Here are some potential target ideas, rumored or official, to jumpstart your deal pipeline. Our sources are various news reports and the Buyouts "Seeking Buyers" list. For prior lists, see below, and send any additions my way. Landry's Restaurants Inc announced it was exploring strategic alternatives after it received a letter from Tilman J. Fertitta, Chairman, President and CEO, expressing his desire to enter into formal discussions with the Special Committee regarding a going-private transaction and a related tax-free spin-off of the Company's wholly-owned subsidiary, Saltgrass, Inc. ("Saltgrass"). Helicos Biosciences retained investment bank Thomas Weisel partners to advise it on various strategic business options.
While we wait for a Cadbury counterbid that may never come, I ran some data to get an idea of private equity’s historic appetite for sweets. In the last five years, there have only been 11 US-based LBOs in the candy, confectionary, chewing gum and chocolate sectors, and they’ve all been pretty small (see chart below). That’s not necessarily for a lack of targets, either. In 2007, Campbell Soup sold its chain of Godiva chocolate stores for $750 million to a strategic buyer. At the time, reports claimed the confectioner received “several” private equity bids, but no firms were called out by name (and I have reason to believe those rumors were planted by the sell side). The company ultimately sold to Yildiz Holding, a Turkish candy company, for much less than the price it originally was reported to be seeking.
(Reuters) – MSC Software Corp (MSCS.O), a simulation and software services company, said it received an offer from a private equity firm that topped an earlier offer from Symphony Technology Group, sending its shares up as much as 7 percent. The private equity firm, which it did not name, has proposed to acquire all its […]
Sentinel Capital Partners has invested an undisclosed amount in Precision Pipeline Solutions LLC, in partnership with company management. PPS is a Newburgh, N.Y.-based provider of technical services that help utilities to maintain and operate their natural gas and electric infrastructure.
Quest Specialty Chemicals Inc., a chemical acquisition platform of Huron Capital Partners, has acquired Custom Finishes Inc., a Brighton, Tenn.-based maker of custom-matched aerosol spray paints, brush cap bottled paints, vinyl and carpet dyes and camouflage paints. No financial terms were disclosed.
Superior Capital Partners has acquired certain assets of Ann Arbor, Mich.-based National Archive Publishing Co. for an undisclosed amount. The assets are: XanEdu Publishing, a publisher of customized educational coursepacks for the higher education market; and NA Publishing, a provider of microform archiving of periodicals and journals for the library, higher education and healthcare markets.
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazilian technology services provider Tivit and stockholders filed on Wednesday to sell up to 785 million reais ($430 million) in an initial public offering, the company’s third attempt to go public. Tivit, which provides technology consulting to industries including telecommunications and finance, had to scrap one IPO effort in 2007 and […]
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – German media group Bertelsmann gained European Union regulatory approval on Wednesday for a joint music rights venture with private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. Bertelsmann, which will own 49 percent of the joint venture, will contribute its BMG Rights Management music rights unit, whose works include those of Kylie Minogue […]
TOKYO (Reuters) – U.S. investment fund Lone Star has been unable to get the green light from creditors for its planned acquisition of a failed Japanese real estate investment trust (REIT), the second time the deal has been blocked, an official of the REIT said. The rejection could lead to the liquidation of New City […]
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Sun-Times Media Group Inc., the bankrupt publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times, said on Tuesday that an investor group led by Chicago businessman James Tyree would be the lead bidder for its assets at a bankruptcy auction. Tyree’s group, STMG Holdings LLC, which will be the company’s “stalking horse” bidder, has offered […]