UK mid-market buyout firm Langholm Capital has made two new hires. Anthony Sills and Erik Blomberg have joined the 10-strong team as associates. Prior to Langholm, Sills spent four years at McQueen, a mid-market corporate finance advisory firm based in London. Blomberg spent three years at Citigroup in London where he was part of the […]
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co’s discount retailer Dollar General Corp (DG.N) set the terms of its initial public offering on Friday, in a sign that the $750 million offering could price by mid-November. In an updated prospectus filed on Friday with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Dollar General said it planned […]
Willis Stein & Partners' investment in Roundy's, a Midwestern supermarket chain, is about to return more money to its investors. The Chicago-based buyout firm is in the middle of negotiations to amend the terms of the company's debt, extending the maturity on its revolver and term loan from 2010 to 2012, a source familiar with the situation said. It's a move that's become increasingly common among private equity portfolio companies as they realize their capital structures, created in a time of cheap capital, are not sustainable. But in the case of Roundy's, which Willis Stein purchased in 2004, the amendment is not a result of capital constraints. Roundy's has excess capital on its balance sheet, which Willis Stein will absorb in the form of a dividend recap, the source said. The exact size of the recap is still in negotiations, but thanks to the excess cash, Roundy's debt load will not change as a result of the recap.
PSC Info Group, a portfolio company of Roark Capital Partners, has acquired North Shore Agency, a Melville, N.Y.-based provider of outsourced data management services. No financial terms were disclosed.
TOKYO (Reuters) – Permira, Bain Capital and a team of CVC Capital and Blackstone (BX.N) have made offers in the final round of bidding for Citigroup Inc’s (C.N) Japanese telemarketer Bellsystem24, seven people with direct knowledge of the deal said. The deal could fetch more than $1 billion, making it the largest private equity transaction […]
After a quiet September, private equity-backed bankruptcies came roaring back in October, with five LBO'd companies collapsing into Chapter 11. Two more minority stake deals also went belly-up, bringing our grand total of PE-backed busts to 74. That’s 66 control-stake deals and 8 minority stake deals. The biggest fall failure was KKR’s Capmark Financial, formerly part of GMAC. KKR invested $1.5 billion to buy the company, while taking on Capmark’s $7 billion in debt. It didn’t work out too well. THL Partners’ home ventilation products company, Nortek, also filed for a long-anticipated Chapter 11. The 2004 deal was valued at $1.75 billion, but THL Partners has already earned back 95% of its investment through dividend recaps.
As usual, we have a week’s worth of ratings actions on the debt of LBO-backed companies from ratings agencies Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services and Moody’s Investor Service. This week its bad news again, with two bankruptcies and a debt exchange. Even the upgrade in Vitamin Shoppe's debt isn't great news--the company went public but not at the price it was hoping for. Moody's warned about the company's small size, competitive and fragmented market, and narrow product focus. Company: Capmark Financial Group Inc.
Sponsor: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., Five Mile Capital Partners LLC and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners are sponsors.
Ratings Action: S&P lowered its ratings on Capmark Financial Group Inc., including the local currency counterparty credit rating on the company, to 'D' from 'CC'.
Highlights: “We had expected the bankruptcy filing since September 2009, when Capmark Financial Group entered into an asset put agreement that gave it the right to sell its North American servicing and mortgage-banking businesses. We expect the firm to sell these, and possibly other, assets, through bankruptcy proceedings.”
American Industrial Partners has acquired the operating assets of Celerity Inc.'s systems integration business. No financial terms were disclosed. TPG Capital acquired Celerity in early 2006, and it also has received funding from Sovereign Capital and Tennenbaum Capital Partners.
(Reuters) – Rubio’s Restaurants Inc (RUBO.O) said its board has rejected an unsolicited takeover offer from a group consisting of Alex Meruelo and his affiliates. Rubio’s said it is evaluating strategic alternatives, including an evaluation of the expressions of interest received by the company. The board has engaged Cowen and Co to assist in its […]
Hamilton Robinson Capital Partners has led a buyout of Spartech Industries Inc., the wheels unit of Spartech Corp. No financial terms were disclosed.