Robert Venes

Centaurus Capital of the UK and Paulson of the US have forced Dutch conglomerate Stork to hold an EGM later this week, where they will request that the company focus solely on its aerospace business.

The UK restaurant sector has seen more than £1 billion in private equity transactions in the last month. Private equity’s appetite for eating out assets is, as yet, undiminished. By Robert Venes.

Permira’s UK business portfolio company Hogg Robinson returned to the stock market today with a pricing of 90 pence, well below its original planned pricing of 140 pence to 200 pence.

A consortium including 3i and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has increased its offer for UK water utility AWG from £15.55 to £15.78 as banks including Merrill Lynch and Macquarie Bank show interest in the event of failure to acquire rival business Thames Water.

Abraaj Capital is in negotiations with United Arab Emirates investment firm Al Qudra Holdings regarding the sale of a major stake in the Dubai-based private equity firm.

TPG Newbridge, the Asia-focused investment subsidiary of Texas Pacific Group, is to begin investing again in Japan after an absence of three years

The London-based buyout firm is understood to have recouped its equity investment in over-50s leisure and finance company Saga.

Global private equity fundraising has reached $300bn in the first nine months of 2006, already ahead of the $283bn raised in all of 2005.

CVC Asia Pacific has reportedly paid $100m in the management buyout of Chinese flooring products company Plantation Timber Products.

The founder of Apax Partners is courting investors for a new alternative asset management business, Portland Capital, reportedly in partnership with Lord Rothschild.