Exits

Private equity firm 3i has sold MWM Holding GmbH to Caterpillar Inc., the construction and mining equipment company, for €580 million ($810 million) in cash. MWM is involved in developing combustion engines for natural gas, diesel and special gases. 3i will generate a 2.2x return on its investment.

Apollo Management is hoping to get $3 billion for marketing firm Affinion Group, according to reports. After it has paid off creditors, Apollo could be left with about $1.3 billion. The news has created interest among other private equity firms, according to the New York Post. Apollo bought Affinion for $1.8 billion in 2005.

ARC Capital Holdings Ltd. has sold its entire stake in Shanghai Jiadeli Supermarket to Shanghai Haihang Jiale Enterprise Management Co. Ltd. for RMB1.1 billion ($164.8 million). The supermarket group is the third largest in Shanghai. ARC invested $89.1 million between January 2007 and August 2008. This is ARC’s first control investment to go full-cycle, from acquisition to sale.

The buyout firms that together hold 88 percent of Danish telecom group TDC—The Blackstone Group, Permira, KKR, Providence and Apax Partners—plan to sells shares sale in December and have appointed banks to coordinate the sale, according to Reuters. The five PE firms bought into TDC in 2005 for a record $18 billion. The five-firm consortium is aiming to complete the sale by the end of the year. There is no information yet on the size of the sale share.

Cinven, a buyout firm based in London, is close to selling its stake in Jost, a German truck and trailer parts maker, to creditors. According to Reuters, an earnings slump prompted Jost’s management, its private equity backers and holders of just under €400 million ($554 million) of loans to enter into a debt-for-equity swap. The arrangement could drop Cinven’s stake in Jost to 65 percent from 73 percent, while management, which holds the other 27 percent, would lose 7 percent.

Citadel Capital, the Egyptian private equity firm, could list two of its portfolio companies in the next year or two, the firm said. The companies were not named, but Managing Director Stephen Murphy said that the listings would take place in Egypt and could be worth $175 million to $250 million. Citadel Capital manages about $8.3 billion in investments spanning 14 countries.

China’s CNOOC and Ghana National Petroleum Corp. have made a higher bid than Exxon Mobil for the Ghanian assets of Kosmos Energy LLC, including a stake in the Jubilee field. CNOOC and GNPC bid $5 billion, compared to the $4 billion Exxon bid, for the assets, which are currently owned by private equity firms Blackstone Group and Warburg Pincus.

Darby Overseas Investments, the private equity arm of Franklin Templeton, said that its Darby Latin American Mezzanine Fund LP has sold its 37 percent stake in ISA Corporativo S.A. de C.V. Franklin Templeton is a San Mateo, Calif.-based investment firm with more than $644 billion in assets under management. ISA is an media company that manages advertising in subways, airports and bus stations in Mexico.

Dubai International Capital has said that it is not the right time to sell its European assets and that it won’t sell anything before 2011. DIC is undergoing a debt restructuring. Its assets include U.K. hotel chain Travelodge and Doncasters.

EQT, a Swedish private equity firm, is trying to off-load German cable operator Kabel Baden-Wuerttemberg, either by a sale or a public listing, according to Reuters. EQT bought Kabel BW from Blackstone Group in April 2006 for about €1.3 billion ($1.8 billion). It has pumped a further €500 million for network expansion.

First Wind Holdings Inc. planned to hold its initial public offering. The Boston-based wind farm owner and operator will seek to raise about $300 million through the offering. It expects to sell 12 million shares for $24 to $26 a share. First Wind is mostly owned by Chicago, Ill.-based Madison Dearborn Partners LLC and hedge fund operator D.E. Shaw.

Fonterra Co-operative Group agreed to sell its Brownes dairy business to DairyWest, which is owned by Australian private equity shop Archer Capital. Brownes, which is based in Western Australia, makes and sells milk, yogurt and other dairy products.

Fortuna, a Czech betting company, has refuted media reports that its IPO has had problems attracting investors. A Czech newspaper, Rzeczpospolita, reported that Polish pension funds, wary of controversial business such as gambling, were not investing. Fortuna is seeking 82 million euros ($114.2 million). It is owned by private equity firm Penta Investments, which is partially exiting the company

General Electric Co.’s GE Healthcare plans to purchase all of Clarient Inc.’s common and preferred shares via a tender offer price at $5 per common share and $20 per preferred share. The proposal values Clarient at $587 million. The deal is expected to close in late 2010 or early next year. Clarient is a partner company of Wayne, Pa.-based Safeguard Scientifics, which expects net proceeds of about $145 million from the deal.

Philadelphia-area buyout firm Graham Partners has sold portfolio company New England Transmission, a Maine-based maker of light-duty transmissions to TransAxle LLC, a New Jersey-headquartered remanufacturer of light duty transmissions. The details of the transaction were not released.

As it discusses selling 25 percent of its stake in Korea Exchange Bank, Texas-based private equity firm Lone Star is also getting ready to sell German bank IKB, with the deal expected to close in the first quarter of 2011, according to Reuters. IKB was the first German victim of the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis and Lone Star bought 91.5 percent of the bank’s shares after it was bailed out by Germany. No price has been announced.

Monomoy Capital Partners has agreed to sell Barjan to TSC Global. Financial terms were not announced. Barjan, of Rock Island, Ill., distributes consumer products to travel centers, truck stops and convenience stores. Monomoy Capital is a New York buyout firm. TSC Global, of Charlotte, N.C., is a marketing and distribution center for retailers.

Palm Beach Capital has sold portfolio company TMS Health, a Boca Raton, Fla.-based health-care teleservices company, to Affiliated Computer Services of Dallas, which provides business processing and information technology services, ACS is a unit of Xerox.

Sunstone Capital A/S of Copenhagen, Denmark, the principal owner of Zealand Pharma, is considering floating part of the company on the Copenhagen bourse this November, Reuters reported. A banking source close to the deal said the Danish biotechnology concern could be worth 2-3 billion Danish crowns ($373-$560 million).

TA Associates has agreed to sell its controlling stake in 2SS Holdings Inc., a developer of tax software, for $287.5 million in cash to H&R Block, a tax services provider. TA completed an $85 million leveraged recapitalization of 2nd Story Software in December 2004.

Ventas, an American real-estate investment trust, will pay private equity funds managed by Lazard Real Estate Partners $1.5 billion for the real estate assets of Atria Senior Living Group. The deal makes Ventas the largest U.S. owner for senior housing communities. Ventas is to pay $150 million in cash and 25 million shares of its common stock (worth $1.35 billion) for the 118 housing communities, and it takes on $1.6 billion of Atria’s debt.

Welsh, Carson, Anderson and Stowe is set to sell portfolio company AGA Medical Holdings Inc., to St. Jude Medical in a deal worth more than $1 billion in stock and cash. At $20.80 a share, the deal values AGA Medical at a 41 percent premium to its closing price on the last day of trading before the deal was announced. AGA went public in October at $14.50 a share. St. Jude said it expected to close the deal by the end of the year.

Zealand Pharma‘s owners are considering floating part of the company on the Copenhagen bourse, Reuters reported. A banking source close to the deal said the Danish biotechnology concern could be worth 2-3 billion Danish crowns ($373-$560 million). Sunstone Capital A/S of Copenhagen is Zealand Pharma’s principal owner.