Iris Dorbian
An investor group led by Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets has agreed to buy public utility holding company Cleco Corp, for about $4.7 billion, including debt. Cleco Corp is the owner of the Pineville, Lousiana-based electric utility Cleco Power.
Lightyear Capital has hired Martin Sullivan as an operating partner. Sullivan is the former president and CEO of AIG.
Praesidian Capital has provided $6.9 million in debt financing to support Cohere Communications' buy of Another 9. Based in Tarrytown, NY, Another 9 is a cloud solutions provider.
HealthCare Royalty Partners has raised $1.5 billion for its third fund. The pool's LP base includes public and corporate pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, financial institutions, foundations and endowments. The fund's focus is on healthcare assets. Credit Suisse Securities (USA) and Threadmark served as the placement agents in Australia and Europe, respectively.
Placement agent MVision has named Michelle Paisley and Dennis Kwan as managing director for its Hong Kong office. Previously, Paisley worked at Macquarie Bank where she most recently served as division director in Asian equities while Kwan is a former principal at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Limited - Hong Kong.
Carousel Capital has recapitalized Joe Hudson's Collision Center. The transaction was done in partnership with JHCC's management team. No financial terms were disclosed. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, JHCC is a provider of car collision repair solutions.
One, Inc., an insurance software provider, has appointed Dr. Ta-lin Hsu as board chairman. Dr. Hsu is the founder and chairman of private equity firm H&Q Asia Pacific, which recently led One, Inc.'s $16.7 million Series A funding round.
Octopus Investments has received 130 million pounds in investments for its commercial real estate debt fund. The LPs include a unnamed European family office and several pension funds. Simba Capital served as a placement agent for the fund, which will be managed by Dragonfly, the property finance unit of Octopus.
Start the week with First Read bringing you news on IBM paying Globalfoundries $1.5 billion to take its chip unit, Apple ousts Bose headphones from its stores and Peyton Manning breaks a touchdown record.
UK lender Virgin Money has postponed its London stock market listing, the company said on Friday, delaying plans to raise around 150 million pounds ($241.5 million) in a float that could have valued the firm at 1.5-2 billion pounds ($2.4-3.2 billion).