Exits

Ares Management and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board are close to a deal to sell vitamin chain GNC Holdings to China’s Bright Foods Group Co. for $2.5 billion to $3 billion, Reuters reported. Ares and the pension plan bought Pittsburgh-based GNC Holdings in 2007 from Apollo Management in a deal with a total enterprise value of $1.65 billion.Los Angeles-based Aurora Capital has sold Impaxx, the owner of Gilbreth Packaging Solutions, to the Stamford, Conn.-based printing company Cenevo. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Gilbreth Packaging manufactures specialty packaging products, including shrink sleeves and medical and electronic tubing. The company is based in Croydon, Pa., and has 75 employees.

The Blackstone Group has failed to find a buyer for its portfolio company GoldToeMoretz, one of the world’s largest sock makers, Reuters said, citing a report in the New York Post. The report said that Blackstone wanted $450 million for the company, an amount that would allow Blackstone to repay debt and leave GoldToeMoretz profitable.

After raising $11 million from private equity firm Blue Point Capital Partners, China’s HAYA Retail is considering an initial public offering in China, and is eyeing overseas expansion, Reuters reported. HAYA is China’s largest retail space solution provider, and works with brands including Gucci and Swatch. HAYA owns factories in Beijing, Shanghai and western Chengdu. The new funding will help the company build a new plant in Shanghai and upgrade its design capacity, Reuters said.

UK-based media group Chorion may place a bid for Hit Entertainment, a media and entertainment distribution company owned by Apax Partners, Reuters reported, citing a story in the Sunday Times. The deal could reportedly reach as high as £1 billion ($1.58 billion). Jeffries is advising Chorion on the deal, Reuters said.

New York-based Clarion Capital Partners has agreed to sell Crowe Paradis Services to publicly traded Verisk Analytics for $90 million. Crowe Paradis Services provides insurance companies and third-party administrators products designed to help them comply with the Medicare Secondary Payer Act. Crowe Paradis is based in North Reading, Mass. The acquisition is expected to close by the end of this year.

Cerberus Capital Management is looking to sell auto lender Chrysler Financial, Reuters reported, citing a Bloomberg report. Cerberus bought the Farmington, Michigan-based business as part of its 2007 buyout of Chrysler LLC. The business has a book value of between $6 billion and $7 billion, Reuters said.

CHAMP Private Equity is in talks to sell Healthcare Australia, which provides nursing and home care services, to Healthcare Locums, Reuters reported, citing an earlier report by the Australian Financial Review.

Private equity firm Elbrus Capital divested its stake in Mail.ru with the company’s initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange. Mail.ru is a Russian Internet company that holds a 2.4 percent stake in Facebook, as well as stakes in U.S. Internet start-ups Groupon and Zynga Game Network, the maker of the popular “FarmVille” Facebook game. Elbrus Capital invested in Mail.ru in 2007, and the exit represents Elbrus’s first from the fund’s portfolio, the firm said. The IPO valued Mail.ru at nearly $6 billion. Elbrus is based in Moscow.

GI Partners has sold The Linc Group, a portfolio company, to ABM Industries for $300 million. The deal represents a 4.4x return for GI Partners, which acquired the company in a 2003 management-led buyout of Linc from the Enron bankruptcy process. The Irvine, Calif.-based Linc Group provides technical building services, including ventilation and air conditioning services, lighting and electrical services and maintenance and repair. GI Partners has offices in Menlo Park, Calif.; London and Munich. The firm has raised $3.9 billion in capital since its formation in 2001

Glencoe Capital said it has sold ACE Bakery to Weston Foods for C$110 million ($107.4 million). ACE is a premier artisan bakery based in Toronto. Glencoe Capital is a Chicago buyout firm. Weston Foods is a unit of George Weston Ltd.

Goldman Sachs Capital Partners portfolio company USI Holdings said it has bought the New Jersey operations of Kinloch Holdings. West Orange, N.J.-based Kinloch specializes in commercial property and casualty and employee benefits insurance for middle-market businesses. Kinloch is expected to contribute about $5.1 million revenues to USI on an annual basis. Financial terms weren’t announced. Briarcliff Manor, N.Y.-based USI distributes property and casualty insurance and employee benefits products to businesses throughout the US.

Los Angeles-based The Gores Group has agreed to sell Vinotech Holdings to Mitsubishi Electric for an undisclosed amount. No terms of the deal were released, though the firm said the acquisition would close by the end of this year. The German-based Vinotech manufactures low-power devices used in solar power system applications. Gores purchased the company from Tyco Electronics in 2007.

Hellman & Friedman is in talks to buy sell Goodman Global Group, an air conditioner manufacturer, to its Japanese rival Daikin Industries, Reuters said, citing a Bloomberg report. The buyout shop has rejected one proposal for the company, valued at $3.6 billion, though the two firms are now negotiating a revised proposal, Reuters reported. San Francisco-based Hellman & Friedman agreed to pay $1.8 billion in cash for Goodman Global in October 2007.

Regulators in the European Union have approved a €1.7 billion ($2.24 billion) acquisition of Dutch metal packaging company Impress Cooperative, Reuters reported. Irish packaging maker Ardagh Glass Group will buy the company from private equity firm Doughty Hanson. The buyout shop has said the acquisition will mean a return of €688 million ($895 million) to investors in two of its funds, Reuters said.

Pipeline company Kinder Morgan filed Tuesday for an initial public offering of up to $1.5 billion, Reuters reported. The company was taken private in 2007 through a $14.6 billion management buyout, and is backed by investors including The Carlyle Group, Goldman Sachs‘s buyout fund, Highstar Capital and Riverstone Holdings. All the common stock in the offering will be sold by existing investors, Reuters said.

Korea Exchange Bank’s labor union has filed suit to block the $4.1 billion sale of the bank to Hana Financial Group, Reuters reported. In the lawsuit, the union takes issue with a dividend that would be paid to U.S. private equity firm Lone Star, which owns a 51 percent stake in the bank, Reuters said. Lone Star paid $1.2 billion for its stake in 2003, and could earn up to $246 million in dividends, on top of the acquisition price. Hana, meanwhile, will look to private equity firms to fund its acquisition, Reuters reported. Hana is in early talks with firms including The Carlyle Group and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., Reuters said, adding that Hana will tap private equity firms for roughly half the cost of the buyout.

Chinese regulators have given Morgan Stanley the green light to sell its stake in China International Capital Corp., Reuters reported. Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and TPG Capital, have teamed up with the Government of Singapore Investment Corp. and the insurance arm of Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. to buy the 34.3 percent stake. Morgan Stanley is expected to get more than $1 billion for the stake, which it received for just $37 million more than a decade ago, Reuters said

Paris-based PAI Partners is expecting offers to buy its 50 percent stake in Yoplait, Reuters reported. One offer, an unsolicited $1.9 billion bid from European dairy group Lactalis, was rejected as too low, and because it would have forced out French shareholder Sodiaal, Reuters said. Possible new bidders for the stake could include Nestle and General Mills.

Samsonite, the luggage maker owned by buyout shop CVC and the Royal Bank of Scotland, is considering a $1 billion initial public offering in Hong Kong, Reuters reported, citing a story in the Sunday Times. The Luxembourg-based company has hired Goldman Sachs as an advisor.

Two-year-old private equity firm Vespa Capital has found its first exit, selling portfolio company James Villa Holidays to Wyndham Exchange and Rentals. Financial terms of the deal were not released. Vespa backed a 2008 management buyout of U.K.-based James Villa Holidays, which provides specialty villa tours. Vespa Capital is based in the U.K. and France.