private equity firm, has hired Rachael A. Felker as an asset manager. Felker had previously worked for Buchanan Street Partners. Clairvue is owned by its Jeff Giller and Brendan MacDonald, with investment funds managed by Goldman Sachs Asset Management’s Private Equity Group.

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co has raised $500 million in senior secured notes. KKR had originally planned to sell $500 million of new common units but later cancelled the plans. Rival firm Blackstone had raised $400 million earlier in the month.