Ken MacFadyen

Sentinel Capital Partners has scored a roughly 4x return through the sale of Alemite, a Fort Mill, South Carolina-based industrial lubrication company.

Boston-based Great Hill Partners has launched its third fund, seeking $750m. The firm has already crossed the half-way point toward that sum.

LNK Partners, the inaugural fund from Apax Partners veterans David Landau and Henry Nasella, has set a target of $400m for its first vehicle. The firm will focus exclusively on the retail and consumer sector.

In a major buyout deal involving no buyout firms, Albertson’s agreed to a sale valued at $17.4bn, with SuperValu, CVS and Cerberus Capital Management teaming up to buy the US supermarket and drug-store chain.

US venture groups had their best stretch in years when it came to fundraising in 2005. And they could have raised more. Ken MacFadyen reports.

Lehman Brothers Merchant Banking has backed the launch of EverGreen Copyright Acquisitions, a music catalog roll-up.

Vestar has completed the fundraising for its fifth fund, roping in $3.7bn in commitments. Ireland’s National Pension Reserve fund is among the fund’s backers.

Thomas Hicks is keeping busy in retirement, most recently launching a real-estate joint venture with Gatehouse Capital, a Dallas-based real-estate developer.

More than six months after Burlington Coat Factory announced it was looking at strategic alternatives, Bain Capital has agreed to acquire the apparel retailer for $2.06bn.

Draper Fisher Jurvetson’s clean-energy affiliate fund, DFJ Element, has held an interim close, with backing coming from CalPERS and Swiss Re, among others.