UK wealth manager and online investment service Bestinvest has been acquired by a company owned by the Permira funds for an undisclosed sum. The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval, is expected to complete in the first quarter of 2014.
Nestle is selling its Jenny Craig weight management businesses in North America and Oceania to private equity firm North Castle Partners for an undisclosed sum, writes Reuters. The Jenny Craig business in France is not part of the deal, Nestle said in a statement, adding that the new owners will offer employment to Jenny Craig staff in North America and Oceania.
Spectrum Equity Investors, which is expected to begin fundraising soon, has scored another exit.
Canadian mid-market private equity firm Signal Hill Equity Partners has made an undisclosed investment in OEL Projects Ltd, a Calgary-based full-service oil and gas engineering company specializing in upstream processing facilities and pipeline systems. The deal, which was done in partnership with the company's management team, is intended to advance OEL Projects' future growth. Signal Hill earlier this year opened a Calgary office, flagging an interest in making more equity investments in Western Canadian businesses.
Qatar Holding LLC is among a handful of investors that have put money into BlackBerry Ltd's $1 billion convertible debt offering, a source told Reuters.
U.S. private equity firm KKR has teamed up with the international arm of Kuwait Petroleum Corp to jointly bid for German utility RWE's oil and gas unit DEA RWEDE.UL, sources told Reuters.
Private equity firm Ardian has signed an agreement to invest 30 million euros in the CLS Group. As a result of this transaction, CLS Group's existing shareholders CNES and lfremer will retain their stakes while minority shareholders sell theirs. CLS is a global provider of location services, environmental data collection, monitoring and ocean observation.
Blackstone Group LP and KKR & Co LP are among the buyout firms vying for Brickman Group Holdings Inc, the largest U.S. commercial landscaping company up for sale for around $1.5 billion, sources told Reuters.
Germany's Siemens agreed to sell parts of its water technologies unit to private equity group AEA Investors for 640 million euros ($862.4 million), Reuters reported.
New York-based specialty lending company Abacus Finance Group has backed the leveraged buyout of SQAD by Clarion Capital Partners. SQAD, headquartered in Tarrytown, NY, is a provider of media cost data and ratings analytics software for national TV, local broadcast and the internet.