Last word

Crescent Europe, the European private equity arm and subsidiary of Bahrain-based First Islamic Investment, will officially change its name to Arcapita and will adopt a new logo and corporate identity over the coming months. First Islamic will change its name to Arcapita Bank on March 15, and the bank’s US subsidiary, Crescent Capital Investments, will change its name to Arcapita Inc. The consolidated group recently announced net income of US$70.5m for the year ended December 31 2004. Crescent Europe has been active in the European private equity market since 2002, completing more than €1.5bn of transactions in its three principal lines of business.

• Uniq, the UK chilled convenience food distributor, has terminated buyout discussions with Duke Street Capital after pension trustees kept up their opposition to the leveraged capital structure behind the deal. Uniq’s pensions fund has a deficit of £102m, and discussions with Duke Street broke down in December, when one of the trustees first raised objections. Uniq’s decision in February to double its pension fund contribution over 12 years, with an increase in annual cash contributions from £8.4m per annum to £15m per annum, had not been enough to convince the trustee. Duke Street’s offer was leveraged around three times.
• Deutsche Beteiligungs (DBAG), the middle market German private equity firm, has sold its direct holding in Schlott Gruppe. The 14% stake was sold for €24m and follows the sale of an indirect shareholding in the business. The stock placement was made with a range of institutional investors and managed by Sal Oppenheim and Landesbank Baden-Wurttemberg. DBAG acquired its stake in December 1999, when Schlott acquired the media-systems group Sebaldus from DBAG and paid for part of the purchase with stock. DBAG supported a management buyout of Sebaldus Druck und Verlag in August 1997. Some 863,216 shares were sold at a price close to €27.76 per share. Uwe Hack, a member of the management board, observed that the stock was placed without a detrimental effect on the share price.