Abax Global Capital has teamed with the chief executive of Fushi Copperweld to mount a buyout offer that values the Chinese wiremaker at $433.8 million, Reuters reported. Abax Global, along with chief executive Li Fu, offered $11.50 per share for the company—a 26 percent premium over the company’s closing price on its last day of trading before the bid was disclosed. Li already owns 29.9 percent of the company, Reuters said.
Boston-based investment firm ABRY Partners will pay $84.8 million to acquire Comforce Corp., the company announced Tuesday. ABRY Partners will pay $2.50 per share for all outstanding shares of Comforce common stock, representing a 54.3 percent premium over the shares’ closing price on the last day of trading before the deal was announced. Comforce, which is based in Bethpage, N.Y., provides outsourced staffing management services.
Accel-KKR
portfolio company KANA Software has closed its buy of Lagan Technologies. Financial terms weren’t disclosed. Belfast, Northern Ireland-based Lagan provides software to governments while KANA, of Sunnyvale, Calif., offers software that helps companies hold conversations with their customers via phone, email, chat and Web. Accel-KKR is a tech focused buyout firm.Backed by the private equity firm Actis, business process outsourcing company The ConJoin Group has acquired PHNS for $250 million. Dallas-based PHNS provides information technology and business process outsourcing services for the healthcare industry. The ConJoin Group is based in Boston.
Advent International
has acquired Calgary-based BOS Solutions, a company that develops drilling fluid treatment and recovery technology for the oil and gas exploration industry. Financial terms of the deal were not released. Advent has offices in Boston and New York.
Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group is attempting a management-led buyout of the 40 percent of the company held by Yahoo Inc., Reuters reported, adding that Alibaba wants to end the relationship as Yahoo becomes a takeover target. Alibaba founder Jack Ma reportedly has been in talks with unnamed private equity firms to fund the deal. Yahoo bought its minority stake in the Chinese company in 2005, paying roughly $1 billion.
Angelo Gordon & Co. has acquired Oak Street Funding, an insurance lender based in Indianapolis. Financial terms were not released. New York-based Angelo Gordon has about $23 billion under management, and manages private equity funds in addition to other investment vehicles.
Apollo Management and CVC Capital Partners have reached a deal to take Brit Insurance private, according to Reuters. The deal values the insurer at up to £888 million ($1.4 billion). For the nine months ending Oct. 25, gross written premiums at Brit Insurance fell 9 percent to £1.22 billion pounds, in part due to compeition in underwriting.
Arclight Capital Partners, a Boston-based private equity firm, and OGE Energy Corp. said they have completed their Enogex Holdings joint venture. Arclight said in October it had bought a 9.9 percent stake in Enogex, a midstream natural gas pipeline business, for $183 million. Enogex is a subsidiary of OGE, of Oklahoma City, OK, that deals with midstream natural gas pipelines.
Chemical company Ashland said it would sell its distribution business to TPG Capital for $930 million, Reuters reported. The unit—which distributes chemicals, plastics, and other materials across North America and Europe—accounted for more than 38 percent of Ashland’s fourth quarter revenue. The company is selling the unit, however, as it shifts its focus to higher-margin specialty chemicals, Reuters reported. Ashland is based in Covington, Kentucky.
Avon Products will sell its Avon Japan business to private equity firm TPG Capital for ¥7.3 billion ($90 million) in cash. Avon currently owns 74.67 percent of the Japan business unit, and TPG plans to launch a tender offer in Japan for all outstanding shares of Avon Japan. Avon Japan represents less than 2 percent of New York-based Avon’s total sales, the company said.
AXA Private Equity has acquired an 11 percent stake in Arismore, a French IT company that specializes in the transformation and security of information systems. Financial terms were not disclosed. AXA Private Equity is a unit of AXA Investment Managers.
AXA Private Equity is investing €150 million ($208.9 million) in KOS, a provider of health services for the elderly. AXA Private Equity is buying the stakes held by Morgan Stanley and Wise Equity. AXA’s stake will initially be 41 percent and will rise to 47 percent over the next three years, according to the statement. KOS is a unit of Italy’s CIR Group. AXA Private Equity is a unit of AXA Investment Managers.
A Blackstone Group portfolio company, China National BlueStar, a Chinese chemical company, is in talks to buy part or all of Norway’s Elkem, according to Reuters. Elkem, a unit of Norway’s Orkla ASA, produces solar silicon products. Reuters estimated a potential takeover of Elkem at around $1 billion.
Blackstreet Capital vehicle Swisher Acquisition said it has bought Swisher Mower & Machine Co. Warrensburg, Mo.-based Swisher Mower and Machine produces specialty lawn and garden equipment and ATV/UTV accessories. Blackstreet Capital is a buyout firm from Chevy Chase, Md.
The Carlyle Group and New York-based Anchorage Capital Group each will put $98 million into Central Pacific Finance as part of a planned $325 million recapitalization, the company announced. Each firm will net a 24.9 percent stake in the company following the investments, and will each hold a board seat. Central Pacific is based in Hawaii and operates 35 bank branches, as well as a residential mortgage subsidiary, in the state.
The Carlyle Group will acquire CommScope, a maker of infrastructure products for wireless carriers, in a $3.9 billion deal. The Washington, D.C.-based private equity firm will pay $31.50 per share for the Hickory, N.C.-based company, a 36 percent premium over CommScope’s closing price on the last day of trading before buyout negotiations were announced. The deal is expected to close during the first quarter of 2011.
The Carlyle Group and Kelso & Co. are buying a minority stake in privately held investment bank Sandler O’Neill, Reuters reported. The financing, terms of which were not released, is designed to fund growth. The deal will close at the end of 2010, Reuters said.
The Carlyle Group is competing with South Korea’s Lotte Shopping to acquire Indonesian company Matahari’s Hypermart business, Reuters reported. Wal-Mart Stores may also enter the race. There have been three to four preliminary bids for the retail chain, which could sell for as high as $1 billion, Reuters reported.
The Carlyle Group will acquire Syniverse Technologies, a provider of mobile roaming and messaging products, in a $2.6 billion deal that takes the company private. Carlyle will pay $31 per share, in cash, for all outstanding common shares of Syniverse—a 35 percent premium over the average closing price during the 30 days ended October 26.
China Private Equity Investments Holdings has paid $2 million for a 40 percent stake in Beijing-based China iEducation Group. The deal includes funding aimed at expanding China iEducation’s services and developing an online social education network.
Clayton Dubilier & Rice will buy Tyco International’s electrical and metal products business in a deal valued at $720 million. Under the terms of the deal, a fund managed by Clayton Dubilier & Rice will pay $306 million for a 51 percent preferred interest in the business unit, which will operate as a standalone company called Atkore International. Atkore will obtain $465 million in third-party financing.
New York-based private equity firm Court Square Capital Partners will acquire direct mail advertising company MailSouth for an undisclosed amount. Helena, Ala.-based MailSouth provides direct mail services in rural and suburban markets. The company was previously backed by New York-based New Mountain Capital.
Danville Partners announced that it has bought Multi-Flex, a Sarasota, Fla.-based maker of modular extrusion and stainless steel conveyor systems. Financial terms were not announced. The deal is an add-on and will complement Danville’s other holdings, Simplimatic Automation and Advantage Puck Technologies. Danville, of Cleveland, is a business development partnership that uses private equity investment to fund companies.
Doughty Hanson plans to buy Britain’s Vue Entertainment for £450 million ($725.6 million), Reuters reported, citing an article in Monday’s Financial Times. The founders of Vue Entertainment—which runs Britain’s largest cinema chain—own 51 percent of the company. Secondary firm Coller Capital and New York-based hedge fund Och-Ziff own the remaining shares, which they both plan to sell to London-based Doughty Hanson, Reuters reported.
Francisco Partners has agreed to buy Source Photonics, a producer of optical communications components used in telecom systems, in a deal valued at $146 million. The deal will include $113 million in cash and about $33 million in assumed debt. Source Photonics is a business unit of network infrastructure company MRV Communications. MRV has headquarters in Los Angeles and Boston.
GB Merchant Partners, through its 1903 Equity Fund, said that it has acquired Ashley Stewart, a Secaucus, N.J.-based plus-size fashion retailer. Financial terms of the deal were not released. Formed in 1991, Ashley Stewart has more than 200 stores, and plans to expand following the acquisition. GB Merchant Partners has offices in New York and Boston. Its 1903 Equity Fund has roughly $270 million in committed capital.
Green Bank has finished buying the Dallas branch of the former La Jolla Bank, which is now OneWest Bank. Financial terms were not announced. Houston-based Green Bank is a unit of Green Bancorp, which is backed by Friedman Fleischer & Lowe LLC, Harvest Partners LP and Pine Brook Road Partners LLC. La Jolla Bank, of California, was closed by the Office of Thrift Supervision in February.
H.I.G. Capital said that an affiliate has made a “significant” investment in 7(S) Personal GmbH, a temporary staffing firm in Germany. Financial terms weren’t announced.
H.I.G. Capital has invested an undisclosed amount in San Antonio-based Cardell Cabinetry. Terms of the deal were not released. Formed in 1976, Cardell designs and manufactures semi-custom kitchen and bath cabinetry.
H.I.G. Capital said that it has acquired Dent Wizard International Corp. from Manheim, a unit of Cox Enterprises. St. Louis-based Dent Wizard provides cosmetic reconditioning services and products to the automotive industry. H.I.G. Capital is a Miami PE firm.
Huntsman Gay Global Capital
has invested in Associated Diversified Services. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Associated Diversified, of Hartselle, Ala., is a powerline construction and maintenance company. Huntsman Gay Global is a mid-market private equity firm.
Huntsman Gay Global Capital portfolio company T&D Solutions has acquired E&R Inc., a Kinston, N.C., power line maintenance company. Financial terms were not disclosed. E&R’s management team will remain in place and retain a significant stake. T&D Solutions, of Alexandria, La., provides construction and maintenance services for electric transmission and distribution lines throughout the gulf states.
After lengthy negotiations, HSBC Holdings has agreed to sell U.K.-based train leasing business Eversholt to a consortium of infrastructure funds in a £2.1 billion ($3.39 billion) deal, Reuters reported. Morgan Stanley Infrastructure, 3i Infrastructure and Star Capital make up the group buying Eversholt, which owns close to a third of Britain’s trains. HSBC bought Eversholt in 1997 for £726.5 million.
Huntsman Gay Global Capital portfolio company iQor Holdings, a global provider of business process outsourcing services, has bought business process outsourcing company RMS, of Bethlehem, Pa., New York-based iQor announced. Financial terms of the deal were not released. IQor also said it has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Huntsman Gay and from Citi Venture Capital International and Starr International Co. Chicago-based Guggenheim Partners provided debt financing.
Tel Aviv-based Infinity Group led an $18 million investment in China’s Harbin No. 1 Tools Manufacturing Co. Harbin is based in China’s Heilongjiang Province, and develops complex cutting tools. The new round of financing is designed to bolster the company’s technology. Infinity Group has more than $700 million under management.
ING Corporate Investments has acquired a minority stake in Bright Computing. Financial terms weren’t announced. Bright Computing is a specialist in cluster management software and services for high-performance computing. Bright Computing founded in Amsterdam and has its U.S. headquarters in San Jose. ING Corporate Investment is the buyout unit of the Dutch bank ING.
Insight Equity Holdings of Dallas has acquired Saiia Construction, a site construction and civil maintenance company focused on the mineral industry. Saiia is based in Birmingham, Ala. Financial terms of the deal were not released.
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. is partnering with New York-based RPM Energy, a privately owned oil and gas exploration company, to target “resource plays.” Financial terms of the partnership aren’t being disclosed.
Maranon Capital announced that it has provided mezzanine debt and equity to support Brockway Moran & Partners’s buy of DayMen Photo Marketing. Maranon, of Chicago and Birmingham, Mich., offers senior financing, mezz and equity co-investments for sponsor-backed and non-sponsored middle market companies. Brockway Moran, a buyout firm, announced the DayMen Photo acquisition in October.
Marlin Equity Partners of El Segundo, Calif., has acquired Omaha, Nebraska-based GiftCertificates.com, an e-commerce site that had raised a substantial amount of venture capital over the last decade, including from Mellon Capital and Barron Private Equity.
Navigation Capital Partners
portfolio company James Brown Contracting has acquired West Brothers’ Cos. Financial terms weren’t announced. Durham, N.C.-based West Brothers provides transportation, logistics and leasing of commercial fleet services in the Southeast. James Brown Contracting, of Lithonia, Ga., is a dedicated short-haul truckload carrier. Navigation Capital is a buyout firm in Atlanta.
New Mountain Capital portfolio company Avantor Performance Materials has bought an 85 percent stake in New Delhi-based biotech company RFCL for $100 million, Reuters reported. Indian private equity fund ICICI Venture had owned the stake in RFCL, which develops technology for the pharmaceutical and biotech industries.
NewStar Financial has acquired CORE Business Credit, the asset-based lending business of CORE Financial Holdings, for about $25 million cash or roughly $22 net of acquired cash. CORE Financial is a portfolio company of American Capital Strategies, a publicly traded PE firm based in Bethesda, MD. NewStar is a Boston commercial finance company.
Swiss drug maker Nycomed has acquired a majority stake in the Chinese pharmaceutical company Guangdong Techpool Bio-Pharma, Reuters reported. Nycomed paid roughly $210 million for a 51.34 percent stake in the Guangdong-based company. Zurich-based Nycomed is owned by four private equity firms: Nordic Capital, Credit Suisse’s DLJ Merchant Banking, Coller International Partners and New York-based Avista Capital Partners.
Oak Hill Capital Management and Lovell Minnick Partners have invested the bulk of a $103 million recap for United Western Bancorp. The two firms each put $47 million into the Denver-based company, and will each own a 23 percent stake. An additional $9 million came from entities controlled by Henry Duques, a former CEO of First Data, who will hold a 5 percent stake. United Western Bankcorp aims to raise a total of $200 million.
Oakley Capital Private Equity has acquired an 84 percent stake in UK-based BDO Investment Management Ltd. from its parent company BDO LLP. The deal values the subsidiary at £14 million ($22.6 million). Financial terms of the acquisition were not released. BDO Investment has more than 200 employees and offices across the UK.
A consortium of Canadian pension funds, including the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, will pay £2.1 billion ($3.4 billion) to operate Britain’s only high-speed railway, Reuters reported. The deal—by which the consortium will operate the line, called High Speed 1, for 30 years – represents Britain’s recent efforts to cut the national debt, Reuters said. The High Speed 1 route links St Pancras station in north London to the Channel Tunnel, and became fully operational in November 2007.
European private equity shop PAI Partners said that it will pay €654 million ($914 million) to acquire passenger and ground handling company Swissport International AG, Reuters reported. Swissport is currently owned by Spanish infrastructure group Ferrovial, which has been selling off assets in order to lighten its debt load. The Swissport deal is expected to close in early 2011. PAI Partners is based in Paris, and has offices throughout Europe.
In advance of an initial public offering, Vietnam’s state-owned Petro Vietnam Gas Corp. will auction a 15 percent to 20 percent stake in the company in an effort to raise roughly $600 million, Reuters reported. Thailand’s top energy company PTT has expressed interest in the auction. Other interested parties could include buyout shops Blackstone Group and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, as well as oil and gas companies ConocoPhillips and India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corp., Reuters reported
Providence Equity Partners portfolio company ZeniMax Media has acquired Tango Gameworks, the video game development shop run by designer Shinji Mikami. Mikami, who is best known as the creator of the “Resident Evil” series of video games, will join Rockville, Md.-based ZeniMax as a result of the deal. Financial terms of the acquisition were not released. Providence Equity Partners has invested more than $400 million in ZeniMax.
RoundTable Healthcare Partners announced that it has bought a majority stake in Salter Labs. Financial terms weren’t disclosed. Salter, of Arvin, Calif., makes disposable respiratory and sleep diagnostic products used in the home medical and acute care markets. Lake Forest, Ill.-based RoundTable is a buyout firm focused on the health care industry.
Spencer Pharmaceutical said that it has received an all-cash offer from a buyout firm that it did not identify. Spencer’s board has agreed to keep the offer confidential until an investment bank reviews the offer, conducts appropriate due diligence and recommends a course of action. Boston-based Spencer develops drug release and absorptions systems to treat metabolic diseases like diabetes and metabolic syndrome.
Britain’s Tesco and Singapore’s Dairy Farm have put in second-round bids for the Southeast Asian assets of French retailer Carrefour, Reuters reported. The supermarket operator is selling its businesses in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. Reuters previously reported that private equity fund Navis Capital and Japanese retailer Aeon would bid for some of the assets.
Thoma Bravo portfolio company Sirius Computer Solutions has agreed to buy MSI Systems Integrators. Financial terms weren’t announced. Omaha-based MSI is an IT integration firm. Sirius, of San Antonio, Texas, is an IT services providers. Thoma Bravo invests in mid-market technology and services companies.
Data security company Venyu Solutions has raised an undisclosed amount from Madison Parker Capital and Gladstone Investment Corp. The financing supported a management buyout of Venyu from its parent company, PHNS. As a result of the funding, Brent Brown, a managing director at Boston-based Madison Parker, will join Venyu’s board. Venyu is based in Baton Rouge, La.
Warburg Pincus will invest up to $250 million in Gulf Coast Energy Resources, a Houston-based company focused on onshore oil and gas exploration and production. Gulf Coast Energy Resources, which was formed this year, aims to identify and acquire and oil and gas fields across the coasts of Texas and Louisiana.
Warburg Pincus has acquired International Technidyne for $55 million in cash, and has merged the company with clinical diagnostics company Nexus Dx. International Technidyne, based in New Jersey, provides hemostasis management and point-of-care testing products. Nexus Dx is based in San Diego, Calif.
Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe announced that it has bought a majority stake in Smile Brands Group Inc. The seller is Freeman Spogli & Co., which will remain a minority investor. Financial terms were not announced. The deal is expected to close in December. Welsh Carson is a New York buyout firm. Irvine, Calif.-based Smile Brands provides support services to general and multi-specialty dental groups. It operates under three brands: Bright Now! Dental, Castle Dental and Monarch Dental. Freeman Spogli is a buyout shop with offices in Los Angeles and New York.
Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe has acquired a majority stake in hospital administrator Springstone and invested $100 million into the company. Financial terms of the acquisition were not released. Springstone owns and operates a psychiatric hospital in Indiana, and plans to acquire additional psychiatric and behavioral facilities across the U.S. Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe invests mainly in health care and information and business services.