Exits

Apollo Management portfolio company Rexnord Corp. has revived its plans for an initial public offering, filing to raise up to $700 million, Reuters reported. In July 2008, the company had filed for an initial public offering of $750 million but withdrew the offering in October 2009. Apollo owns about 93.8 percent of the company, and bought it from The Carlyle Group in 2006.

Ares Capital has exited its investment in Border Foods Inc., selling the company to Mizkan Americas Inc., a subsidiary of Japan-based Mizkan Group. Terms of the deal, which closed May 12, were not released. Harris Williams & Co. acted as the adviser to Border Foods.

Aurora Capital Group and Ares Management are among a group selling five million shares of listed, Wisconsin-based Douglas Dynamics via a secondary offering, it was announced. Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., Robert W. Baird & Co. Inc. and Piper Jaffray are acting as underwriters for the offering.

Several investors including Bayard Capital of Australia have entered into an agreement to sell Swiss-based smart metering company Landis+Gyr to Toshiba Corp. for $2.3 billion, including net debt. Toshiba beat out buyout shops TPG Capital and EQT Partners in the auction for Landis+Gyr.

BC Partners sold a 9.5 percent stake in elder and dependent care company Medica to French real estate and health care investment company Batipart, Reuters reported. The deal was valued at €72.5 million ($102 million).

Agricultural biotechnology company Ceres Inc., whose shareholders include Warburg Pincus and Monsanto Co., has filed to raise up to $100 million in an initial public offering, Reuters reported. The Boston-based company will use the proceeds for seed production, general corporate purposes and acquisitions. Barclays Capital and Goldman Sachs will be the underwriters.

European firm Cinven has agreed to sell Phadia, a maker of allergy and autoimmune tests, to the laboratory equipment company Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. for about $3.5 billion, Reuters reported. The deal, expected to close during the fourth quarter of this year, will help Thermo Fisher expand its reach in specialty diagnostics.

GE Capital said it would sell its 49.77 percent stake in Banco Colpatria to its current joint venture partner Mercantil Colpatria. Terms of the exit were not released. The deal is expected to close by June 30.

San Francisco-based Golden Gate Capital has sold a majority interest in women’s clothing retailer J. Jill to Bahrain-based Arcapital Bank. Financial terms of the deal were not released. Golden Gate acquired J. Jill in 2009 for roughly $75 million. Golden Gate will retain a minority stake in the company.

Hanover Partners exited its stake in Solidscape Inc., selling the company, a manufacturer of 3D printer systems, to publicly traded Stratasys. The exit from Solidscape generated a 2.5x cash-on-cash return for lead investors Hanover Partners and Tuckerman Capital, during a nearly five-year investment period, Hanover announced. Solidscape is based in Merrimack, New Hampshire. Hanover Partners acquired Solidscape in June 2006 in partnership with Tuckerman Capital. Terms of the sale were not released.

Outerwear maker Moncler is planning to raise €500 million ($700 million) in an initial public offering, Reuters reported. The company, which makes goose-down jackets, plans to set a price range during the week of June 6. The Carlyle Group owns 48 percent stake of the company.

Nestle Health Science, a subsidiary of Nestle SA, will buy specialty pharmaceutical and diagnostic company Prometheus Laboratories Inc. for an undisclosed amount, the company announced. Prometheus is focused on developing science-based nutritional solutions for medical conditions. The company had raised funding from investors including DLJ Merchant Banking Partners, SPVC, Sprout Group, Apax Partners, Pamlico Capital and Brentwood Venture Capital.

Dutch animal feed group Nutreco is readying a bid for French-based rival Provimi, Reuters reported, citing Dutch media accounts. Provimi is currently owned by British private equity group Permira. The Dutch newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad reported that a bid would be at least €1.4 billion ($1.98 billion).

London-based Piper has exited its majority stake in UK-based soft drink maker Bottlegreen Holdings Ltd, selling the company to Irish food group SHS. Piper said Wednesday that it inked a 5x multiple on its four year investment in Bottlegreen. The firm poured £5 million into Bottlegreen in 2007. Piper was advised by KPMG and Bond Pearce. SHS was advised by Grant Thornton and McGrigors.

Cleveland-based Primus Capital is selling its Encore Discovery Solutions to a strategic buyer in EPIQ Systems Inc., which is based in Kansas City. Terms of the deal were not disclosed and advisors were not publicized.

Spirit Airlines, which is owned by private equity firms Indigo Partners and Oaktree Capital Management, will raise $187.2 million in its initial public offering, nearly 42 percent less than it had initially expected, Reuters reported. Florida-based Spirit said it priced its offering of 15.6 million shares at $12.00 a share. The airline had expected to sell the shares between $12 and $13 a share, Reuters wrote. Indigo Partners and Oaktree will own 72 percent of the airline after the offering.

Japan’s largest drugmaker, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., will pay $13.6 billion to buy private equity backed rival Nycomed, Reuters reported. Zurich-based Nycomed is majority owned by four private equity firms, led by Nordic Capital with 41 percent. Credit Suisse’s DLJ Merchant Banking has 25.6 percent, Coller International Partners 9.7 percent and Avista 8.9 percent.

Thomson Reuters, which publishes Buyouts,has acquired World-Check, a provider of corruption prevention information. Financial terms were not announced. Spectrum Equity Investors and HarbourVest Partners acquired World-Check in 2007. Spectrum and HarbourVest invested $86 million equity in 2007 for a combined two-thirds of World-Check, a person said. The sale to Thomson Reuters is valued at north of $500 million, the source said. S. Searcy Dryden, a managing director at Portico Capital Securities and head of its data, risk and analytics group, provided financial advice to World-Check.

TowerBrook Capital Partners sold Jimmy Choo to Labelux GmbH for terms undisclosed. Labelux, the private investment firm, is reportedly paying up to $893 million in the deal, Reuters reported earlier. Rothschild acted as financial adviser, Hogan Lovells acted as legal adviser and KPMG advised on due diligence for Labelux. Joshua Schulman and the management team were advised by Pearce LLP. Tamara Mellon was advised by MX Capital Partners, Vedder Price, New York and Travers Smith, London. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley acted as financial adviser and Kirkland & Ellis acted as legal adviser for TowerBrook.

TPG Capital is in talks with Japan’s Orix Corp. to sell its 20 percent stake in Indian commercial vehicle lender Shriram Transport Finance Co., Reuters reported, citing the Economic Times. The deal could be valued at more than 30 billion rupees ($664 million).

Veronis Suhler Stevenson plans to sell Ipreo Holdings, a provider of capital-markets data for financial institutions, to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. for $425 million, Reuters reported, citing an article in the Wall Street Journal. Ipreo was formed by the merger of i-Deal and Hemscott in 2006, with the backing of Veronis, Merrill Lynch and Citigroup, Reuters wrote.

Connecticut-based Westport Capital Partners and Hong Kong developer Tenacity Real Estate Group sold a Macau, China, office and retail building to an undisclosed buyer in a $125 million deal. The two partnered to acquire the property in 2006 and pumped $10 million in upkeep into it over the five-year hold. Specifics of the transaction were not revealed.