Deals

ABRY Partners backed a management team led by David Struwas to buy Xand Corp., a provider of hosting services. DH Capital, an investment banking firm serving companies in the Internet infrastructure and communications sectors, acted as financial adviser.

Buyout shops Advantage Partners, Bain Capital and Olympus Capital have been shortlisted as bidders for Japanese software developer Yayoi, Reuters reported. The company, which is owned by MBK Partners, could fetch more than $650 million. Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, which also placed a bid, is not among second-round bidders, Reuters wrote.

Advent International has agreed to invest in American Heart of Poland, which operates cardiovascular treatment units in that country. Financial terms weren’t announced.

Pan-Asia buyouts fund Affinity Equity Partners has acquired a majority stake in Australian meat products firm Primo Smallgoods in a deal that values the company at A$740 million ($758 million), Reuters reported. Affinity will take 70 percent of the firm, with the Lederer family that founded Primo retaining 30 percent, Reuters wrote.

Apax Partners is teaming up with Santander, the euro zone’s largest lender, to buy KBC‘s controlling stake in Poland’s Kredyt Bank, Reuters reported. The stake is worth roughly $1 billion.

Atlantic Street Capital, a private equity firm focused on lower mid-market deals, has acquired Z Wireless, a retailer of Verizon Wireless voice and data communications services operating throughout the Great Plains. Terms of the deal were not released. Z Wireless is based in South Dakota.

In Japan’s largest buyout since the financial crisis, Bain Capital announced that it will pay $2.1 billion to buy restaurant chain Skylark from Nomura Holdings and other investors, Reuters reported. Nomura Principal, the private equity unit of Nomura, originally invested in Skylark in 2006 through a management buyout with British private equity firm CVC Capital Partners.

Baird Capital Partners portfolio company MedData has acquired Data Management Inc., a provider of physician billing services to pathologists and emergency departments. DMI was a portfolio company of Lakeshore Capital Partners.

Barclays plc‘s investment banking arm has said it is making a private placement of 30.62 million shares, or 6.84 percent of Spain-based travel and tourism firm Amadeus IT Holding with a group of qualified investors, Reuters reported.

Bay Grove Capital, an investment firm based in San Francisco, has acquired Richmond Cold Storage Co., a third party warehousing logistics company headquartered in Richmond, Va. RCS will join Bay Grove’s family of cold storage companies, which includes Terminal Freezers, Flint River Services and West Coast Cold, the parent of CityIce and Seafreeze Cold Storage.

The Blackstone Group and ACM Projektentwicklung have agreed a strategic partnership through which Blackstone will acquire, indirectly through a holding company, a 44 percent stake in Leica Camera to support Leica’s international growth plans.

The Blackstone Group is paying $1.08 billion for the suburban office portfolio of Duke Realty Corp. The portfolio includes 82 suburban office properties located in Atlanta, Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Minneapolis, Orlando and Tampa, Reuters reported.

The Blackstone Group said it will acquire New Zealand fast food chain Antares Restaurant Group, which operates 75 Burger King restaurants, Reuters reported. The firm is buying the stake from Australian private equity firm Anchorage Capital Partners. Terms were not disclosed, but Reuters reported that analysts have estimated the deal around NZ$150 million ($120 million).

Bravia Capital and HNA Group have completed the acquisition of ACT Airlines, an air cargo operator based in Istanbul, Turkey. Terms of the deal were not released, and the airline has been renamed “MyCargo Airlines.” Bravia Capital is a Hong Kong based private equity firm. HNA Group is based in China.Boston-based Bunker Hill Capital has invested in DeyFischer Consulting, a SAP consulting firm that focuses on enterprise solution architecture and implementation services. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.

Boston-based Candescent Partners has acquired SoftBase Systems Inc., a provider of coding, testing and deployment tools for application development. Candescent led the transaction with co-investors Harbert Mezzanine Capital, Bush O’Donnell Capital Partners and Brooke Private Equity Associates. Financial terms of the deal were not released.

CapMan Russia, a Russian private equity fund managed by CapMan, has acquired a 29 percent share in Russian laboratory analytical equipment manufacturer Lumex Instruments. The company has operations in Russia, the Commonwealth of Independent States comprising a group of former Soviet republics, China, the European Union, the United States and Canada. Financial details of the acquisition were undisclosed.

The Carlyle Group is moving ahead with plans to buy a food processing company in Saudi Arabia by the end of the year, Reuters reported. The firm, which said in April that it was aiming for deals in Saudi Arabia, did not disclose terms of the deal or the name of the company.

The Carlyle Group, Bain Capital and Advent International are competing to buy credit reporting firm TransUnion, which could fetch more than $2 billion, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The Carlyle Group, Cerberus Capital Management and Platinum Equity are among the private equity firms interested in buying U.S. auto parts maker Cooper Standard, but tough financing markets make a deal uncertain, people familiar with the matter said to Reuters.

The Carlyle Group has agreed to buy an 85 percent stake of Telecable de Asturias S.A.U. The seller, Liberbank, is retaining a minority stake. The deal values Telecable at €400 million ($549.4 million). Telecable is a Spanish cable operator.

A Carlyle Group-led consortium, consisting of Yunfeng Capital, a private equity fund backed by Alibaba.com Ltd founder Jack Ma, has acquired an about 80 percent stake in GDC Technology, an Asian provider of servers for digital cinemas, Reuters reported. The Carlyle consortium paid about $75 million for the stake, Reuters wrote.

Chestnut Hill Partners, a New York-based investment bank specializing in middle market M&A originations, has closed two recent transactions: the acquisition of Contessa Premium Foods by an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners, and The Berry Family of Nurseries‘ majority interest sale to Equity Holdings, a Dallas-based firm.

CI Capital portfolio company Transplace has merged with Celtic International. Financial terms were not disclosed. However, the combined companies have revenue of more than $1 billion. Dallas-based Transplace is a third party logistics provider, while Celtic, of Tinley Park, Ill., provides intermodal and highway brokerage services.

Citi Venture Capital International, a global private equity investment fund, has acquired Ness Technologies, a global provider of IT services and systems, in a transaction valued at approximately $307 million.

Chicago-based CIVC Partners has acquired Honor Finance in a management buyout. Honor Finance also announced that a new line of credit has been secured from Wells Fargo Preferred Capital.

Denham Capital

has provided $200 million in equity financing to Ursa Resources Group II, an oil and gas exploration and production company based in Houston. The financing will be used for acquisition of oil and gas assets. Denham Capital is an energy-focused global private equity firm.

The British shop Exponent Private Equity has formed a new company following regulatory approval of its BBC Magazines deal. Immediate Media Co. combines the newly acquired magazine business from BBC Worldwide with Origin Publishing and Magicalia, Exponent’s existing digital platform and media companies.

Francisco Partners portfolio company Grass Valley, a provider of products and solutions to television broadcasters, will acquire PubliTronic, a privately held provider of multichannel, integrated, automated playout systems. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.A portfolio company of San Francisco-based Genstar Capital, insurance provider Confie Seguros, has acquired the Florida operations of Trustway Insurance Agencies. Terms of the deal were not released. Trustway Insurance has 28 retail locations in Florida.Private equity investor Gimv and Irish mushroom producer Monaghan Mushrooms have acquired Walkro International, a producer of mushroom substrate. Terms of the deal were not released. Walkro was formed in Belgium in 1991.

glendonTodd Capital said it has invested in Enterra Solutions. Financial terms weren’t disclosed. Reston, Va.-based Enterra is an information technology firm.

Google Inc.

has spoken to at least two private equity firms about possibly helping them finance a deal to buy Yahoo Inc.’s core business, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a person familiar with the matter. Google and prospective partners have held preliminary discussions but have not come up with a formal proposal, and Google may end up deciding not to pursue a bid, the source said.

Hellman & Friedman portfolio company Open Link Financial has agreed to acquire SolArc, a provider of commodity management software for companies operating across the commodity supply chain. Open Link Financial is a provider of energy, commodities, trading, and risk management technology. Since 2003, SolArc has teamed with Technology Crossover Ventures for private equity funding.

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has taken a 9.8 percent stake in truck and engine maker Navistar International Corp., Reuters reported. In a regulatory filing, Icahn said that he has held talks with Navistar’s management to discuss its business and will seek to have additional conversations to discuss strategies, Reuters wrote.

At least five private equity shops are planning to submit first-round bids for British frozen food retailer Iceland Foods, Reuters reported. Names of the buyout shops were not released. Supermarket group Asda, owned by retail giant Wal-Mart, and Wm Morrison are also expected to bid for the 77 percent stake.

Insight Equity II LP, a Dallas-area buyout firm, has acquired a controlling interest in Versatile Processing Group. VPG is an industrial processor of non-ferrous and other metals servicing the manufacturing, electric utility and metal recycling industries, including providing repair, refurbishment, and decommissioning services for electrical utility equipment.

Investec has provided £14 million ($21.9 million) in debt financing to Glasgow-based Clyde Blowers Capital, an investor in industrial businesses. The debt facility will enable Clyde Blowers Capital to co-invest in the Clyde Blowers Capital Fund III, the firm said in a statement.

JC Flowers has agreed to buy Fidea, the insurance unit of Belgian financial group KBC, for €243.6 million ($337.75 million), Reuters reported.

Publicly traded Kinder Morgan, whose shareholders include The Carlyle Group and Highstar Capital, has agreed to buy El Paso Corp. for about $38 billion including debt. El Paso, of Houston, is North America’s largest pipeline operator, according to Thomson Reuters. Evercore Partners and Barclays Capital provided financial advice to Kinder Morgan. Morgan Stanley advised El Paso. Goldman Sachs also provided advice to El Paso on its previously announced spin-off and related matters to the Kinder Morgan deal, according to a statement.

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Asian buyout shop MBK Partners are among bidders for a majority stake in Samsung Group procurement arm iMarketKorea Inc., in a rare divestment by the South Korean conglomerate, two sources told Reuters.

Middle market lender LBC Credit Partners was co-lead arranger and syndication agent for a senior secured credit facility assigned to Assistive Technology Group, a maker of rehabilitative technology equipment. ATG is a portfolio company of Audax Group and used the facility both to refinance its existing debt and to acquire Chesapeake Rehab Equipment of Baltimore, Md.

Chicago-based Lincoln Park Capital Fund has committed to invest up to $15 million of equity capital in Marina Biotech, an oligonucleotide-based drug discovery and development company.

Greenwich, Conn.-based Littlejohn & Co. has acquired SunSource Holdings Inc., a fluid power and motion control technologies distributor. Littlejohn & Co. bought the company from a fund managed by CHS Capital LLC. Terms were not released.

Maranon Capital has provided growth financing to Humanetics Innovative Solutions, which is backed by Wynnchurch Capital. The financing consisted of a senior revolving credit facility, term loan plus mezzanine debt. Plymouth, Mich.-based Humanetics makes and designs sophisticated crash test dummies.

Beating private equity firms such as MBK Partners, online shopping mall operator Interpark has been named the preferred bidder for Samsung Group‘s procurement arm iMarketKorea Inc., Reuters reported.

MidCap Financial LLC, a commercial finance company focused exclusively on mid-market health care companies, has announced that Zions Bank has joined in the senior financing to SCI Solutions. MidCap Financial continues to act as sole bookrunner, sole lead arranger, and administrative agent in the senior secured credit facilities in support of SCI, a portfolio company of The Wicks Group of Companies and New Enterprise Associates.

Central and Eastern European focused Mid Europa Partners has completed the acquisition of a 65 percent stake in Kent Hospital Group, a private hospital operator based in Izmir, Turkey. In addition, Mid Europa entered into an agreement to increase its stake to up to 90 percent over time.

Morgan Stanley Credit Partners said it provided a $43 million mezzanine loan to support Parthenon Capital‘s and Lovell Minnick‘s acquisition of H.D. Vest Financial Services. Morgan Stanley Credit Partners also co-invested in the deal.

Investors including a fund managed by Morgan Stanley and the Government of Singapore Investment Corp. are in separate talks to buy a Mumbai property from Indian textile firm Alok Industries for about $200 million, Reuters reported.

NewSpring Capital has agreed to provide investment capital to Salveo Specialty Pharmacy, a company formed to acquire and develop specialty pharmacies in the United States. Details of the deal were not disclosed. In addition, the company acquired Echo Specialty Pharmacy Services to enhance its development in the New York marketplace. Brian Murphy, NewSpring general partner, will join the board of directors post-financing.

NewSpring Mezzanine has led a mezzanine investment in Philadelphia-based Cellucap. NewSpring has funded the company with PNC Bank, which provided a senior term loan and a revolving credit line to acquire DISCO. Cellucap manufactures and distributes disposable protective apparel and related products to the food service, health care and safety markets. The acquisition will further expand the company’s product lines with market leading scrubbing and cleaning brands such as Brillo, Grilbrik, Filter Brite, and Big Boss among others.

North Street Capital

, which bought the luxury sports car business of the Dutch owner of Saab in September, is putting $70 million into the car maker, Reuters reported. Swedish Automobile, which owns Sweden’s Saab, said it would accept a $10 million equity investment from the firm and a $60 million loan to fund its ongoing reorganization.

Pamlico Capital portfolio company Hosting.com, a cloud hosting and recovery services company, is buying Dallas-based managed hosting company NeoSpire. Terms of the deal were not released. NeoSpire was formed in 1999. Pamlico Capital is based in Charlotte, N.C.

London-based Parvus Asset Management, which owns a roughly 4 percent stake in the British security firm G4S plc, is publicly opposing G4S’s $5.2 billion bid to acquire the Danish support services company ISS, saying it “does not make sense strategically, operationally or financially,” and that it will vote against it.Permira has made a binding offer to acquire Genesys, an expert in contact center technology software, from Alcatel-Lucent in a transaction valued at $1.5 billion. Technology Crossover Ventures and certain co-investors of the Permira funds will also participate in the transaction.

Platinum Equity portfolio company Keystone Automotive Operations has acquired NTP Distribution. Financial terms weren’t disclosed. Wilsonville, Ore.-based NTP distributes aftermarket products, parts and accessories in the RV industry.

U.S. bank Regions Financial Corp. is offering as much as $200 million to help finance the sale of its Morgan Keegan brokerage unit, Reuters reported, citing a Bloomberg story. Regions Financial is in talks with competing groups of private equity firms about a sale. The bank bought Morgan Keegan for $789 million in 2001 and disclosed plans to sell the division in June, Reuters wrote.

After its $471 million offer for education software company Renaissance Learning was rejected, Plato Learning Inc. has upped the bid to $496 million, Reuters reported. The cash offer valued Renaissance at $16.90 per share. Buyout shop Permira had first struck a deal to buy Renaissance for $14.85 per share in August, but these plans were upset when Plato stepped in with a higher offer of $15.50 a share in September, Reuters wrote.

RFE Investment Partners

led an investor group in buying GA|PRC Group, an advertising agency that designs and executes integrated retail marketing programs. Equity partners included Caymus Equity Partners and Starboard Capital Partners. Debt financing was provided by Fifth Third Bancorp and CapitalSouth Partners. AdMedia Partners announced that it acted as financial adviser to GA|PRC Group.

The Riverside Company has acquired BioSan Laboratories, the maker of all natural whole food nutritional supplements, according to a press release issued by the investment bank MHT Partners, an adviser on the transaction. Specifics of the deal were not publicized. BioSan is based in New Hampshire.

Saban Capital Group Inc. is paying 692 billion rupiah ($78 million) for a 5 percent stake in Indonesian media firm PT Media Nusantara Citra, Reuters reported. Saban Capital is controlled by billionaire Haim Saban. Los Angeles-based firm, which owns the “Power Rangers” franchise, will have an option to buy an additional 346.2 million shares, or 2.5 percent stake in the company, over the next 27 months, Reuters wrote.

Standard Chartered Private Equity has put $61 million into South Korean motorcycle and auto parts maker Daelim Motor Co., Reuters reported. Formed in 1978, Daelim Motor makes Citi and Tact motorcycles, and supplies die-cast aluminium parts for engines and transmissions. It is part of chemical- and construction-focused Daelim Group.

Sun Capital Partners said it has closed its buy of Alexon Group by way of a British bankruptcy process. Alexon, of Luton, England, is a women’s clothing retailer that focuses mainly on the mature female and lifestyle demographic.

TA Associates has made a “significant” investment in Aicent Inc., a provider of data network, messaging and roaming technology for telecom network operators, the firm announced. Terms of the investment were not disclosed.

Private equity fund Terra Firma has completed its acquisition of a second solar power project from the Italian electricity grid operator Terna, Reuters reported. The deal is valued at €264 million ($365 million).

Thomas H. Lee Partners and a consortium that includes The Blackstone Group and The Carlyle Group are finalists to acquire Regions Financial Corp.’s Morgan Keegan brokerage and investment banking unit, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. A deal is far from certain, the sources said, as debt-financing markets remain tight, and Morgan Keegan faces the challenge of keeping some 4,100 employees in place amid uncertainty about their future.

Tricor Pacific Capital Inc. has invested $40 million into Avision Young, taking a minority stake in the commercial real estate services company. Avision is based in Toronto. Tricor Pacific focuses on mid-market deals and has offices in Vancouver and Lake Forest, Ill.

Three private equity firms—Warburg Pincus, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Centerbridge Partners—have bought 25 percent of Santander Consumer USA, the U.S. affiliate of Grupo Santander that provides automotive financing. The firms each invested $1 billion while Dundon DFS, a financial services firm, has put in $150 million. Deutsche Bank and Barclays Capital provided financial advice to the firms.