Bain Capital has agreed to invest to up $124 million into Himadri Chemicals & Industries Ltd., an Indian maker of coal tar pitch and other carbon products. The deal would give Bain a maximum ownership stake of just over 36 percent. This is Bain's first investment in India since opening an advisory office in Mumbai in 2008.
MILAN (Reuters) – Italian confectioner Ferrero has met with private equity firms as well as Hershey Co (HSY.N) to discuss a possible bid for Britain’s Cadbury Plc (CBRY.L), Il Sole 24 Ore daily reported on Saturday. The coming weeks will determine whether the family-held company will make an offer for the British confectionery maker rivalling […]
By the middle of the year, we were on pace to double last year's number of LBO-backed busts. June's LBO-backed bankruptcy list boasted 46 Chapter 11s; last year's total was 49. But then the pace slowed down, companies found ways to avoid the courts and the list finished the year with 74 total bankruptcies. That's far more than 2008's total (and blows 2007's grand total of two out of the water), but it isn't nearly as high as expected. We can attribute the slowdown to a little thing called Amend & Extend (or, as Mark Patterson of MatlinPatterson called it, "Amend, Extend and Pretend"). Midway through the year, lenders realized they couldn't be complete jerks about their loans if they didn't want a tsunami of bankruptcy cases on their hands, so they relented, allowing sponsors and their companies to "kick the can down the road" (another buzzy phrase of the year) and extend debt maturities. Whether or not that solution will prove to save all the overlevered companies out there has yet to be seen, but for 2009, it was a saving grace. Download the entire spreadsheet after the jump:
Goldman Sachs Capital Partners has agreed to acquire a 9.4% stake in Indian insurance and healthcare conglomerate Max India (BO: MAXI), for a rupee equivalent of around $115 million. www.gs.com
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. digital-marketing firm iCrossing has hired Bank of America (BAC.N) and is holding talks with potential suitors, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. ICrossing hired Bank of America roughly six weeks ago after it received an unsolicited bid from publisher Hearst Corp, one person told the […]
Bain Capital has completed its $1.1 billion buyout of Japanese call center operator Bellsystem24, from Citigroup.
Happy New Year, Everyone-will return on Monday. Standing Out: How to Get Noticed by Executive Recruiters, a service piece. (FINS) Ageism: A banker who was fired at age 42 has won an age discrimination case against CIBC in Canada. (Times Online) Biggest Buzzword of '09? Ponzi. In 2009 we saw almost four times as many investment scams fall apart as in 2008. (AP) Deals Deals Deals: Hopu Investment Management Co., the China-focused fund backed by Singapore's Temasek Holdings Pte, bought at least $400 million of stock in China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co., Bloomberg reported. (Bloomberg) Ugly Jumble: "Now journalism is a jumble. Just who is a reporter and who is an advocate is often blurred. Some journalism is openly partisan." (Newsweek) Get Ready for a Dealmaking Upswing in 2010: Companies looking to fix strategic flaws or simply to grow are turning again to M&A, says Bloomberg BusinessWeek columnist Frank Aquila (BW)
In 2008, credit froze up but we still had lots of leftover boom-era fun to ogle at. The first half of the year saw plenty of MAC drama from mega-buyouts gone bad, and the second half, well you know what happened then. But in 2009 what did we get? Frozen credit, frozen deal-doing, frozen fundraising, a pile of never-ending pay-to-play crap, and an even bigger pile of hopeful, optimistic punditry. YAWN! So here’s hoping 2010 will be rife with heated M&A auctions, warmer fundraising markets, IPOs-a-blazing, the end of pay-to-play, and realistic punditry. Cheers! Capping off our year-end series, we asked PE pros for some reflections on 2009 and predictions for 2010. Here are some of their answers. For more year-end reflection, go here. To chime in, GPs can send responses here.
Syncreon, an Auburn Hills, Mich.-based contract logistics and supply chain management company, has acquired NAL Worldwide Holdings Inc., an Addison, Ill.-based provider of third-party logistics and supply chain services to the telecom, retail, tech and healthcare sectors. No financial terms were disclosed. Synecron is a portfolio company of GenNx360 Capital Partners, while NAL had been owned by Lake Capital.
Service Net Warranty LLC, a Jeffersonville, Ind.-based portfolio company of H.I.G. Capital, has agreed to acquire the assets of Equiguard Inc., a Westmont, Ill.-based provider of warranty programs to the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning markets. No financial terms were disclosed for the deal, which is expected to close by tomorrow.