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Top Three
Castle Harlan has completed its acquisition of IDQ Holdings Inc., an automotive aftermarket company focused on do-it-yourself automotive air conditioner repair, from Arsenal Capital Partners. The deal was valued at approximately $170 million, representing around a 30% IRR and 8x multiple for Arsenal.
Waud Capital Partners has agreed to sell Reg! ency Hospital Co., an operator of long-term acute care hospitals, to Select Medical Holdings Corp. (NYSE: SEM). The deal is valued at approximately $210 million, including assumed liabilities.
Yingru Li has been named co-chief investment officer for China Asean Fund, a $1 billion private equity fund targeting infrastructure, energy and natural resources opportunities in Southeast Asia. Li pre viously was a managing director in of private equity investments for China Investment Corp. (one of CAF’s largest LPs) — a role that now will be filled by Jingping Guo (mostly focused on fund commitments and co-investments).
VC Deals
Prudent Energy, a Beijing-baseddeveloper of energy storage technology tofor electricity grid operations andintegration of large scale renewable energy, has raised $10 million in additional Series C funding. Backers include JAFCO Asia, Mitsui Ventures andCEL Partners. The round now stands at $32 million, including past support fromNorthern Light Venture Capital, Sequoia Capital China and return backersDFJ and DT Capital.
Inform Technologies, a New York-based provider of semantic web solutions, has raised $4 million in new funding. Return backers include Spark Capital, The Stephens Group, and The Oklahoma Publishing Company.
SpareFoot.com, an Austin, Texas-based operator of an online marketplace for self storage, has raised $2 million in Series B funding. Silverton Partners and FloodGate co-led the round, and were joined by Capital Factory.
Buyouts Deals
Alpstar Capital has teamedwith an undisclosed “industrial partner” to acquire Dutch cement company Cementum. No financial terms were disclosed, except that Rabobank provided debt financing.
Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group is planning to sell a stake in Reliance Communications’ telecom towers unit to GTL Infrastructure and an undisclosed private equity firm.
Chesapeake Energy Co. (NYSE: CHK) has agreed to sell $900 million on convertible preferred stock to investors like Korea Investment Corp., China Investment Corp. and Temasek Holdings.
CVC Capital Partners! reportedly is nearing a deal to buy a 30% stake in theme park operator Merlin Entertainments from majority Merlin shareholders like The Blackstone Group.
Francisco Partners has amended the terms of its deal to acquire EF Johnson Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: EFJI), an Irving, Texas-based provider of secure communications solutions to organizations that protect and save lives. The revised terms would pay out $1.50 per EF Johnson share, compared to an original purchase price of $1.05 per share. The total equity now would be valued at nearly $40 million.
GE Energy Financial Services and Spain’s Abengoa have agreed to invest $180 million to help develop what would be Mexico’s largest cogeneration power plant.
MBK Partners was the only firm to submit a formal b! id for Lone Star Funds’ $4 billion control stake in Korea Exchange Bank.
Nordic Capital has acquired a 70% stake in SiC Processing AG, a German industrial recycling company, from Frog Capital. No sale price was disclosed.SiC Processing’s founding family retains a 25% holding, whileformer lead investor Zouk Ventures retains a 5% stake.
Red Star Furniture Group, a Chinese furniture retailer, has raised $381 million from an investor group led by Warburg Pincus.
PE-Backed IPOs
Motricity Inc. (Nasdaq: MOTR) shares fell 7.4% in their first day of post-IPO trading. Shareholders includeAdvanced Equities, Carl Icahn, New Enterprise Associates, Technology Crossover Ventures, Massey-Burch Capital, Noro-Moseley Partners, Intel Capital, Qualcomm Ventures, Sienna Ventures, TriState Investment Group and Wakefield Group.
ReSearch Pharmaceutical Services Inc., a Fort Washington, Penn.-based provider of clinical development services to the biopharma! ceutical industry, has filed for a $100 million IPO. It plans to trade on the Nasdaq, with Jefferies & Co. serving as lead underwriter. The company reports around $224 million in 2009 revenue, up from $175 million in 2008. Its 2009 net income was $2.6 million. ReSearch Pharma shareholders include Cartesian Capital, The Argentum Group and First Analysis. www.rpsweb.com
PE-Backed M&A
Adknowledge, a Kansas City-based provider of behavioral online advertising solutions, has acquired Hydra Group, a Beverly Hills, Calif.-based premium CPA performance marketing network. No financial terms were disclosed. Adknowledge raised $48 million in funding in 2006 from Technology Crossover Ventures.
PE Exits
National Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE:NSM) has acquired the technology assets of GTronix, a Fremont, Calif.-based fabless IC maker focused on programmable and adaptive analog sensory processing technology. No financial terms were disclosed. GTronix had raised over $31 million from backers like Menlo Ventures and Jafco Ventures.
Transpac Industrial Holdings has agreed to sell Foodstar, a maker of soy sauces and fermented bean curd in China, to H.J. Heinz Co. (NYSE: HNZ). The deal includes a $165 million up-front cash payment, and unspecified earn-outs.
US Solar Ventures Holdings LLC, a portfolio company of ArcLight Capital Partners, has sold certain solar development projects to a subsidiary of NRG Energy. No financial terms were disclosed.
Vector Capital has agreed to sell Register.com, a provider! of Web design and domain name registration services, to Web.com (Nasdaq: WWWW). No financial terms were disclosed for the deal, which is expected to close sometime next quarter. Vector took Register.com private in 2005.
Firms & Funds
Ares Capital and Veronis Suhler Stevenson announced a partnership “to source and provide flexible senior debt financing to companies in select industries with $5 million to $35 million of EBITDA.” Those industries are: Information, education, media and marketing services.
Human Resources
Weijian Shan has joined Pacific Alliance Group as chairman and CEO. He previously was TPG Capital’s top partner in China.
John O’Farrell has joined Andreessen Horowitz as the VC firm’s third general partner. He most recently was VP of business development for Silver Spring Networks, and is a onetime Opsware executive. Andreessen Horowitz also has added executive recruiter Jeffrey Stump as a partner focused on portfolio company recruiting.
Anup Gupta has joined Nexus Venture Partners as a Mumbai-bas! ed managing director, with a focus on opportunities in the business and consumer services sectors. He previously was a group COO at WNS (Holdings) Ltd.
Northern Trust Global Investments has named John Krieg as managing director for the European and MENA regions. He previously was based in Chicago as Northern Trust’s head of! global investment product management.
Andrew Peix has joined Serent Capital as vice president of origination. He previously was director of business development with Riverside Partners.
Citigroup has named Chris Laskowski as COO and head of financial entrepreneurs in Asia-Pacific. He previously ran PE banking for Citi in Asia.
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP announced that it has hired a group of corporate and private equity attorneys fr! om Nixon Peabody’s New York office. The group is led by Mats Carlston, former Nixon Peabody head of global finance, who will lead Pillsbury’s leveraged finance team. Other hires include: Doug Schneller (to lead distressed investing), James Kelly (head of leveraged buyouts) and William Egler (asset-backed finance).
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