Canadian gym operator GoodLife Fitness Centres Inc. has raised $125 million in debt financing. Penfund, a provider of junior capital to middle-market companies, led the round, which included participation from Macquarie Bank, Manulife Capital, GRI Investments Inc., The Canadian Medical Protective Association and the Teachers' Retirement Allowances Fund Board. The money is aimed at helping GoodLife financing growth, and re-finance its existing debt.
Whoops: Corporate social media screw-ups (it’s probably just a matter of time before I put on a fun Twitter fight, anyhow…) Will They or Won’t They? The federal government faces a shutdown in short order We’re Not Buying It: Creditors scoff at Borders’ restructuring plan Frank the Tank: Quattrone & Co. become kings of the hill in the tech banking game (to read the original version of this story, please go back in time three days to Reuters.com)
TPG Capital and JP Morgan Partners have sold down their stake in Kraton Performance Polymers. Kraton, a leading producer of styrenic block copolymers, said Wednesday that it has closed a secondary offering of roughly 9.9 million shares owned by TPG and J.P. Morgan. The stock was sold at $37.75 a share. Kraton said it did not receive any proceeds from the sale of the stock.
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Private equity transactions in the financial sector across Asia are receiving heavier scrutiny from regulators worried about handing control of a regulated entity to a foreign buyout firm. A panel of financial institutions’ M&A bankers, speaking at the Reuters Global M&A summit in Hong Kong on Wednesday, cited the increased attention […]
Smithfield Foods, the largest shareholder of Spanish food group Campofrio, is mulling a bid for all the shares it does not already own, Reuters reported. Together, Smithfield and Campofrio chairman Pedro Ballve control just under 50% of the company, Reuters said. Campofrio's other core shareholders include Los Angeles-based private equity firm Oaktree Capital, which owns about 24%.
Private equity consortium Vine Capital will recapitalize Nigeria's Afribank, Reuters reported. Vine Capital includes a consortium of local and international firms. No terms of the deal were released, Reuters reported, adding that the deal must obtain shareholder and regulatory approval. Afribank, one of Nigeria’s oldest banks, has a market value of roughly $165 million.
Clairvue Capital Partners and Castle Hill Housing Partners have closed a $20 million recapitalization of an 8,500 unit housing portfolio owned by entities controlled by Gregory Perlman and his PK Management Company. Castle Hill is a New York and Los Angeles-based real estate investment manager. Clairvue is currently investing out of Clairvue Capital Partners I, a fund with capital provided by Goldman Sachs Asset Management’s Private Equity Group.
Dish Network Corp. won Blockbuster Inc. in a bankruptcy auction for about $320 million, trumping at least three other bidders including activist investor Carl Icahn, Reuters reported. Dish Network said in a statement that it expects to pay about $228 million in cash on the deal. Dallas-based Blockbuster was once the world’s largest video chain, with a market cap of more than $5 billion at its peak in 2002, but came under pressure from mail-order and digital competitors such as Netflix Inc.
Standard Chartered Private Equity, a unit of Standard Chartered Plc , has invested $25 million in India's Bush Foods Overseas, Reuters reported. Bush Foods Overseas processes and sells basmati rice. The investment will help the company expand its manufacturing and processing units.
The receivers of Australian clothing company Colorado Group have put the business up for sale, Reuters reported. Colorado Group, which is owned by buyout shop Affinity Equity Partners, surrendered control of the business to its lenders last week. The lenders – which include Mizuho Corporate Bank, National Australia Bank and several hedge funds – are asking for expressions of interested by April 19, Reuters said. The lenders are owed roughly $411.5 million.