NEW YORK (Reuters) – Privately owned power company Energy Future Holdings Corp on Monday said it was offering to exchange up to $4 billion of new notes for outstanding notes to extend maturities and reduce debt. The company said it is also seeking consent from debt holders to amend restrictive terms of its outstanding notes. […]
The New York Times this morning has an article about Simmons Bedding Co., the mattress maker that has agreed to prepackaged bankruptcy that will transfer ownership from one private equity firm (THL Partners) to another (Ares Management). The main thrust is that THL made money on its original investment, in part via a dividend recap that ultimately helped drown Simmons’ balance sheet. Nothing we didn’t already know, but a good reminder that we really need to start discussing what the future of leveraged buyouts will look like in a (somewhat) recovered economy. Have PE pros been sufficiently chastened by past excess, and the intentional removal of “risk” from what used to be a “high-risk” asset class (as Steve Schwarzman once argued)? Will dividend recaps, IPO fees and the like be shunned as greed-driven cannibalism – or will they be emulated as proper tactics for protecting LP returns and ensuring PE firm survival? To begin, let me state that I do not believe there will be massive consolidation in the private equity market. Fund sizes may shrink from 2005-2007 levels – mostly corresponding to decreases in leverage availability – but I do not expect many notable buyout firms to fail. Lots of people point to the number of VC firms that disappeared following the dotcom bust, but few of those were VC firms of any significance (and today’s walking dead were felled by poor investing post-2001). As such
Quad-C Management is in talks to invest in Chicago-based Cloverhill Bakery, according to LBO Wire. The deal would include around $150 million in senior debt from Madison Capital Funding, GE Capital and BMO Capital Markets, plus junior debt from Audax Group’s mezzanine unit. www.cloverhill.com
Plantronics Inc. (NYSE: PLT) has agreed to sell its audio entertainment group (Altec Lansing) to Prophet Equity for approximately $18 million in cash.
TPG Capital has completed a $98.1 million tender offer for shares in building products company Armstrong World Industries Inc. (NYSE: AWI), brining its ownership stake up to 12.2 percent.
Lime Rock Partners has invested $55 million into ITS Group, a global provider of oilfield equipment and services, in exchange for a minority ownership position.
TA Associates has paid over $200 million to buy a minority stake in AVG Technologies, an Amsterdam-based provider of computer security software, from existing company shareholders. Joining TA on the deal were Benson Oak Capital and Intel Capital.
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – NXP Semiconductors is swapping its TV and set-top box chip assets for a majority stake in U.S. peer Trident Microsystems (TRID.O), which will boost Trident’s share of the digital home entertainment market. Privately held Dutch company NXP will end up with a 60 percent stake in Trident, which makes chips and software […]
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A group of investors including Starwood Capital Group and private equity firm TPG are the likely winner of the auction for assets of failed Corus Bank, a source familiar with the situation said on Friday. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) is running the auction, which is being watched for its […]
PHILADELPHIA/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Private equity firm Blackstone Group (BX.N) is in talks to buy Anheuser-Busch InBev NV’s (ABI.BR) theme parks, and a deal could be reached as early as next week, sources familiar with the situation said on Friday. The deal, which hasn’t been signed and could fall apart, might fetch roughly $2.5 billion […]