Private Equity Week Wire for Tuesday 5/29

IRVINE, CA — Micro Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq: MTIX) announced today that it has received a $56 million financing commitment from Micro Investment LLC, a limited liability company managed by Warburg, Pincus Equity Partners, L.P. This financing will support Micro Therapeutics’ (MTI) ongoing clinical, marketing and new product development programs, principally for the company’s innovative Onyx(TM) Liquid Embolic System. Under the terms of the agreement, the financing will consist of a two-stage private placement of common stock. The first stage, expected to be funded by the end of this week, involves the private placement of nearly 2.0 million shares of common stock at a price of $3.75 per share, resulting in the receipt of proceeds by MTI of nearly $7.5 million before transaction expenses. The second stage of the investment will comprise the placement of approximately 8.1 million shares of common stock at a price of $6.00 per share, giving MTI proceeds of approximately $48.5 million before transaction expenses. MTI has agreements with other parties, which allow those parties to participate in private equity financings. If those parties elect to fully participate in this financing, an aggregate of approximately 10 million shares will be issued to the investor and the other parties in the second stage at a price of approximately $5.92 per share, giving MTI proceeds in the second stage of approximately $59 million. Under Nasdaq Stock Market rules, stockholder approval will be required for the closing of the second stage of the investment since it would result in ownership by the investor of more than 50 percent of MTI’s outstanding common shares.

STAMFORD, CT — vSimplify Inc., a Stamford, CT-based Internet company providing hosted Corporate Intranets, online benefits enrollment and voluntary benefits for small and midsizecompanies, has received $2.75 million in funding from a group of investors including Skandia Innovation U.S., Inc., a new venture development company of Sweden’s SkandiaInsurance Company, Ltd., Connecticut Innovations, Inc., the State of Connecticut’s leading investor in high technology investments, and Lexam Capital, a New York-basedventure capital firm. vSimplify’s web platform provides an extensive range of employee self-service and benefits administration services including online benefits enrollment, hosted intranet, emailand worksite marketing. The funds will be used to further enhance the platform and drive customer acquisition activities.

SAN FRANCISCO — Partech International, a leading venture capital firm with offices in San Francisco andParis, announced that Kevin Carrington has joined the firm as portfolio manager for the $130 million AXA U.S. Growth Fund. Prior to joining Partech International, Carrington was a vice president at Pequot Capital Management, where he focused on enterprise software and technology services. BeforePequot, Carrington was vice president at Franklin-Templeton Group, where he was responsible for more than $1 billion in invested funds. Carrington’s bottoms-up researchapproach includes fundamentals-based equity analysis, detailed financial modeling, company visits and management interviews.

LONDON & DALLAS — Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst and Apax Partners today announced the acquisition of Yell from BritishTelecommunications PLC for a total consideration of 2.14 billion Pounds Sterling. Yell includes the UK Yellow Pages, the leading UK classified advertising directory business,and the USA based Yellow Book, a sector-leading yellow pages publisher in the United States. Equity is being provided by Apax Partners’ funds (Apax Europe IV, Apax Europe V and Apax Excelsior VI) and Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst’s funds (HMTF Europe Fund andHMTF Equity Fund V). The transaction is being financed with 1.45 billion Pounds Sterling of debt, which is being underwritten by Merrill Lynch and CIBC. Merrill Lynch alsoacted as financial advisor to Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst and Apax Partners, who are equal partners in the transaction.

ANDOVER, MA — TeleHubLink Corp. (OTC BB: THLC, THLCW), a pioneering company in wirelessencryption and broadband secure communications, announced today that the company signed a formal offer term sheet for $10 million to a private investment firm in exchange forcommon stock.
SAN DIEGO & CAMBRIDGE, UK –SEQUENOM Inc. (Nasdaq: SQNM) and Gemini Genomics PLC (Nasdaq: GMNI) announced today that they have agreed to mergetheir businesses in a stock-for-stock exchange. The merger will significantlyexpand SEQUENOM’s ability to perform disease gene association and geneticmarker validation studies. SEQUENOM believes this will provide a pipeline ofvalidated genes for downstream development of diagnostic and therapeuticproducts.

VANCOUVER — Ventures West Management Inc. today announced that it has committed $ 20 million to early-stage technology companies in Canada in the first quarter of 2001. Commitments to new investee companies include $ 4.5 million to Plazmic Inc. and $ 2 million to Inphogene Biocommunications Inc. In addition, Ventures West has committed $ 13 million to the continuing support of previously funded companies. As part of its ongoing commitment to grow world-class technology companies in Canada, Ventures West focuses its investment strategy in four sectors – information technology, telecommunications, biotechnology and energy technology.

NEW YORK — W. P. Carey & Co. LLC (NYSE: WPC), a leading real estate investment banking firm and lessor of net leased corporate properties, announced today that it has acquired a key manufacturing facility from Nexpak Corp. (“Nexpak”), one of the world’s largest media packaging companies, for approximately $13.6 million. The facility, located in Duluth, Georgia, serves as one of Nexpak’s primary manufacturing and distribution centers and will be leased to Nexpak for an initial period of 20 years under a bond-type net-lease.

PARIS, FRANCE — Neurotech SA, a specialist in the discovery, development and commercialization of cell-based therapies in the eye and the central nervous system (CNS), announces today that it has raised Euro 35 million in a pre-IPO funding round. The additional funds will allow Neurotech to progress several key projects towards clinical trials. Joint lead investors in this round of funding were Apax Partners and Merlin Biosciences. Other new investors are Westdeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale, ABN Amro, Rothschild, and AGF Innovation. Existing investors (3i Plc, GIMV, Atlas Ventures, CDC Innovation, Sofinnova, Sudinnova, Banque de Vizille, Banexi, Private Equity Holdings and IMH) also participated.

BOSTON — Adams, Harkness & Hill, the Boston-based investment bank specializing in emerging growth companies, announced today that Jonathan P. Gertler, M.D. has been named vice president of its healthcare investment banking division. Dr. Gertler will focus specifically on the medical device/medical technology industries, working closely with the firm’s research teams to expand Adams, Harkness & Hill’s investment banking activities in these sectors. Dr. Gertler, 45, comes to Adams, Harkness & Hill after spending 14 years as a practicing surgeon and in clinical and basic research, and with three years of experience in venture capital investing within the medical device and technology arenas. During his academic surgical career, Dr. Gertler was Director of the Surgical Intensive Care Unit at Yale New Haven Hospital, and subsequently was Chief of Vascular Surgery at SUNY-HSCB in New York. For the last nine years, Dr. Gertler has been a vascular surgeon at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and Associate Professor of Surgery at Harvard University.