Private Equity Week Wire for Friday 8/24

LOS ANGELES — Flexxtech Corp. announced today that it has received a first round funding to be followed by a $10 million offering. May Davis Group Inc., was the placement agent and acted as an advisor for the transaction. May Davis Group, located in New York, is an NASD member firm, specializing in merchant banking and institutional services. Flexxtech has entered into a $10 million financing agreement with Dutchess Private Equity Fund, L.P. of Danbury, Connecticut.

North Texas Circuit Board Company (NTCB) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Flexxtech Corp. Founded in 1978, NTCB is involved in high-volume production of quick-turn circuit boards of both high technology and quality. Seventy percent of NTCB’s business comes from the military and aerospace industry.

DURHAM, N.C. — Triangle Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that it has entered into an agreement to raise $75 million through the sale of 28,301,887 shares of common stock at $2.65 per share to Warburg Pincus Private Equity VIII, L.P. and certain other investors. The sale of shares will take place at two separate closings with the second closing subject to shareholder approval and other customary closing conditions.

At the first closing, expected to occur later today, the company will sell 9,628,002 shares of common stock to Warburg Pincus for gross proceeds of $25,514,205. The second closing for the remaining 18,673,885 shares is expected to occur immediately after stockholders approval of the issuance of the shares. Up to 5,660,377 of the shares to be issued in the second closing may be sold to investors other than Warburg Pincus.

The company has agreed to file a registration statement for the resale of the shares to be purchased within 10 days of the stockholder meeting to be called to vote on the issuance of the shares at the second closing.

In conjunction with the financing, Triangle entered into agreements with shareholders of the company who in the aggregate own approximately 32% of the Company’s common stock outstanding as of August 3, 2001. These stockholders have agreed to vote in favor of the issuance of shares at the second closing.

Also in conjunction with the financing, Mr. Leff and Stewart J. Hen, vice president, Warburg Pincus, will be elected to the Company’s Board of Directors.

Banc of America Securities LLC is serving as placement agent for this transaction.

Triangle Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a specialty pharmaceutical company engaged in the development of new antiviral drug candidates, with a particular focus on therapies for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis.

FAIRFIELD, N.J.— Vertex Interactive, Inc., a provider of supply chain execution solutions, and Plus Integration Supply Chain Solutions, a private supply chain management software and services provider headquartered in Haarlem, the Netherlands, today jointly announced the execution of adefinitive stock purchase agreement, pursuant to which Vertex will purchase all of the issued and outstanding capital stock of Plus Integration in exchange for 40 million newly issued shares of Vertex common stock in a transaction intended to be a combination of equals.

Resale of such shares is subject to certain lock-up restrictions that expire in full 18 months after the close of the transaction. The transaction is expected to close by December 31, 2001, and is expected to be accretive, before any of the expected consolidation savings of at least $4 million, to Vertex Interactive’s cash earnings before interest, depreciation and amortization.

Pursuant to the terms of the definitive acquisition agreement, the combined entity will retain the Vertex Interactive name and will continue to be headquartered in Fairfield, New Jersey. The companies estimate that theyshould realize operational efficiencies of at least $4 million in expense savings in the first full year of unified operations.

The board of directors of the new company is expected to be increased to 10 members, with equal representation for both entities.

Integration principal stockholders include ABN-AMRO,Residex Venture Capital Network, NPM Venture Capital and Newion. WEST PALM BEACH, FLA.— Newagecities.com, Inc. announced today that it has completed the acquisition of 80% ownership interest of G-Choice Science and Technology Company, Limited (G-Choice), a provider of information technology products and services located in Shanghai, China. Newagecities.com issued 800,000 restricted shares in exchange for 80% ownership of G-Choice.

Founded in August 1999, G-Choice’s business services include computer product sales, network services, software development and system integration. With extensive experience in computer system engineering, and software research and development, G-Choice has significant capabilities in the planning and implementation of synthetic layouts, network designs and a variety of hardware and software platforms. In addition the company has extensive experience in the areas of scattered database applications and the design and development of network platform business systems. The company is one of the largest information technology companies in the eastern China region. Currently, G-Choice’s sales networks and channels have been expanded to the regions of north, south and west of China.

SAN JOSE, CALIF. — DragonVenture Inc., a cross-Pacific venture capital, soft incubation and consulting company, today announced the addition of Brad Lee as vice president. Formerly an executive vice president with TCL Technology Innovation, Inc., a $20 million fund co-founded by former UC Berkeley Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien, Lee brings strong ties from China and the U.S. Chinese community. His responsibilities at DragonVenture include China-based fund management and directing DragonVenture’s incubation and consulting businesses.

Previously serving as executive vice president of TCL Technology Innovation, Inc., Lee will continue to serve as their liaison officer. Prior to TCL, Lee served as vice president of business operations of Advanced Integrated Photonics, Inc., an optical switching component startup. In 1997, Lee co-founded GuardOne.com Inc., an Internet software company.

PITTSBURGH, PENN. — Adams Capital Management Inc., a national venture capital firm with $700 million under management, announced this week that Martin Neath has been named a general partner. Neath helped build Tivoli Systems Inc., now an IBM company, into a multi-billion-dollar software and service operation.

Neath joined Tivoli in 1990 as its seventh employee and first application engineer. Over the next decade, he rose through the ranks up to executive vice president, overseeing much of the company?s day-to-day operations. He was responsible for five business units, plus engineering, corporate marketing, customer service, training and education, office of the Chief Technology Officer, and North American sales.

After retiring from IBM in 1999, Neath served for two years as President and Chief Operating Officer of Austin-based Works Inc., a provider of procurement applications to midsize companies. He currently serves on the boards of directors of several companies, including two ACM portfolio companies: Works Inc. and Journee Software Inc., a provider of web-enabling infrastructure software used by midsize companies to deliver complex, integrated e-business applications.

As an ACM General Partner, Neath will be responsible for identifying new investment opportunities that fit within the ACM markets-first investment strategy, as well as working with existing portfolio companies. Adams Capital has offices in Palo Alto, Calif., Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

For yesterday’s Wire, click here