PE Deals

The TXU energy deal looks destined to become the biggest buyout ever. But the deal already may have set a record for the largest reverse break-up fee ever agreed to—an eye-popping $1 billion.  In just the last two years, reverse break-up fees have become a common feature of going-privates and other large LBO transactions, a […]

Update: The deal was just announced. Download the press release here: TXU_Release.pdf The Blackstone Group’s claim to the largest leveraged buyout might not last more than a month. Various press reports suggest that Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Texas Pacific Group are nearing a deal for Texan energy giant TXU that could be valued […]

It seems that we may be on the back end of the ethanol (and biodiesel) peak. While the President continues to call for increased consumption, the wonders of the invisible hand are working in the real world.   If dealflow is any guide, we are seeing fewer investment proposals. There was a time when these ideas […]

It seems like the 2005 drop in Canadian buyout volume was an aberration, based on new data from the CVCA and Thomson Financial. Disclosed values for buyouts of Canadian companies totaled a record US$10.9 billion last year, which is more than double the $4.5 billion tally from 2005. It also is higher than the $6.7 […]

Warburg Pincus has taken a legal double-whammy in a South Korean court, on charges that it had engaged in insider trading of LG Card shares. Prosecutors had indicted Warburg Pincus managing director Hwang Sung-jin last April, and yesterday a judge sentenced him to four years in prison. The judge also fined Warburg Pincus approximately $57 […]

(Download data here: RaisingBids.pdf) I’ve been taking some reader heat for my latest thesis du jour: Private equity firm adulation/omnipresence is causing public shareholders and strategic buyers to feel that initial take-private offers are artificially low – thus resulting in a need to either raise or abandon bids. Recent examples include Equity Office, Harrah’s, Elkcorp, […]

(Updated) Equity Office shareholders yesterday overwhelmingly approved the $55.50 per share buyout offer from The Blackstone Group, thus cementing the largest-ever LBO at around $39 billion (including around $16 billion in assumed debt). I wrote a few days ago that Blackstone might be better off losing the deal if it were able to collect the […]

Yesterday I wrote that Blackstone Group might be better off losing the Equity Office deal to Vornado, considering that it had been forced to raise its bid – and thereby reduce its return expectations — by 14.4 percent. And I received emails from six Blackstone LPs – all of whom agreed (although my guess is […]

General Atlantic today announced that it has acquired Network Solutions, a Herndon, Va.-based provider of online solutions for small businesses, from Najafi Cos. (f.k.a. Pivotal Private Equity). So let’s play 5 Questions with Anton Levy, a managing director with General Atlantic and head of the firm’s media and consumer practice. 1. Network Solutions provides services […]

Am I the only one who’s beginning to think it’s in Blackstone’s best interest to lose the Equity Office deal? It has now raised its bid to $55.50 per share, which is 14.4% higher than its initial offer. So assume for a moment that Blackstone was originally expecting a 25% ROI from the deal – […]