While defaults rise and growing numbers of private-equity backed companies continue their march to bankruptcy (though not necessarily losses for the funds which marched them there), the "creative" financial devices which helped fuel the buyout boom appear poised for a comeback.
Continue reading "Recap Rerun: Short Memories, Missing Regulation" »
Two private equity groups - CVC Capital Partners and TPG - are the two private equity funds which remain in the running to acquire the Eastern and Central European assets of Anheuser-Busch Inbev in a bidding process which closed on July 27.
Continue reading "CVC Capital in Bid for Anheuser-Busch InBev ECE Operations" »
In 2003, Debenhams, a department store chain with 142 units in the UK and Ireland, was taken private by three private equity funds: CVC, TPG and Merrill Lynch Private Equity.
Continue reading "The Debenhams Deal: Autopsy of a Quick Flip" »
"Coca-Cola Amatil faces the threat of industrial action against the planned sale of its A$700 million South Korean bottling subsidiary unless unions are consulted and employment conditions protected.
Unions representing about 2000 workers at Coca-Cola Amatil's three South Korean bottling operations say they have been kept in the dark about the sale and are pushing for their collective agreement to be renewed.
Three unions with members employed at Coca-Cola Korea Bottling Company plants have opposed the sale of the business to private equity fund CVC Capital Partners, which has submitted an expression of interest and is believed to be on CCA's shortlist."
Continue reading: Mark Skulley and Sue Mitchell, 'CCA sale in Korea faces strikes', Australian Financial Review 2 May 2007.
In a press release issued on the morning of April 27, the three unions representing workers in Coca-Cola Korea Bottling Company (CCKBC) North, Southwest & Southeast announced their opposition to the sale of the CCKBC to a private-equity fund, CVC Capital Partners. The three unions, affiliated to the IUF, have made it clear that they will oppose such a sale under any conditions. In their press statement the unions assert that, “there is no possibility that we will accept CVC (a private equity fund), which has submitted a letter of intent to buy CCKBC. We will never accept CVC owning CCKBC even if CVC agrees to guarantee union demands. We three unions are planning to demand that CVC should be excluded from the bidders.”
According to Reuters, the private equity fund CVC Capital Partners has teamed up with the Korean food company, Woongjin Foods, to bid for the purchase of Coca-Cola Korea Bottling Company (CCKBC) from Coca-Cola Amatil. Other bidders for the KOrean Coca-Cola operations include the Korean food and beverage firms CJ, Lotte ChilsungDongwon F&B, Namyang Dairy Products, Samlip General Foods and SPC.
Six months after CVC Capital Partners and Nordic Capital bought the LEAF confectionary company in Finland for €850 million, the productive and highly profitable facrtory in Turku was closed in March 2005.
LEAF: Killing the milkcow
by Henri Lindholm, Secretary, Finnish Foodworkers Union (SEL)
The workforce at the plant were used to bad news. Although the LEAF factory had been part of the fabric of the industrial landscape in Turku for some one hundred years, recent times had brought layoffs and reductions in staffing. The warehouse and logistics department had been outsourced a couple of years earlier, and long serving employees were forced to take part time jobs or face termination of employment. Nothing, however, could prepare the employees for what was to be announced on May 25, 2005.
Continue reading "CVC Capital Partners and Nordic Capital buyout of LEAF: Killing the milkcow" »