Practice Areas
Private Equity
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February 22, 2012
Turkish PE Firm Spins Out €200M Youth-Oriented Fund
Six members of Turkish investment group Rhea Asset Management's private equity team have left the company to launch a new, independent firm that will raise up to €200 million ($265 million) to harness the purchasing power of Turkey's burgeoning youth population.
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February 22, 2012
Bunge Buys UK Carbon Fund As C02 Prices Plummet
U.S. agricultural commodities company Bunge Ltd. will buy London-based carbon fund manager Climate Change Capital Ltd., after the plan was approved by Britain's financial regulator earlier this week, Bunge said Wednesday.
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February 22, 2012
Citi, Levant Bag $100M Stake In Saudi Supermarket Chain
Investment funds advised by Citigroup Inc.'s venture capital arm and Dubai-based Levant Capital Ltd. have closed a $100 million deal to jointly acquire a controlling stake in one of Saudi Arabia's biggest supermarket chains, the companies said Wednesday.
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February 22, 2012
Indian PE Arm Eyeing Hershey's Stake In Candy Venture
The private equity arm of India's quasi-governmental infrastructure developer on Wednesday was reportedly in talks to buy out The Hershey Co.'s 51 percent stake in an Indian confectioner joint venture.
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February 22, 2012
Sealink Hits BofA, Citi, Others With $949M RMBS Claims
Irish financial firm Sealink Funding Ltd. on Tuesday hit a group of big banks including the Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC and Citigroup Inc. with a summons claiming they misrepresented the credit ratings of $949 million worth of investments in residential mortgage-backed securities.
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February 22, 2012
Pegasus, RCF Accused Of Molycorp Pump-And-Dump Scheme
Shareholders of rare earth oxide producer Molycorp Inc. on Tuesday launched a derivative suit accusing the company's board and private equity backers RCF Management LLC and Pegasus Capital Advisors LP of orchestrating a pump-and-dump scheme that netted more than $1.5 billion in ill-gotten gains for the alleged perpetrators.
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February 22, 2012
GE Trust Puts 2 Chicago Office Towers Up For Sale
A pension trust managed by GE Asset Management Inc. is looking to sell its ownership interest of more than 1.1 million square feet in two Class B office towers in downtown Chicago, the broker running the sale said Wednesday.
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February 22, 2012
Pryor Cashman Lands New Investment Management Partner
New York law firm Pryor Cashman LLP has lassoed a hedge fund and corporate transactions expert from D.E. Shaw & Co. LP, a global investment and technology development company, to co-head the firm's investment management group, the firm announced Wednesday.
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February 21, 2012
Catalyst Nabs Minority Stake In Offshore Oil Contractor
Australian private equity firm Catalyst Investment Managers Pty Ltd. has purchased a roughly 40 percent stake in Bhagwan Marine Pty Ltd., providing the offshore oil and gas service provider with capital to expand its operations, the private equity firm said Tuesday.
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February 21, 2012
BlackRock Considers Sale Of $504M Aussie Property Trust
Money management giant BlackRock Inc. said on Tuesday that it is considering selling off one of its Australian property trusts, worth about 468 million Australian dollars ($504 million), for failing to meet industry benchmarks over the last three years.
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February 21, 2012
Ex-Lincolnshire CEO Sues To Shake Blame In $99M Award Row
The former CEO of Lincolnshire Management Inc. on Monday sued the private equity firm over a dispute arising from an underlying shareholder suit in which a $99 million award was ordered against two Lincolnshire-related investment firms.
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February 21, 2012
K&L Gates Snags Bryan Cave Partner For LA Corporate Team
K&L Gates LLP has lured to its corporate practice a Bryan Cave LLP transactional partner with experience representing domestic and international companies and private equity funds in the aerospace and technology sectors, the firm announced Monday.
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February 21, 2012
Paulson Hedge Fund Sued Over $460M Sino-Forest Loss
An investor in billionaire John Paulson's hedge funds filed a putative class action in Florida on Tuesday alleging Paulson's firm failed to properly vet Sino-Forest Corp. before buying shares of the forestry company, eventually costing the firm roughly $460 million.
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February 21, 2012
Simpson Thacher Closes $8.6B Buyout Fund For BC Partners
BC Partners has closed its latest European buyout fund at €6.5 billion ($8.6 billion), the firm said Tuesday, making it the biggest European private equity fund raised since the onset of the financial crisis and a major boost for Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP's new U.K. fund formation group.
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February 21, 2012
Grubb & Ellis Pursues Sale To BGC Through Ch. 11
Commercial real estate services company Grubb & Ellis Co. on Monday filed for Chapter 11 protection in New York to sell itself to BGC Partners Inc. in a bid to preserve its business.
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February 17, 2012
Harbinger Investors Sue Fund, Falcone Over LightSquared Loss
An investor launched a putative class action against Philip Falcone and his hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners LLC on Friday, claiming they misled investors by sinking $3 billion into wireless network startup LightSquared Inc., whose conditional operating license was yanked by federal regulators Tuesday.
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February 17, 2012
Wiley Snags Workplace Assessment Co. For $85M
Publisher John Wiley & Sons Inc. has purchased Inscape Holdings Inc., a provider of behavior assessments and training products that develop interpersonal business skills, for $85 million from private equity firm Sentinel Capital Partners, Wiley announced Friday.
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February 17, 2012
Trilantic Snags Stake In Billabong’s $464M Watch Unit
Billabong International Ltd. has rejected a nearly $3.22 per share buyout offer from TPG Capital in favor of the partial sale of its Nixon Inc. unit to private equity firm Trilantic Capital Partners, which values the watch company at $464 million, Billabong said Friday.
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February 17, 2012
Canadian Pacific Wants Gov't Mediator For Pension Talks
Facing a shareholder revolt, an activist private equity investor and revved-up competition from its biggest rival, Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. on Friday sought the help of a government mediator for stalled union negotiations.
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February 17, 2012
Goldman, PE Firm To Pay $3B For TransUnion
Credit information giant TransUnion Corp. will sell itself in a $3 billion deal to private equity firm Advent International Corp. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s merchant banking arm, the parties announced Friday.
Expert Analysis
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A New Opportunity For PE Funds To Take Wing
Despite certain risks, 2012 should be a year of opportunity for private equity funds to create investment vehicles specifically designed for large-scale investment in aircraft portfolios and to take advantage of current market pricing and capital needs of both leasing companies and airlines, say attorneys with Kaye Scholer LLP.
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Deal Market Trends For 2012
While the M&A market recovery lost steam in the second half of 2011, corporations and private funds still have capital to deploy, leading pundits and practitioners alike to be cautiously hopeful that the M&A market in 2012 may show signs of renewed vitality. With that in mind, we look back at 2011 for lessons learned in the M&A space with implications for the coming year, say David Fox and Daniel Wolf of Kirkland & Ellis LLP.
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Review: Recent Securities Litigation, Rising Trends
While credit crisis-related litigation continued in 2011, it has extended beyond the securities class action realm, as evidenced by a recent surge in mortgage-backed securities actions. Another trend has been the increase in M&A-related securities litigation, something we expect to continue in the coming year, say attorneys with Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP.
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Law School, Meet Litigation PR ...
The single most important thing law schools can do to manage their reputations in the face of litigation is apply the lessons learned from Wall Street during the recent financial crisis and strive for transparency in all communications. One need only look to Goldman Sachs’ woes or the struggles of Jon Corzine’s MF Global as examples of the catastrophic results of a campaign based on anything but complete honesty, says Spencer Baretz of Hellerman Baretz Communications.
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New Angles For Investors In German Insolvencies
A bill recently approved by the German Parliament and German Federal Assembly will radically change German insolvency law — incentivizing management to make use of insolvent corporate restructurings in Germany and giving the debtor’s management and creditors more options, says David Saucken of Kaye Scholer LLP.
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Chinese Property — Bubble Trouble?
The view that China’s red hot property market is in for a severe correction has been fueling fears of a hard landing for the entire economy. Why all the doom and gloom? Perhaps because Western speculators have billions riding on a bet that China’s economy will sour, says Ian Devereux of Stephenson Harwood.
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High-Growth Markets: An Attractive M&A Option
Although high-growth market merger and acquisition activity in 2011 failed to sustain the spectacular growth it experienced in 2010, the looming threat of a double-dip recession in developed economies could push managers to swiftly seize high-quality M&A opportunities in high-growth markets in the near term, say attorneys with Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP.
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IP Due Diligence: Tips For Emerging Growth Cos.
The fact that an emerging growth firm possesses some intellectual property tells investors only so much — it is critical to assess the strength and value of the target’s specific holdings, linking the assumptions in the investment and valuation analysis with the reality of the IP assets, says Moshe Malina, chief patent counsel with Citigroup Inc.
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Recent Trends In Green Energy M&A
The financial turmoil that began in the summer of 2011, particularly in Europe, has raised concerns regarding the availability of financing in 2012. Recent discussions at the Infocast green energy mergers and acquisitions conference provide insight on potential financing sources, as well as emerging deal structure trends, says Jonathan Melmed of Chadbourne & Parke LLP.
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Spotlight On Intercreditor Agreements In Bankruptcy
Some recent cases illustrate that intercreditor agreements are still not iron-clad in bankruptcy, and that courts remain willing to overlook the express terms of such agreements in the interests of achieving an equitable solution for all the stakeholders in a bankruptcy proceeding, say Debra Koker and William McMahon of Choate Hall & Stewart LLP.