Exits

3i Group has sold the Helsinki-based chemicals company KemFine to CABB, a German chemicals company for an undisclosed amount. 3i has owned KemFine since 2004.

Actis is looking to sell its stake in Sterling Hospitals, based in Gujarat, India, Reuters reported. The buyout shop is reportedly in talks with probable buyers like Fortis Healthcare and Apollo Hospitals Enterprise, the Business Standard newspaper reported. Actis holds an 80 percent stake in the specialty hospitals chain.

Apax Partners is in talks with European computer consultancy Capgemini to sell outsourcing and payment services provider Prosodie for an enterprise value of €382 million ($549.2 million). Apax acquired a stake in Prosodie in 2006, and delisted the company in late 2007. A deal for the company could reportedly be finalized by July.

Los Angeles-based Aurora Capital Group has sold Anthony International, a manufacturer of glass doors for commercial refrigerators, to New York-based Avista Capital Partners. Terms of the deal were not released. Aurora acquired Anthony in 2004. Morgan Stanley acted as financial adviser and Gibson Dunn & Crutcher acted as legal adviser to Aurora Capital. Weil, Gotshal & Manges acted as legal adviser to Avista Capital. Anthony International was formed in 1958 and is based in Sylmar, Calif.

Shares of private equity-backed Bankrate Inc. rose in their stock market debut, closing at $15.34, or 2.3 percent above their $15 IPO price. Apax Partners took the company private for $571 million in 2009. Following the IPO, the private equity firm remains the majority shareholder with approximately 70 percent ownership of Bankrate’s common stock. Bankrate publishes personal finance content online, and is based in North Palm Beach, Fla.

The board of Blackstone Group portfolio company Graham Packaging has decided to back an offer from Reynolds Group Holdings, which is offering $25 a share. Graham already had a $22.10 a share offer from Silgan Holdings, which then was to have three business days to make a “responsive offer,” according to a statement.

Blue Point Capital Partners has exited its stake in Packers Holding, selling the company to Harvest Partners. The sale yielded a 6x return for the mid-market buyout firm. Specific terms of the sale to Harvest Partners were not released. Blue Point invested in Packers Holdings from its $400 million fund, Blue Point Capital Partners II L.P. Packers Holdings is a provider of outsourced cleaning and sanitation services to the food processing industry.Publicly traded Carpenter Technology Corp. will pay $558 million to buy Latrobe Specialty Metals Inc. As part of the deal, 8.1 million shares of Carpenter stock—worth roughly $388 million—will be issued to Latrobe’s owners, including Hicks Equity Partners and The Watermill Group. Latrobe, which makes high-performance materials for aerospace, defense and energy applications, was acquired by Hicks Equity and Watermill in 2006. Thomas Hicks of Hicks Equity, and Steve Karol of Watermill will join Carpenter’s board following the close. The deal is expected to close by Sept. 30.

Multi-strategy investment firm Freeman Group has sold DataBank, a provider of managed data center services, to Avista Capital Partners, the company announced. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Houlihan Lokey acted as financial adviser to DataBank. Kirkland & Ellis LLP acted as legal adviser to Avista. Avista was formed in 2005, and manages $4 billion of committed capital from offices in New York, Houston and London.

The Gores Group is in talks with The Carlyle Group about selling a majority stake in French decoder maker SagemCom, Reuters reported, citing a news item in Les Echos. Carlyle offered less than €500 million ($723 million) for the stake, the French newspaper said. Gores Group currently holds 65.7 percent of SagemCom, which makes television decoders, professional printers and smart energy meters.

Online video site Hulu—which is jointly owned by News Corp., Walt Disney, NBC Universal and Providence Equity Partners—has been approached by a potential buyer, Reuters reported, citing “a person familiar with the matter.” Hulu, which provides free online access to TV shows and movies, is considering whether to sell itself, Reuters said. Last year Hulu spent six months planning an initial public offering before dropping the plan.

Lazard is looking to sell a stake in Australian biscuit maker Unibic to an Asian partner, and is in talks with potential buyers, Reuters reported. A strategic buyer would help the company—Australia’s third largest biscuit maker—expand its Asian business.

South Korea’s Mirae Asset Life Insurance has pushed back plans for an IPO next year, and decided to sell preferred shares to private equity funds, Reuters reported. The company plans to offer 400 billion won ($372.3 million) worth of preferred shares. Investors that participated in the funds included National Pension Service, Korea Teachers Pension and Korea Post, Reuters wrote.A Pacific Equity Partners portfolio company, the Australian fast-food restaurant operator Collins Foods, is planning a $263 million initial share offering, Reuters reported. Deutsche Bank and UBS have been appointed as joint lead managers for the IPO. Collins Foods manages more than 380 KFC and Sizzler franchises.

Permira portfolio company Provimi, a French animal feed maker, has seen a number of first round offers from the likes of Cargill, China’s New Hope Group, and Dutch companies DSM and Nutreco, Reuters reported. A potential buyout of Provimi could reach as high as €2 billion ($2.9 billion). JPMorgan is conducting the auction. Second round bids are expected in about six weeks.

French aerospace group Safran is ready to pay €4 billion ($5.74 billion) for Italy’s Avio, Reuters reported, citing an article in the weekly La Lettre de l’Expansion. No other details were given, but Safran shares rose as much as 5.7 percent to a near 11-year high after the report’s publication, Reuters said. Avio is majority owned by private equity group Cinven.

Shares of Samsonite International dropped 7.7 percent in their trading debut, making the luggage maker the latest in a string of weak Hong Kong IPOs, Reuters reported. The company and shareholders, including private equity firm CVC Capital Partners and Royal Bank of Scotland Group, sold 671.2 million shares to raise HK$9.73 billion ($1.25 billion), Reuters reported.

Unitas and Pacific Equity Partners are looking to sell a stake in New Zealand beverages group Independent Liquor, Reuters reported. PEP and Unitas bought Independent Liquor in 2006 for more than $1 billion, and have now hired UBS to find strategic partners to sell their stakes in the business, Reuters wrote.

Warburg Pincus agreed to sell portfolio company Broad Oak Energy to Laredo Petroleum in a deal valued at $1 billion, the companies announced. The transaction was expected to close at the beginning of July. Broad Oak Energy is an oil and gas exploration and production company focused on the Permian Basin of West Texas. It was formed in 2005 and funded by Warburg Pincus in 2006. Laredo was formed in 2006 and is based in Tulsa, Okla.

Warburg Pincus is looking to sell Camp Systems International, a software provider for business aircraft that could be worth $500 million to $600 million, Reuters reported. Credit Suisse will advise on the sale of Camp Systems, which has about $60 million in EBITDA and could go for about 10x EBITDA, Reuters said.