Filed under: Deals, Financials and analyticals, Private equity industry, Investments, Value and lack thereof, Public or private?

There is a rather interesting deal out there that can be viewed as a glass half-full or glass half-empty depending on whether or not you’re from the private equity side or from a public company.

Fiserv Inc. (NASDAQ: FISV) has announced a rather interesting move this morning. It is selling a majority interest in its insurance business operations for some $510 million in equity and debt to Trident IV, a private equity fund managed by Stone Point Capital LLC.

The company has announced that it will turn around and repurchase up to 10 million shares of common stock in a repurchase program.

You can continue reading for the full details, on the fly analysis, and ramifications at 247Wallst.com.

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Filed under: Rumors, Engagements, Private equity industry, Investments, Public or private?

Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc. (NYSE: KKD) gave some very uncommon volume trading alerts this morning, and the culprit here is nothing less than buyout offer chatter. Yep, it seems that the rumor mill has the fried dough maker as one of the next buyout candidates.

It took only about 35 minutes for us to see double the normal average daily trading volume. The culprit is a private equity buyout of $7.25 per share, yet no one comprehends if the “offer” is real. MGL Asset Management Group LLC out of Charlotte has been named as the suitor. Whether or not that is the case is something different entirely.

If you know the history of this company you probably understand that it is synonymous with “disappointment.” The buyout chatter price is $7.25, yet the 52-week trading range is $2.23 to $9.48. You can determine on your own whether or not an offer is a good as a take. Chatter on top of that is yet another issue.

Despite this having been covered on CNBC and despite the written reports above, it would take a lot more faith than sense to believe this until actual facts are released from either the private equity firm or Krispy Kreme itself.

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Filed under: Raising money, Venture capital industry, Private equity industry, Public or private?

If you have been following the alternative energy saga alongside ridiculous oil prices going from rising to high to astronomical, you’ve run across the name Tesla Motors. Tesla is a venture capital and privately funded auto maker that produces a high performance electric powered sports vehicle.

The Tesla Roadster and soon to be sedan are now both now going to be manufactured in California, or so a report in the San Francisco Chronicle and elsewhere are noting. Governor Schwarzenegger included some incentives that have kept the electric auto maker from moving manufacturing to New Mexico (besides the Governator ordering one unit for himself). But it appears that the Say of California is giving it more than mere tax incentives.

It appears that this is going to get equipment leases from the state, as well as additional allows. What’s interesting here is that this gets the company even further on the map. There have been current reports that Tesla was in the market for another large financing. Whether or not that comes about now isn’t certain. Other reports show that the company may even supply battery units to Daimler or other car manufacturers.

What is becoming fairly certain is that Wall Street expects to see Tesla file for an initial public offering. As capital intensive as these businesses are, the company needs to have a steady car (no pun intended) to be able to raise the capital it needs.

Think of the good news…. At least one US auto manufacturer will be considered cool.

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Filed under: Deals, Raising money, Warburg Pincus, Engagements, Venture capital industry, Private equity industry, Investments, Public or private?

Most private equity firms hunt for stable companies with stable cash flows that are either cheap or inefficiently operated. These companies can then be resold for more money or taken public, or the strategy can fit into the Warren Buffett time frame of “forever.” Biotechnology has long been the realm for only public companies, but that’s changing.

Private equity firm Warburg Pincus has already made some biotech plays that seemed to be a harbinger of the trends here, and even more so when you consider foreign drug companies buying US-based biotechs on the cheap with that US Peso of a currency we have.

A new fund called GANIC Pharmaceuticals has been launched this week, with Warburg Pincus as the main backer. the private equity firm made an initial investment in GANIC from the Warburg Pincus Private Equity X, L.P., a $15 billion fund which shut in April. As of now, we don’t have any exact launch figures for the size of the investment that was given to GANIC.

GANIC’s management is all former senior executives of MedPointe Pharmaceuticals and the company will will focus on building a substantial enterprise by acquiring revenue generating companies, portfolios, and/or products and by investing in innovation and acquiring pipeline development assets.

Read more at BioHealthInvestor.com for estimates of the size and strategies that the fund might employ.

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Filed under: Deals, Movers and shakers, Private equity industry, Value and lack thereof, Public or private?

Huntsman Corp. (NYSE: HUN) is seeing the value of its stock destroyed in after-hours trading. This was one of those pending mergers that was old enough that many had forgotten it was even on the docket. Hexion Specialty Chemicals has announced that it has filed suit in Delaware to exit its contractual obligations to acquire the company.

The Hexion-led filed to terminate its proposed $10.6 Billion acquisition of Huntsman Corp. Hexion has stated in this suit filed that it believes that the capital structure concurred to by both Huntsman and by Hexion for the combined company is no longer viable.

The reasons noted are because of Huntsman’s increased net debt and its lower than expected earnings. Hexion notes that both companies are individually solvent but it believes that the merger’s capital structure previously concurred to would render the combined company insolvent.

Keep reading at 247WallSt.com for the rest of the details and analysis.

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Filed under: Raising money, Bain Capital, Venture capital industry, Private equity industry, Investments, Public or private?

LinkedIn is the social networking operator that just about each business person has received an invite to join from at least one person they know.

The company issued a press release this morning noting that it has secured $53 million in additional funding in a capital raise. This was its fourth and largest round of funding and is said to value the company north of $1 billion. What is perhaps more interesting than anything is that the finding was from a private equity-led group rather than from venture capital. Bain Capital Ventures, the VC unit of Bain, led the financing with additional reinvestment from the company’s existing investors:

• Sequoia Capital,
• Greylock Partners,
• and Bessemer Venture Partners.

Over 23 million professionals use LinkedIn to keep in touch with old contacts, to reach new contacts, to problem-solve, and more.

To top matters off, CNBC hosted the head of the company, Dan Nye, earlier this morning and the hint of going public was much more than a hint. It seems like you can probably anticipate an S-1 filing with the SEC in the relatively near future if things continue, even though that timing could be later in 2008 or into 2009 or even never. But the ‘we are going for valuations much higher than this’ line was a hard one not to notice. Personally, I’ll go ahead and ‘bet the over’ that we see an IPO filing in the coming months as long as market conditions don’t go further awry.

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Filed under: Private equity industry, Value and lack thereof

Early this year, The Blackstone Group LP (NYSE: BX) agreed to purchase GSO Capital Partners, a hedge fund that focuses on leveraged finance, for a cool $930 million. Stephen A. Schwarzman, Blackstone’s CEO, stated that the deal would create “one of the largest credit platforms in the alternative asset management business.” Yes, it’s an attractive space, especially in light of the credit crunch.

Moreover, Blackstone isn’t wasting time in leveraging the GSO platform. According to a report in Bloomberg, it looks enjoy it is raising a new fund that’s focused on distressed debt.

True, there hasn’t been a surge in defaults and bankruptcies, but such things usually have lag times, and if the economy remains sluggish, there are apt to be many distressed opportunities.

However, the distressed investment market is getting crowded. Some of the recent players include the Carlyle Group and Oaktree Capital Management. In fact, Monarch Substitute Capital and Cerberus Capital Management LP are in the market raising their own distressed funds.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.

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Filed under: Management, Private equity industry, Value and lack thereof, Public or private?

Landry’s Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE: LNY) has announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement with Fertitta Holdings, Inc.

Fertitta has agreed to acquire all outstanding common stock for $21.00 per share in cash. This represents a premium of approximately 37% over the closing share price of the company’s common stock on April 3, 2008. This was the last day before disclosure of the revised offer made by Mr. Fertitta to acquire the company. The total value of the transaction is approximately $1.3 billion, which includes approximately $885 million of debt.

Fertitta is a newly formed entity wholly owned by the company’s Chairman, President, CEO and original founder, Tilman J. Fertitta. Mr. Fertitta beneficially owns approximately 39% of the Company’s outstanding shares of common stock.

Continue reading the implications and analysis at 247WallSt.com.

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Filed under: Raising money, Engagements, Private equity industry, Investments

Back in Might, there was word that a new commercial finance company called Tygris Commercial Finance Group was going to set a record with a $1.75 billion capital raise.

This morning, I received an email from a PR firm and then saw the press release. On June 6, Tygris closed with more than a $2 billion raise, setting an even higher record than expected.

Tygris is a commercial finance company that provides liquidity and growth capital to middle market companies throughout North America. Tygris has three commercial finance businesses: corporate finance, equipment leasing and asset finance, and small ticket leasing. Tygris has offices in Chicago, Stamford, CT and Parsippany, NJ.

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Filed under: Venture capital industry, Private equity industry, Value and lack thereof

Say Street Corporation (NYSE: STT) has a report out showing various 2007 private equity returns. While the numbers are backward looking and don’t indicate anything for tomorrow, the numbers are still staggering considering all of the problems that started hitting private equity firms last year.

The State Street Private Equity Index posted its returns for the index date December 31, 2007 and it still shows a long-term return that is higher than the traditional equity markets.

The index is based on the latest quarterly statistics from State Street Investment Analytics’ Private Edge Group. It is a detailed analysis of private equity investments for a diverse client base covering public and private pensions, endowments and foundations, representing more than 4,000 commitments totaling more than $160 billion.

Continue reading the full report at 247WallSt.com.

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