The IUF's Private Equity Buyout Watch

Blackstone (& Friends) Buy Extended Stay Hotels - This Time at Half Price

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 17:52:36 +0000

Three months before becoming the world's largest hotelier (by rooms) with the 2007 leveraged buyout of Hilton Hotels Corporation, the private equity Blackstone Group unloaded the Extended Stay chain for USD 8 billion. It was a hell of a deal for Blackstone, who picked up the chain in 2004 for just under USD 2 billion.

Demerging Accor - Less Than the Sum of the Parts?

Tue, 18 May 2010 10:30:35 +0000

How many surprises can still be in store at Accor, the French-based hotel and prepaid services transnational? In 2009, when private equity investors Eurazeo and Colony Capital boosted their stake to 30%, it was described as a "vote of confidence" in existing management.

Blackmailing the Taxman, from Davos to Sydney

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:02:05 +0000

Blackstone Chairman Stephen Schwarzman, speaking from Davos, Switzerland, has warned Australia of a foreign investment "chill" following that country's efforts to collect taxes on a windfall deal from private equity giant TPG.

Kraft and Cadbury, Victors and Spoils

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:29:53 +0000

Barring any last-minute surprises, Kraft, the world's second-largest food company, will swallow UK-based Cadbury in a deal which in its reliance on debt bears a family resemblance to...a leveraged buyout.

Blackstone's Hilton Woes Will Weigh on Workers

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 08:26:09 +0000

Private equity operator Blackstone, according to the Wall Street Journal of October 29, "has good reason to be nervous about Hilton." They're not alone; the enormous leverage taken on to finance the buyout at the height of the debt bubble now weighs heavily on the more than one hundred thousand Hilton employees around the world, on the wider financial system, and on the US Treasury, and therefore US taxpayers. Here's why.

Recap Rerun: Short Memories, Missing Regulation

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:43:45 +0000

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.

IPO Blues

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:06:29 +0000

Private equity funds hoping to cash in on the stock market to return money to hungry investors through IPOs (initial stock offerings) may have hit a brick wall. What does this mean for workers?

Private Equity Pain for Education and Public Workers

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 13:27:23 +0000

The Next Debt Bubble? PE Fuels Subprime Microfinance in India

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:01:37 +0000

Microfinance, small business loans to the urban and rural poor, was originally conceived as a tool for poverty alleviation. It has become big business - and private equity has rushed in. The Wall Street Journal of August 13 reports that in India, private equity funds among other investors have "poured billions of dollars over the past few years into microfinance world-wide", using methods reminiscent of the aggressive, predatory lending which spawned the subprime debt bubble in the US. In India today, the article reports, "Some poor neighborhoods are being 'carpet-bombed' with loans" bearing interest of 24% to 39%.

US Pension Funds' Private Equity Disaster: Lost on the Road to Alphaville

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:51:06 +0000

New research from Bloomberg makes clear the magnitude of the private equity losses suffered by US employee pension funds in the period 2000-2008.

Illusion, Reality, and the Quarterly Report

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 14:11:52 +0000

Goldman Sachs, which has made billions through financing and collecting "advisory fees" on buyout deals in addition to being a major buyout actor in its own right, has posted record quarterly profits. Is prosperity around the corner?

CVC Capital in Bid for Anheuser-Busch InBev ECE Operations

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 14:02:46 +0000

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.

Stella D'oro Workers to Fight Retaliatory Plant Closure

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 14:12:19 +0000

The 136 members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers & Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM) on strike for nearly 11 months at the New York biscuit maker Stella D'oro (Buyouts, Bread Sticks, Biscotti) returned to work on July 6 to find that private equity owners Brynwood Partners would be closing the plant within 90 days and relocating production.

Debt matters: what is at stake in the struggle to refinance portfolio companies

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:17:05 +0000

Buyouts, Bread Sticks, Biscotti – and Challenges for the Obama Administration

Mon, 18 May 2009 19:04:12 +0000

The 136 workers on strike for 9 months at the Stella D'oro bakery at West 237th Street in the Bronx are a microcosm of working America. They are as diverse as the neighborhood - African-American, Latino, "ethnic" whites, even African. A majority are women, many of them mothers and grandmothers. Most of them worked at Stella d'Oro for years, even decades, before, as they tell it, being forced out on strike. Seven months into a bitter strike, they'll all tell you "We're going to stay out as long as it takes to get a fair contract."