Bloomberg reports that Gome Electrical Appliances Holdings Ltd. may sell up to 20% of the company to Bain Capital LLC. The asking price is said to be approximately $500 million. The other companies competing for the piece of Gome are KKR & Co. (NYSE: KFN) and Warburg Pincus.

Gome is the second-largest electronics retailer in China, with more than 800 stores in over 160 cities. So it makes a nice target for investors looking for alternatives to recession-constrained businesses in the United States, Europe and developed markets in Asia.

Continue reading Bain in lead for 20% stake in China's Gome?

Bain in lead for 20% stake in China's Gome? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 27 May 2009 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Were you wondering which sector of the U.S. economy would be next to take a dive from the year-old credit crunch? Well look no further, because Barron's [subscription required] reports that private equity firms like Apollo Global Management, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, and Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX) are hurting gators thanks to too much borrowed money and the weak financial performance of the companies they bought. And business is way down, Barron's reports that through mid-August, the 2008 total deal volume "stood at $67 billion, versus more than $400 billion in the corresponding 2007 period."

This does not come as a surprise to me. In February 2007, I appeared on CNBC arguing that private equity had peaked. And I began to question its long-term viability back in August 2006 when Barron's Alan Abelson quoted my thoughts on the matter. The basic problem is that when debt is cheap, private equity booms and when it starts selling itself to the public, investors should hold onto their wallets for dear life. People who own private equity firms tap their superior knowledge of the coming downturn to convince the public to bail them out by buying their stock.

Barron's cites -- as evidence of trouble in private equity land -- examples of the declining value of the publicly traded debt in companies that private equity took private at too-high prices with too much borrowed money. It writes that bonds of "many companies taken private in the past two years have plunged to 50 cents on the dollar or less, signaling that investors fear they won't be fully repaid. Many companies that were the subjects of buyouts a year or two ago are so grossly over-leveraged that they're struggling simply to pay interest. If they were to default, debt investors would be stung, but equity investors would be even worse off; the value of their holdings would be deeply impaired or wiped out."

Continue reading Barron's: Private equity is next shoe to drop

Barron's: Private equity is next shoe to drop originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: KKR takes advantage

Cramer on BloggingStocks: KKR takes advantage originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 28 Jul 2008 08:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The New York Times reports that Kohlberg Kravis and Roberts (KKR), the most famous of the private equity firms, is now ready to part with its private status -- a year after it watched Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX) go public and promptly lose half its value.

The Times reports that KKR already has a public affiliate, KKR Private Equity Investors, which is listed on the Euronext in Amsterdam. KKR will buy that for $3.9 billion. This complex deal will value KKR at between $12 billion and $15 billion. The deal will put 21% of the firm's shares in public hands while KKR executives will own the other 79%.

How do we know that KKR's IPO won't lose half its value as Blackstone's did? We don't. But KKR executives won't be able to sell their shares at the offering -- according to the Times, KKR executives will have a "six- to eight-year vesting period compared with Blackstone's three- to four-year period." And once KKR is public, independent directors will control it; whereas inside directors run Blackstone.

Continue reading KKR to become second big public private equity firm

KKR to become second big public private equity firm originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 27 Jul 2008 17:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

KKR Financial Holdings LLC (NYSE: KFN) is a pioneer of the private equity world. However, over the past few years, things have changed significantly. Besides the credit crunch, dealmakers must also deal with the complexities of politics. After all, a buyout can have a major impact on a community -- in terms of jobs and the ecosystem.

Realizing this, KKR is bulking up its political heft. This week, the firm announced that it has hired Kenneth Mehlman as a managing director and head of public affairs.

Mehlman has a strong resume, having served as the chairman of the Republican National Committee. He was also the campaign manager for President George Bush in the 2004 election. The latest gig for him was as a partner at Akin Gump. Interestingly, one of his top clients was KKR.

Continue reading KKR gets some political savvy

KKR gets some political savvy originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 17 Apr 2008 16:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) is making a $2 billion equity investment in Countrywide Financial Corporation (NYSE: CFC), people familiar with the situation told the Wall Street Journal (subscription required).
• Ticket seller Ticketmaster, which is owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ: IACI), has halted talks with concert promoter Live Nation Inc (NYSE: LYV), failing to reach a new, long-term agreement. The talks have "grown acrimonious" over the last year and a half, say people close to the situation, with Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino threatening to start his own ticketing company rather than renewing with Ticketmaster, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• Home Depot Inc's (NYSE: HD) sale of its wholesale supply division to a group of private equity firms is in doubt, due to uncertainty about the willingness of three investment banks to fund the deal, reported the Financial Times (subscription required).
  
• The Financial Times reported that Motorola Inc (NYSE: MOT) lost more than 7% of market share in the handset market in Q2, according to new figures.

• Private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts has reportedly postponed its $1.25B initial public offering, after investors showed little interest in the IPO, reported the U.K. Times.

Newspaper wrap-up: Bank of America invests in Countrywide originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 23 Aug 2007 09:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The New York Times [registration required] reports that KKR partner, Henry Kravis, is belatedly and ineffectively entering the battle to keep Congress from raising his taxes. At issue is the 15% capital gains rate which private equity firms pay on the 20% of the profits their funds generate, known as carried interest. Congress wants to tax this 20% as ordinary income -- meaning Kravis and his pals would pay a 35% tax.

Despite his arguments about the jobs KKR created in Rep. Sander Levin's home state of Michigan and his claim that a tax increase could hurt the investment returns of the pension funds which invest in KKR, Kravis appeared not to have dissuaded Levin in his drive to raise the tax rate from 15% to 35%.

I wrote an e-mail to Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) who chairs the House Financial Services Committee. My suggestion, on which I posted earlier, is that the real problem is that private equity firms and their bankers get rich by taking risks -- such as borrowing too much money -- and they often leave society to pay the costs of failed deals -- as they did with the $150 billion bailout of the junk-bond fueled collapse of the Savings & Loan (S&L) industry.

Continue reading Private equity's taxing matter

Private equity's taxing matter originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 11 Jul 2007 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Today's New York Times [registration required] discusses the pending initial public offering (IPO) of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR). In so doing, it glosses over the role of its founding partner, Jerome Kohlberg. But just because The Times ignores him, that's no reason for you to.

That's because I interviewed him three years ago for the Swarthmore College Bulletin. So without further ado, here's my interview with him:

"Kohlberg was co-founder of the leveraged buyout specialist KKR and is now special limited principal of Kohlberg & Co. His business success began with the simple yet powerful notion that it was better to risk one's own capital than to be an intermediary. "One of my friend's fathers was a merchant banker,' he recalls. "He didn't act for commissions. He stood and fell on his own investments, which he put beside those of other clients. I realized that being a principal was what I wanted.""

Continue reading KKR's forgotten partner

KKR's forgotten partner originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 04 Jul 2007 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Blackstone reserves $26 billion for Hilton buyout originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 03 Jul 2007 19:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

• The Wall Street Journal reported that Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) is looking for buyers for its Jaguar and Land Rover brands, which are valued at a combined $1.3B to $1.5B, but any sale is expected to take a month or longer.
• Airbus is in the final stages of a deal with U.S. Airways Group Inc (NYSE: LCC), which is expected to purchase about 30 A350 jetliners worth about $7B at list price, according to the Wall Street Journal.

• According to the U.K. Times, Imperial Chemical Industries plc (NYSE: ICI) rejected an all-cash offer of GBP$7.2B from Dutch chemicals giant Akzo Nobel NV (NASDAQ: AKZOY), saying the proposal "significantly undervalues" the company; sources believe The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW) and Germany's BASF AG (NYSE: BF) could launch competing bids.
• BHP Billiton Limited (NYSE: BHP) is again interested in a $40B acquisition of Alcoa Inc (NYSE: AA), an aluminum producer, reported the U.K. Times.
• The New York Times reported that negotiations on a buyout of Cadence Design System Inc (NASDAQ: CDNS) by private equity firms Blackstone Group and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts appear to have stalled over price.

Newspaper wrap-up 6-18-07: ICI rejects Akzo Nobel bid originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 18 Jun 2007 09:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

YRC Worldwide (NASDAQ: YRCW) -- implied volatility and call spike on LBO speculation.
YRCW, a transportation holding company with brands including Yellow Transportation, Roadway, Reimer Express, Meridian IQ, New Penn, USF Holland and USF Reddaway, is recently up $0.49 to $40.03 on LBO speculation. YRCW will be speaking at Merrill Lynch's Transportation Conference next week. YRCW has a market cap of $2.2 billion with $1 billion in debt. YRCW reported quarterly March 2007 revenue of $2.3 billion. YRCW call option volume of 6,382 contracts compares to put volume of 207 contracts. YRCW June option implied volatility is at 44, July is at 36 above its 26-week average of 32 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price risks.

Biomet (NASDAQ: BMET) -- implied volatility-risk increases into June 8th shareholder vote.
BMET a designer, manufacturer and marketer of joint replacement products announced on 12/18/06 a consortium including the Blackstone Group, Goldman Sachs and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts will purchase BMET for $44 a share in cash. Institutional Shareholder Services recommended BMET holders vote down the $10.9 billion private equity deal. BMET shareholders are to vote on 6/8/07. Indiana state law requires a 75% vote for the acquisition to be approved. BMET over all option implied volatility of 17 is above its 5-month average of 12 according to Track Data, suggesting larger risk.

Option volume leaders today are: Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT).

Daily Option Update is provided by Stock Options Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

Option update 6-5-07: YRC Worldwide spikes on LBO speculation originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 05 Jun 2007 12:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Private equity shifts gears to technology originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 05 Jun 2007 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• The Wall Street Journal reported that TPG Capital and Silver Lake are poised to buy telecommunications equipment company Avaya Inc (NYSE: AV) for about $17 a share; Nortel Networks Corporation (NYSE: NT) was also said to be interested.
• News Corporation's (NYSE: NWS) Rupert Murdoch said he is willing to go along with tighter editorial independence, but won't give in to a key demand from Dow Jones & Company Inc's (NYSE: DJ) controlling Bancroft family that they control an editorial oversight board that would protect this, the Wall Street Journal reported.
• Barron's Online's Trader section believes Service Corporation International's (NYSE: SCI) 90% surge since August is the result of funeral service companies' virtual immunity to a slowing economy or rising rates - the market's two biggest fears right now.

• The New York Times reported that software maker Cadence Design Systems Inc (NASDAQ: CDNS) is in talks with private-equity players that include Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and the Blackstone Group about a possible sale of the company.
• Technology Web sites have discovered that Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) embeds customers' personal data into files the company uses to distribute music from its online iTunes music store, creating fears about privacy, the UK Times reported.
• The UK Times also reported that Royal Bank of Scotland Group (OTC: RBSPY) may be looking to sell Southern Water for GBP4B, a move that could lead to many more deals in Britain's privatized water industry.

Newspaper wrap-up 6-04-07: TPG Capital, Silver Lake may buy Avaya originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 04 Jun 2007 09:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Daily Option Update is provided by Stock Options Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

Heinz-(NYSE: HNZ) out of the money May 50 calls active; HNZ trades to Record. HNZ is recently up $1.35 to $48.28. Nelson Peltz, an activist shareholder, has been a holder of HNZ shares over the last 20-months in an attempt for HNZ to lower annual costs, sell assets and return more to shareholders. HNZ May 50 calls have traded 254 times on transaction volume of 5,990 contracts above its open interest of 402 contracts. HNZ May 50 calls are bid .35 cents, near its theoretical value of .35 cents according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional price fluctuations.

Advanced Micro-(NYSE: AMD) calls active, May option implied volatility increases to 46. AMD, a global semiconductor company, is recently up .64 to $14.56. On 12/1/05 Silver Lake and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts formed Avago Technologies through the acquisition and carved out of the Semiconductor Products Group from Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: A) (formerly a division of HPQ) for $2.66 billion, one of the largest private equity buyouts of a semiconductor company. AMD call option volume of 52,272 contracts compares to put volume of 28,105 contracts. AMD May option implied volatility of 46 is above yesterday's level of 43 and its 26-week average of 43 according to Track Data, suggesting slightly larger price risks.

Option volume leaders today are: Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO), Motorola (NYSE: MOT), Amgen (NSDAQ: AMGN) and Intel (NASDAQ: INTC).

Option update 4-18-07: HNZ calls active as HNZ trades to record price originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 19 Apr 2007 15:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Discount general merchandise retailer Dollar General Corp. (NYSE: DG) had the kind of earnings in 4Q 2006 one would expect from a company closing over 400 underperforming stores and liquidating that inventory. Although the short term numbers are not good, they are more or less in line with what Dollar General forecast it would cost to shed that much baggage. Last week, Dollar General reported fourth-quarter net income of $50 million, or $0.16 per share. This compares with 4Q 2005 net income of $145.3 million, or $0.46 per share. For the full year 2006, Dollar General reported net income of almost $138 million, $0.44 per share, compared with full year 2005 net income of $350 million, $1.08 per share.

Dollar General marked down over $279 million worth of inventory, and had closing related costs of almost $33 million. It is not surprising its earnings were not favorable. Despite these factors, 4Q net sales were still $2.5 billion, up 3% from 4Q 2005. Net sales for 2006 were $9.17 billion, an increase of almost 7% over 2005. Dollar General also repurchased 4.5 million shares of its common stock for $80 million.

Dollar General still has very strong cash flow and continues to operate over 8,000 neighborhood stores. These factors convinced affiliates of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) to purchase Dollar General for $22 per share, a slight premium over the closing price of $21.11 on 4 April 2007, but at a 31% premium at the time of the deal in March.

Dollar General's income plummets in 2006 originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 05 Apr 2007 11:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Laureate Education (NASDAQ:LAUR) is in the process of a $3.1 billion buyout deal with Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Citigroup Private Equity and SAC Capital Management.

The problem is that shareholders hate the deal. Select Equity is going to vote "no," as will T. Rowe Price Associates. Now, there is another dissenter: BlackRock (NYSE:BLK), according to a story in TheDeal.com (subscription required.)

Basically, shareholders think Laureate still has lots of growth potential (especially in foreign markets) and that the $60.50 buyout offer does not reflect this. Counting up the votes for the three dissenters, it is still below 20%. But if a couple more shareholders join the mutiny, it could mean this deal falls apart.

Although Wall Street is not betting on that. Laureate's current stock price is $58.55. You may also check out Select Equity's analysis on the deal at the SEC website.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.

Laureate Education gets another "F" on its buyout originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 20 Mar 2007 16:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TXU Corp. (NYSE:TXU) is now the popular girl whom everyone wants to take the the prom. Not bad for a stodgy utility company.

The Blackstone Group, Carlyle Group and Riverstone Holdings may make a counter offer for the Texas power company which has agreed to be bought out by Kohlberg, Kravis & Roberts and Texas Pacific Group in a $32 billion private equity deal, the biggest ever, according to Reuters. The buyout firms are still in early discussions about a potential bid and it may not happen.

As part of the KKR/Texas Pacific deal, TXU has until April 16 to solicit and consider other offers, Reuters said.

Blackstone, Carlyle and Riverstone should get the blessing of the environmental groups that blessed the KKR/Texas Pacific Group bid. That was a PR coup that will help the companies gain leverage with regulators.

Electric utilities generate strong cash flow which private equity firms like. It's only a matter of time until the next deal emerges.

TXU gets private equity counter offer originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 19 Mar 2007 08:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Blackstone Group IPO -- the real thing? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 16 Mar 2007 12:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

As private equity funds like Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and the Caryle Group wrapped up a record-breaking 2006, many investors made comparisons to the conglomerate boom of the "go-go" 1960's, led by companies like ITT and LTV. According to breakingviews.com however, there are important differences.

The conglomerates used a combination of stock with high valuations and debt to buy out companies. The private equity firms of today are relying only on debt, and the equity markets generally come into the equation only after the firm decides to cash out and take the company public.

Ultimately, the dependency of the conglomerates on highly-valued stocks became a self-fulfilling prophecy. As long as their share prices stayed up and people believed in the concept, they were able to buy-up companies at a furious pace, and the high multiples that were being afforded their shares made earnings growth possible. It worked like this: If the company could get it's stock to trade at 25 times earnings, it could use the stock to buy companies for 15 times earnings, and revenues would grow even without synergy or cost-cutting.

Eventually, the market hit a down-turn and investors began to perceive that conglomerates were not really cutting costs. In effect, they were buying up existing companies and then adding a whole layer of upper-management. The conglomerates ended up, in many cases, being far less efficient than individually-run businesses. As investors gave the conglomerates lower multiples, they were unable to make accretive acquisitions. Then their growth slowed and the stocks plummeted.

According to Breakingviews.com (printed in today's Wall Street Journal, subscription required), the private equity funds of today are having success in large part because of cheap debt. If interest rates rise, they say, the funds will be in trouble. The number and size of buyouts has helped to fuel the performance of the stock market in the past year. If the money supply tightens and buyout firms stop buying, stock investors may suffer.

Private equity funds vs. conglomerates originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 02 Jan 2007 11:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Biomet Inc. (NASDAQ:BMET) makes a variety of medical products, such as replacements for knees and hips.

Now, a variety of private equity firms want the company to themselves: Blackstone Group, Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and the Texas Pacific Group. What's more, a founder of Biomet, Dane A. Miller, will also be an investor in the deal.

The price tag comes to $10.9 billion. And, it is a lofty valuation. It comes to 21X cash flows and 3.91X sales.

Then again, the company is likely to be sold-off in pieces - so as to pay down the debt load.

The stock didn't move on the news because, well, the company had been "in play" since April when it retained Morgan Stanley as its financial advisor.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and operates DealProfiles.com.

Biomet gets hip with the buyout craze originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 18 Dec 2006 13:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.