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Reuters – A debt financing of more than 2 billion euros ($2.62 billion) backing the 3.1 billion euro ($4.06 billion) purchase of German metering firm Ista by private equity firm CVC will be a mix of leveraged loans and high-yield bonds, writes Reuters. CVC trumped rival BC Partners to buy a 76 percent stake from co-owner Charterhouse last week in Germany’s largest private equity deal since 2008, writes Reuters.

Reuters – A debt financing of more than 2 billion euros ($2.62 billion) backing the 3.1 billion euro ($4.06 billion) purchase of German metering firm Ista by private equity firm CVC will be a mix of leveraged loans and high-yield bonds, sources said on Friday.

CVC trumped rival BC Partners to buy a 76 percent stake from co-owner Charterhouse on Thursday in Germany’s largest private equity deal since 2008.

The senior debt will be split into loans and senior secured bonds and the junior debt will comprise senior unsecured bonds, the sources said.

The debt financing will have total leverage of around 7.25 times Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation (EBITDA), and senior leverage of around 5.5 times, they added.

CVC contributed around 1 billion euros ($1.31 billion)of equity to the deal, which reduced leverage on the debt to 7.25 times EBITDA, compared to leverage of 7.5 times on BC Partners’ financing.

CVC’s more conservative debt structure and slightly higher equity contribution is designed to ensure that Ista has a flexible capital structure which will allow management to invest in and grow the business, one of the sources said.

Deutsche Bank is in a lead position on the financing package, after providing a staple financing on the loan. Deutsche is expected to be joined by other banks on the financing package, which is still being finalised.

A mandate is expected early next week and the financing package will be launched shortly thereafter. ($1 = 0.7644 euros) (Reporting by Tessa Walsh)

The post Reuters – CVC’s Ista Buyout Backed by Loan, Bond Package appeared first on peHUB.

TPG Capital is putting China’s UniTrust Finance & Leasing Corp up for sale, seeking $800 million, writes Reuters. Morgan Stanley and UBS are handling the deal.

Reuters – U.S. private equity firm TPG Capital is putting China’s UniTrust Finance & Leasing Corp up for sale, seeking $800 million, and has hired Morgan Stanley and UBS to handle the deal, people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

Bank and non-bank financial institutions from Europe, Japan and Australia are expected to bid for Shanghai-based UniTrust, which provides equipment leasing finance for small and medium-sized companies in the construction, medical, education and technology industries, the sources said.

Suitors are likely to be attracted by the ability to lend to China’s SMEs, which struggle to get loans from China’s big banks. China’s 4.3 million SMEs account for 60 percent of China’s GDP and 75 percent of new jobs created in the country.

TPG acquired a controlling stake in the business as part of a $275 million investment in Japan’s Nissin Leasing in 2008.

A successful exit from UniTrust would boost TPG’s fund raising efforts in Asia. The buyout fund has raised less than $2 billion of its $5 billion target since its launch in late 2011, while rival KKR & Co has raised $6 billion since its launch in January 2012.

UniTrust’s main competitors include KKR-backed Far East Horizon. Far East, which has a market value of $2.2 billion, trades at a 12-month forward price-to-earnings multiple of 7.2, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Morgan Stanley and UBS are expected to kick off a formal sale in the next two weeks.

Sources declined to be identified as the sale process was private. TPG, Morgan Stanley and UBS declined comment. UniTrust did not reply to emails and phone calls seeking comment.

UniTrust earlier this year took out a 3 billion yuan loan ($486 million) from Chinese banks to refinance outstanding debt, according to Basis Point, a Thomson Reuters publication.

The post Reuters – TPG to Sell China Leasing Firm UniTrust appeared first on peHUB.

London-based private equity fund Pamplona Capital Management is in talks to buy a majority stake in Turkish hospitals group Medical Park, writes Reuters. U.S. private equity firm Carlyle Group acquired a 40 percent stake in Medical Park in 2009 for an undisclosed amount alongside businessmen Muharrem Usta and Haydar Sancak, who each own 30 percent.

Reuters – London-based private equity fund Pamplona Capital Management is in talks to buy a majority stake in Turkish hospitals group Medical Park, a source close to the matter told Reuters on Monday.

U.S. private equity firm Carlyle Group acquired a 40 percent stake in Medical Park in 2009 for an undisclosed amount alongside businessmen Muharrem Usta and Haydar Sancak, who each own 30 percent. The hospital group’s chairman said in December a planned stake sale may be completed in the first half of 2013. Carlyle declined comment.

The post Reuters – Pamplona Capital in Talks to Buy Medical Park appeared first on peHUB.

Online gambling company Betfair has rejected a $1.4 billion takeover offer from private equity firm CVC Capital Partners and other investors, writes Reuters. Betfair said it had received a preliminary proposal on Friday from CVC, Richard Koch, Antony Ball and partners offering 880 pence per share in cash or an unlisted securities alternative made up of shares and loan notes in a new entity, writes Reuters.

Reuters – Online gambling company Betfair (BETF.L) on Monday said it had rejected a $1.4 billion takeover offer from private equity firm CVC Capital Partners CVC.UL and other investors.

Betfair said it had received a preliminary proposal on Friday from CVC, Richard Koch, Antony Ball and partners offering 880 pence per share in cash or an unlisted securities alternative made up of shares and loan notes in a new entity.

Betfair said its board had reviewed the proposal with its advisers and “rejected it on the basis that it fundamentally undervalues the company and its attractive prospects, and is highly conditional”.

Shares in Betfair, which rose 15 percent last week, closed at 805 pence on Friday, valuing the business at around 834 million pounds.

The CVC-led bid values Betfair, which operates an online exchange that allows gamblers to bet against each other, at around 912 million pounds ($1.4 billion).

Since joining the London stock exchange three years ago, Betfair has lost ground to competitors at home and is pulling out of markets where gambling regulations are unclear, which provide almost a quarter of its revenue.

Shares in Betfair have plummeted to well below the 13 pounds the company listed at.

CVC last week said it had held preliminary discussions with Koch, Ball and other partners about making a possible offer for Betfair.

Koch, a co-founder of international strategy consultancy LEK Consulting, holds a 6.5 percent stake in Betfair. Ball is a non-executive director at Luxembourg-listed investment group Brait and is the co-founder of its private equity business.

(Reporting by Rhys Jones; Editing by Paul Sandle)

The post Reuters – Gambling Firm Betfair Rejects CVC-led Takeover Bid appeared first on peHUB.

Berlin’s Waymate has launched its mobile app for comparing various local and long-distance transport options on the go.

We wrote about Waymate and its rival GoEuro last month – both companies are trying to navigate the world of travel comparison services, but Waymate is taking the extra step of letting people book journeys directly from the service, rather than sending them off to the train or plane operators’ websites.

As we noted at the time, this is difficult from a data point of view, due to the complexity of the various services on offer. There’s an even greater barrier, though, in the unwillingness of many operators to let a third-party service handle their bookings.

Despite these barriers, Waymate’s iOS app is now out and its website is fully up and running. In this initial version, users cannot book journeys directly from the app – instead, they can select a journey then email themselves a link, allowing them to complete the booking on Waymate’s website. The service is also yet to be internationalized, meaning long-distance journeys need to originate in the Eurozone and local journeys can only be searched within major German cities.

The chief benefit of Waymate is the ability to compare all sorts of journey modes: planes, trains and automobiles (car-sharing schemes and taxis are included), as well as metro services and buses. Price and journey duration are clearly displayed on a visual timeline. Sensibly, Waymate has scrapped earlier plans to have two separate apps for local and long-distance travel: this one folds in both ideas.

“Now the task is to expand the app and the website with thrilling new features — especially in social networking — and to internationalize,” Waymate CEO Maxim Nohroudi said in a statement. “In short, we want travel planning to be completely simple and joyful.”

It’s an ambitious aim and one that (as far as I am aware) no-one has been able to achieve so far. It would be no surprise to see the app that finally pulls it off come out of Europe, as the fragmented nature of the market creates a substantial need for a service like this. Now let’s see how far Waymate’s rivals dive into this space.

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Over five million businesses currently use Google Apps — a number that is growing all the time — and while getting to grips with the cloud-based productivity suite is fairly easy, there will always be some staff members who struggle.

Toronto-based Synergyse, a startup comprised of former Google employees, hopes to make it easy for everyone to get the most out of Google’s suite by providing training directly inside each application.

The new, interactive, measurable and scalable training system is aimed at consumers, businesses and schools looking to get more out of Google Apps. Powered by Google’s cloud platform it currently covers Gmail, Calendar and Drive.

Co-founder Varun Malhotra says: “Google Apps is a robust solution, but a majority of people are not aware of all the features it has. We focused on making training that was easy to use and in-application in order to help the world learn Google Apps”.

The training is priced at $10 a year for individuals or per employee (enterprises with over 5,000 employees can contact Synergyse for a quote).

Synergyse is currently offering businesses and educational institutions a chance to win a lifetime license. All you have to do is visit www.synergyse.com and say how Google Apps has helped your school or business.

Photo Credit: auremar

IObit has released Advanced SystemCare Free 6.2.0, a minor update to its freeware system optimization and maintenance tool. The program, which can be upgraded to a Pro version with enhanced malware protection, deeper cleansing and automatic optimization, offers PC users a wide range of tools for maintaining, cleaning, optimizing and securing their computer.

Version 6.2 is a minor maintenance release that promises improvements across many of the program’s individual components. It also promises better compatibility with Windows 8.

Version 6.2 offers better protection from online threats through improved Malware Removal and Surfing Protection tools. Also improved is the Pro-only Internet Boost tool, which can accelerate downloading, surfing, online gaming and video by up to 300 percent.

The Registry Fix and Toolbox tools have also been worked on with the promise of better stability as well as performance. Similarly improved is the AutoClean tool, which now promises smarter cleaning.

The final improvement is to the IObit Uninstaller component, which IObit claims is no more effective at removing unwanted components from the user’s PC, particularly browser toolbars.

The update builds on more radical changes introduced in version 6.1, which added the Action Center to alert users to specific issues, plus extended the cleaning tools to new versions of popular applications.

Advanced SystemCare Free 6.2.0.254 is available now as a freeware download for PCs running Windows XP or later, although not all available tools are Windows 8-compatible. Users can upgrade from the Free version to IObit Advanced SystemCare Pro by purchasing a license key. This single-PC, one-year license real-time malware protection, deeper cleansing and automatic optimization tools, and can be picked up for the bargain price of just $9,95 from the DownloadCrew Software Store, a saving of 50 percent on its MSRP.

Photo Credit: Alberto Zornetta/Shutterstock

Much like the MacArthur Foundation’s genius grants recognize talented individuals for their creativity, a new prize from startup Minerva Project wants to honor educators for excellence and innovation in teaching.

The San Francisco-based company, which last year grabbed headlines with a $25 million seed round for its plans to bring an Ivy League-level education online, on Monday announced a $500,000 prize that will go to one educator per year for making advancements in higher education.

The point of the award is to help elevate the teaching profession and bring attention to people creating breakthrough learning experiences, the company said. That it will likely help the young startup build its brand certainly doesn’t hurt.

In addition to announcing the new prize, the startup said Roger Kornberg, a Nobel Prize-winning chemist, would serve as the Governor of the Minerva Academy, an honorary institution that will include educational innovators from around the world.  The Academy will be responsible for selecting the winners of the new Minerva Prize.

“Respect for teaching has declined over the years. Teachers were once one of the most esteemed members of the community and, in some way, their remuneration reflected that. But today that’s much less true,” said Kornberg. “The purpose of this prize [is] to enhance the public appreciation of people who today make a great sacrifice and devote their lives to this profession.”

As student debt climbs and more question the value of a high-priced college education, startups of all kinds are emerging with different models for online education. In attempting to lure both top students and top professors who might otherwise gravitate to the country’s leading brick and mortar institutions, Minerva has an audacious vision.

But beyond raising $25 million from Benchmark Capital, Minerva, which is led by founder and CEO Ben Nelson (the former CEO of Snapfish), has attracted the support of several high-profile leaders. Former Harvard president and Treasury Secretary Larry Summers is an advisor and former U.S. Senator and Governor Bob Kerrey (D-NB) leads Minerva’s Institute for Research and Scholarship.

Image by Sergey Nivens via Shutterstock.

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