Cardinal Asset Management, backed by Carlyle Group and U.S. investor Wilbur Ross, is likely to be selected by the Irish government as one of the final two bidders for state-run building society EBS, according to Reuters. Also in the running are bancassurer Irish Life & Permanent, and private equity groups Doughty Hanson and JC Flowers. The decision will be announced on Friday.
Argo Capital Partners and Saban Capital are among six bidders to have made offers for Greek telecom Wind Hellas, according to reports. Wind Hellas has a debt payment due on Friday which it is expected to miss. Other bidders include Norwegian telecom group Telenor, while the current owner, Naguid Swiris, is attempting to hold on to the company.
NB Private Equity Partners Limited, a private equity fund-of-funds, is planning to sell off its interest in eight large-cap buyout fund investments for around $101.8 million, with details about the sales portfolio to be launched later. The funds will be used to launch a capital return policy and for strategic portfolio repositioning.
Kwik Fit, the European car parts retailer, is being put up for sale by its private equity owner PAI Partners for about $1 billion dollars, according to reports. PAI has already appointed Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley to handle the deal. PAI bought Kwit Fit from buyout firm CVC in 2005 for 800 million pounds ($1.3 billion).
Shamrock Capital has closed its buy of Screenvision and appointed Travis Reid as the company's CEO. Shamrock is an Los Angeles PE firm. Screenvision, of New York, is a provider of cinema advertising. Reid is the former CEO of Digital Cinema Implementation Partners.
Yahoo, the nation's second biggest search engine, is again the subject of takeover rumors but this time it's PE shops that are interested. On Wednesday, the WSJ reported that AOL and several buyout firms are considering making a play for Yahoo, which currently has a market cap of roughly $22 billion. Silver Lake Partners and the Blackstone Group are among the buyout shops interested in teaming up with AOL to buy Yahoo. But the discussions, the story said, are preliminary and don't involve Yahoo yet. Yahoo, meanwhile, has hired Goldman Sachs to field any offers. Yahoo shares closed at $15.25 Wednesday. This all seem a little too preliminary for my taste, especially since no one has apparently involved Yahoo yet. In fact, Yahoo first heard about the discussion from the press—which is oh so reliable—and from its own bankers at Goldman, Dealbook points out. Blackstone has already passed on the idea, Reuters says.
SK Capital Partners has pulled the massive $922 million dividend it planned to take from portfolio company Ascend Materials. Jack Norris, a SK Capital managing director, says there was sufficient demand for the deal, but “we didn’t think it was appropriate for us.” peHUB reported last week that SK Capital was wavering on whether to take the dividend. Ascend, in September, was in the market for an $800 million term loan to support the $922 million dividend. SK Capital bought Ascend in March 2009 for roughly $50 million cash and, due to tax issues, wanted to take three years worth of dividends at one time.
Steven Rattner, formerly of private equity firm Quadrangle and the former head of the U.S. auto task force, is close to settling with the SEC over an investigation into a state pension pay-to-play scheme, according to Reuters. Rattner will most likely have to pay $6 million and take a two-year ban from the securities industry. His former firm, Quadrangle, has already paid $7 million to New York and $5 million to resolve the SEC investigation.
Boston-based private equity investors Battery Ventures has bought Data Innovations, a designer of clinical laboratory software, though the details of the deal were not revealed. Data Innovations says it has 6,500 systems in 65 countries. Battery Ventures’ Dave Tabors and Chelsea Stoner join the Data Innovations board, while Mike Epplen has been named the new CEO.
Private equity firms have been circling around the second biggest U.S. search engine Yahoo lately, according to Reuters. Yahoo has a current market value of more than $20 billion. Silver Lake Partners was involved in early negotiations, while Blackstone was pitched the idea but was not thought to be working on a deal. According to Bloomberg, Yahoo is working with Goldman Sachs on ways to defend against takeover.