The Dallas-based private equity firm is being sued by Accredited Home Lenders after it said Friday it may back away from its previously agreed $400 million buyout of the subprime mortgage company. Lone Star has extended the tender deadline.
2 min read · 12 January 2013
Duke Street Capital’s sixth fund has broken the €1 billion mark, providing some welcome news to the buyout firm after a summer where it has had to endure some negative coverage.
2 min read · 12 January 2013
In Denmark, a law has been passed to remove the favourable tax status enjoyed by leveraged loans.
5 min read · 12 January 2013
In June, London-based Duke Street Capital hit the headlines over pending job losses at portfolio company Burton's Foods and creditor losses at former portfolio company Focus DIY. Following Duke Street's investment in Burton's in March, UK MP Angela Eagle has been campaigning against the firm's plans for a Burton's biscuit factory in her Wallasey constituency, which may cost 660 jobs. Meanwhile the investment in Focus has been branded an example of lenders and bondholders being at risk in LBOs after sponsors cash out through recapitalisations. Duke Street recapitalised what was then Focus Wickes in 2002 and, having sold the Wickes business to a trade buyer, refinanced Focus once more in 2005 on a stand-alone basis. In January, Focus was put up for sale after it became obvious that the company was no longer able to service the £280 million of debt on its balance sheet. In June, US distressed debt specialist Cerberus bought the company for £1. The new owner will pay back £185 million of bank debt while the holders of £100 million worth of bonds will receive 40p in the pound. PEI caught up with Duke Street's managing partner Peter Taylor, who has been asked to appear before the Treasury Select Committee in the House of Commons in the coming weeks (at press time, a date had not yet been agreed), to quiz him about the recent events.
3 min read · 12 January 2013
Separate reports from two leading authorities on the private equity market have thrown a positive light on the recent upheavals in the debt markets.
4 min read · 12 January 2013
Ratings agency Moody’s is worried about the levels of debt being issued to private equity. It has highlighted refinancing as a concern claiming firms used this as a way to pass risk on to lenders, despite stated intentions to de-leverage.
2 min read · 12 January 2013
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts will become the latest alternative asset manager to raise funds on the public market, after revealing plans for a $1.25 billion initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange before the end of the year.
2 min read · 12 January 2013
City of London veteran Paul Myners has given UK private equity a boost by telling the Treasury Select Committee not to recommend further regulation of the industry. However, he took a less sympathetic view of practitioners’ current tax treatment.
4 min read · 12 January 2013
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.
2 min read · 12 January 2013
Vivek Tandon is the founder and a general partner of Aloe Private Equity, an investment firm based in London and Paris. Aloe expects to close Aloe Environment Fund II, its second clean energy and environmental fund dedicated to the clean energy and environment sector, in the third quarter of 2007 with a target of up to $200 million. The fund has attracted the support of the International Finance Corporation and many of the investors in the first fund. Aloe's strategy is to invest in European cleantech companies and help them expand into Asia.
3 min read · 12 January 2013
