Investcorp nears $1bn target for its first conventional limited partnership private equity fund as it expands its investor base to include investors beyond its Gulf heartland.
Media-focused Quadrangle has agreed to purchase Dennis Publishing’s US arm, which includes the young men’s’ magazines Maxim, Stuff and Blender. The price tag is an estimated $250 million.
The five firms giving evidence to the UK Parliament’s investigation hope a mixture of hard fact about successful deals and plain talking about tax among other issues will make a stronger case than the BVCA managed with its lamentable performance last week.
Abraaj Capital’s partner on the Egyptian Fertilizers Company deal earlier this month, the Dubai Capital Group registered an 88 percent IRR and made three times its original investment in the stake it sold and later bought back.
US mid-market firm Sterling Capital has nearly doubled the size of its previous fund with a ‘quick, easy’ capital raise.
Lehman Brothers has more than doubled its fund of funds programme with the close of a $1.5 billion vehicle. It is Lehman’s second fund of funds raised since 2003, when the firm acquired Dallas-based fund of funds manager The Crossroads Group.
DIFC, the Dubai government-backed investment group which is a big investor in private equity, has launched a record-sized Islamic finance bond, with the majority of its investors coming from outside the MENA region.
The UK government is reportedly planning a sale or flotation of CDC, the emerging markets fund of funds that recently revealed bumper profits.
Avista Capital – the firm founded by former DLJ head Thompson Dean along with other senior executives from CSFB’s private equity arm – has closed its first fund on $2 billion.
EMAlternatives has secured its first investment, with a $100 million commitment from the California Public Employees’ Retirement System. The private equity fund investment specialist attempts to offer global investors exposure to markets they have not invested in before.
Clothing company Jones Apparel Group is in talks to sell luxury department store Barneys New York to Istithmar for $950 million (€714 million). The Dubai-based firm has been active in the New York real estate market lately.
Blackstone’s public float will net Steve Schwarzman and Pete Peterson more than $2.3 billion. Last year, according to a regulatory filing, the pair took home more than $600 million.
Actis has taken a minority stake in Nigeria-based Diamond Bank, shortly after the country’s scandal-dogged elections. But despite the governance concerns, buyout firms are optimistic about the country’s economic and political future.
A consortium led by Edmund Truell has sold the operating businesses of UK retailers Threshers and BrightHouse to secondaries specialist Vision Capital, just two weeks after buying them. The £265 million sale will leave the consortium in control of the companies’ pension fund assets.
KKR and TPG have reportedly offered to pay $30 million toward air quality improvement programmes in central Texas, in the group’s latest move to quell criticism of the $45 billion proposed buyout of Dallas, Texas-based utility company TXU.