Private Exits

The Blackstone Group reportedly has retained Morgan Stanley to explore a sale of Global Tower LLC, which could generate around $1.5 billion. Blackstone acquired the mobile tower operator in April 2005 from Great Hill Partners for around $332 million, after which Global Tower made a series of acquisitions.

Cognetas (f.k.a. Electra Partners Europe) has sold UK retailer BWG to company management for €390 million. Cognetas acquired BWG from Pernod Ricard in 2002 for €220 million, along with a majority stake in Newhill, owner of a large number of SPAR stores.

Close Brothers Private Equity has agreed to sell UK-based specialty chemicals company Minova to Orica Ltd. (ASX: ORI). The deal is valued at approximately £357 million. Minova products are used in the coal mining, metal mining and tunneling industries. The company was acquired by CBPE in a £32 million management buyout that closed in March 2003.

Conduit Capital Partners of New York has retained BNP Paribas to help it sell the assets of its first two private equity funds—Latin Power I ($100m) and Latin Power II ($157m). The portfolios contain power generation assets in Jamaica, Mexico, Colombia and Peru totaling 398 MW of net equity in installed capacity.

ConnectCapital and The View Group have exited Integreon Managed Solutions Inc., via a management buyout sponsored by the parent company of Ayala Corp. No financial terms were disclosed. Integreon is a New York–based provider of business process outsourcing solutions.

Olympus Partners has agreed to sell Meridian Rail Services to The Greenbriar Cos. (NYSE: GBX) for $227.5 million. Meridian is a Birmingham, Ala.–based provider of maintenance services to railroads, including wheel and rail car maintenance and component reconditioning.

West Corp. (Nasdaq: WSTC) has paid $44.5 million in cash to acquire InPulse Response Group, a Phoenix-based provider of outsourced sales solutions to direct response marketers, from Petra Capital Partners.