Swiss Life Sells Most of Private Equity Portfolio
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Swiss Life Holding on Friday said it agreed to sell most of its private-equity portfolio, valued at 400 million Swiss francs ($321.2 million), to an affiliate of a U.S. investment firm.
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(InfoWorld) - Strong corporate financials, eager venture capital, a liberal lending environment, and markets in transition continue to inspire buyouts and acquisitions in the IT world with Avaya and Palm beingÂ just two of the high-profile targets this week. The transition to new technology in telecom and the Web in particular opens up opportunities for vendors. Network equipment manufacturerÂ Avaya announced a dealÂ for a $8.2 billion cash buyout by private equity firms TPG Capital and Silver Lake Partners on Monday. "We are starting to see more of this kind of public-firm-going-private. We've seen this with Alltel most recently and cable television companies as well," said telecom analyst Jeff Kagan. Last month, TPG and Goldman Sachs Group's private equity unitÂ bought mobile service company AlltelÂ for $27.5 billion. The Avaya deal will allow it to make a potentially costly transition from legacy TDM products to IP technology without having to worry about the quarter-to-quarter bottom line. The timing of the deal was good. Avaya shares have been doing well lately, so the buyout gives shareholders top dollar. Avaya shares rose $0.31 to close at $17.02 Tuesday. "Avaya obtained an impressive value for shareholders," said Morgan Keegan analyst Tavis McCourt. Private equity firmÂ Elevation Partners' acquisition of 25 percent of PalmÂ also caused investors to cheer. Palm rose $1.48 to close at $17.57 Monday. Palm gets a $325 million investment and also several industry leaders: Jon Rubinstein, former senior vice president of hardware engineering and head of the iPod division at Apple, as well as Apple's former CFO, Fred Anderson. It is widely hoped that Rubinstein will be able to spark new ideas at Palm, which is suffering from competition against device makers Research In Motion and Nokia. Palm last week announced the Foleo, pitched as a mobile device "companion" product, but IT investors are waiting for more of a breakthrough device for the company's aging product line. In other acquisition news,Â Flextronics International said Monday it will acquire SolectronÂ for $3.6 billion. Flextronics said the deal will streamline product development and supply chain management and create an electronics manufacturing giant with more than $30 billion in annual revenue. But Flextronics slipped $0.16 to close at $11.54 on the news. Traders sometimes dump shares of acquiring companies when deals are suspected to have a negative impact on financials. Investment firm Hilliard Lyons downgraded its rating on Flextronics from "buy" to "underperform." Meanwhile, telecom-equipment maker UTStarcom dropped $0.80 to $6.51 after announcing Monday that it had done a strategic review and decided not to seek a buyout or merger. Though new technology may bring more opportunities, it may take a while before new products and services generate significant revenue for vendors. Almost halfway through the year, moderate growth is still anticipated for global IT in 2007 and recent surveys suggest that corporate spending may be even softer than had been expected. AÂ survey from ChangeWave Research released last week, for example, reported that the percentage of companies planning to increase their spending has fallen to its lowest point in the last four years. In this environment, where capital is available but market growth is slow, IT is bound to see buyouts and acquisitions continue.
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The discount broker spreads the wealth around.
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SPAINâs Banco Santander Central Hispano is conducting a beauty parade of investment banks to sell the life businesses it will acquire as part of its Â£8 billion takeover of Abbey.
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Sallie Mae said it sold $2 billion of common stock and $1 billion of convertible securities Thursday in a deal that would help pay off bad derivatives bets.
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Two private equity groups -- The Carlyle   Group CYL.UL and Apax Partners -- said on Sunday they have   signed an agreement to sell healthcare marketing services firm   MediMedia USA Inc. to Vestar Capital Partners.
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A rundown of funds selling at a discount to the cover price.
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Holidays-to-insurance company Saga has been sold in a Â£1.35bn ($2.43bn) management buyout deal backed by private equity firm Charterhouse.
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An agreement has been reached on the sale of the portfolio of SIV Portfolio, a structured investment vehicle, to bidders including Goldman Sachs , the fund's receivers Deloitte & Touche said on Monday.
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For Edward S. Lampert, it appears the bloom is off the rose at Citigroup. The billionaire investor disclosed on Thursday that he has sold off more than 30 percent of his holdings in the struggling financial giant. RBS Partners, a hedge fund he controls, now holds about 19.1 million shares in Citi as of Dec. 31, [...].
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Financial service group Fortis has  moved to sell almost all of its remaining 36 percent stake in  Assurant, worth about $1.55 billion, after floating the U.S.  insurer nearly a year ago.
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British property firm Segro has agreed to sell its U.S. life sciences real-estate business to Health Care Property Investors Inc. for $2.9 billion as it moves to focus on Britain and continental Europe.
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Citigroup&#39;s European headquarters in London has been sold to a consortium led by an Irish private-equity company for 1.0 billion pounds (1.48 billion euros, 2.01 billion dollars), the buyers said Monday.
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Funds run by the currency trader buy a 7% stake in the brokerage.
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IT services vendor LogicaCMG Plc's involvement in the mobile communications software space is over following the sale of its telecoms products division to a private equity group for 265m pounds ($348m) in cash.
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Resolution Life, the closed life assurance consolidator led by Clive Cowdery, completed its second acquisition yesterday with the Â£205m purchase of Swiss Life&#39;s closed UK business.
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UBS , the world's largest wealth manager, reported record full-year profits as its wealth management and investment banking units boomed, hiked its dividend and unveiled a 16 billion Swiss franc ($12.77 billion) share buyback.