TPG Selling 10% of NovoTech

Private equity firm TPG is selling more than 10% of its clinical research and testing provider Novotech Ltd to a group of investors.

The transaction will value Novotech at more than $2.3 billion as the company prepares for an initial public offering in Hong Kong later this year, said Joel Thickins, head of Australia and New Zealand for TPG Capital Asia. He is also chairman of Novotech.

The valuation makes the company one of the most successful investments for the private equity group in Asia, he said. The Sydney-based firm has increased revenues by more than 30% a year under TPG’s ownership since 2017, most recently helping with clinical trials for Covid-19 vaccines, as well as cancer and hepatitis drugs.

ZQ Capital Sells Medial Device Manufacturer

China-focused private equity firm ZQ Capital Limited sold a U.S. medical device manufacturer to buyout firm GTCR LLC for about $800 million including debt, people familiar with the matter said.

A consortium led by ZQ Capital, founded by a pair of former Barclays and JPMorgan Chase & Co. bankers, and Vivo Capital, sold Surgical Specialties Corporation TM. according to a release on Monday, which didn’t give the transaction value.

Other co-investors in the original 2017 purchase of the Massachusetts-based device maker included Aretex Capital Partners, China Orient Asset Management Corporation, Fung Shing Investment, FS KKR Capital Corp, Cathay Venture and Nan Fung Group, the release showed.

Manzanita Capital explores sales Eve Lom

U.K. private equity firm Manzanita Capital is exploring options including a sale of skincare brand Eve Lom, which is famous for its cleanser balm, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The London-based buyout firm is working with an adviser to seek a buyer for the asset, which could fetch as much as $200 million in a deal, the people said. The skincare brand has drawn preliminary interest from potential suitors in Asia, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the information is private.

Facialist Eve Lom founded the eponymous brand in the 1980s after she opened her first beauty salon in London and started selling cleansing balm, according to the website of retailer SpaceNK, the parent of Space Brands Ltd, which houses the skincare brand.

Private Equity Consortium purchases DuPont Clean Technologies business

An international private equity consortium consisting of BroadPeak Global, Asia Green Fund, and The Saudi Arabian Industrial Investments Company announced that they have signed a definitive agreement whereby the Group will purchase the Clean Technologies business of DuPont de Nemours for $510 million in cash.

As part of the transaction, Tensile Capital Management is providing preferred equity financing. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2021 subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

The Group and DuPont are working together to execute a seamless transition plan that will serve Clean Technologies and its global customer base both reliably and safely.

Wheels Up Partners Plans IPO

Wheels Up Partners said on Monday it had agreed to go public through a merger with blank-check firm Aspirational Consumer Lifestyle Corp, valuing the private jet charter company at $2.1 billion.

Aspirational Consumer Lifestyle, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) led by LVMH executive and veteran private equity investor Ravi Thakran, raised $225 million in an initial public offering (IPO) last year.

The New York-based company is set to receive $790 million in gross proceeds on the transaction, including $550 million from investors such as T. Rowe Price, Fidelity Investments, and Franklin Advisors.

Coca Cola sells ZICO back to original founder

When news leaked last October that beverage giant The Coca-Cola Company was looking to discontinue its ZICO Coconut Water brand as part of a broader culling of its portfolio, private-equity investor Mark Rampolla couldn’t wait to pick up the phone.

Rampolla started Zico a decade later above the garage of his New Jersey home. At the time, the market in the U.S. hadn’t really taken hold and was populated by smaller offerings from companies such as Goya and premium waters being imported from Brazil. Five years later, Rampolla sold a minority stake in Zico to Coca-Cola for $15 million before the beverage giant acquired the rest in 2013.

Zico will be added to the portfolio of PowerPlant Ventures, an equity fund Rampolla co-founded in 2015 that has invested in companies including Beyond Meat, Apeel Sciences and Just. PowerPlant, which is only acquiring the Zico brand name from Coca-Cola, will spend the first year reviewing the business, reestablishing relationships with suppliers and building up production.

Beauparc receiving takeover offers from Blackstone

The largest waste company in Ireland, Beauparc, has attracted takeover approaches from dozens of private equity firms after its minority shareholder, Blackstone, set about putting its stake on the market late last year.

The approaches may result in an outright purchase of the owner of the Panda and Greenstar waste firms for as much as €1 billion, sources said.

This transaction follows other PE-deals in the waste management field. British water utility Pennon Group Plc sold its waste and recycling business, Viridor, to US private equity group KKR & Co. Inc. last March for €4.7 billion at a robust valuation of 18.5 times EBITDA.

The latest set of financial results for Beauparc Utilities, the main operating company, show that its pretax profit rose to €28.1 million in 2019 from €18.7 million for the previous year, as revenues soared 40 per cent to €508.4 million.

The company spent €19.1 million on acquisitions during the year and declared dividends of €60.5 million.

Warburg Pincus invest $125 Million into LendingPoint

LendingPoint, a financial technology platform, today announced a $125 million preferred equity investment from Warburg Pincus LLC, a leading global private equity firm focused on growth investing.

Warburg Pincus has invested over $11 billion across the full spectrum of the financial services landscape, including insurance, banking, asset management, specialty finance, payments, and transaction processing. Together with the Warburg Pincus investment, LendingPoint has raised more than $325 million of equity to date.

The Warburg Pincus investment follows an impressive 2020 for LendingPoint, who ended the year profitable, closed its 10th securitization transaction, launched its SDKn platform, enhanced its point-of-sale merchant platform, and partnered with a leading global ecommerce platform to provide small business capital to their sellers.

Petco beats IPO share price

Pet retailer Petco Health and Wellness Company Inc. said on Wednesday it sold shares in its initial public offering at $18 apiece, above its target range, to raise about $864 million.

Petco, which is owned by the CPP Investments and private equity firm CVC Capital Partners, had aimed to sell 48 million shares at a target range of $14 to $17 per share.

Founded in 1965 as a mail-order veterinary supplies business, Petco first went public in 1994. In 2000, the PE firms TPG and Leonard Green & Partners acquired Petco, taking it private in a $600 million deal. Petco went public for a second time in 2002. Four years later, in 2006, TPG and Green bought Petco for a second time, again taking it private in a $1.7 billion deal. In early 2016, TPG and Green sold Petco to CVC and CPPIB for $4.6 billion.

BC Partners plans to acquire Inter Milan

Private equity firm BC Partners is in talks to buy into Italian soccer team Inter Milan, four sources familiar with the matter said, as top investor Suning looks for resources to inject into the loss-making Lega Serie A club.

A deal, which could value the former European champions at more than 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion), would be the latest sign of interest from private equity investors in Italian soccer. A consortium including CVC Capital Partners, Advent International, and state-backed Italian fund FSI is buying a 10% stake in a media company handling Serie A’s soccer rights for 1.7 billion euros.

Like other soccer clubs around the world, Inter is facing a drop in revenues due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, as matches are played in empty stadiums and companies cut their sponsorship budgets.