Free Republic

I have a theory that if you took all the money in the world and divided it equally among all the people's of the world, it would end up in the same pockets as it left 5-10 years from now. The rule here is that money goes where it can earn it's highest return and be guaranteed to return. That clearly isn't Wall Street. The sub prime stuff made the underwriters and issuers a fortune and the investors nothing. Investors like pension funds and super wealthy individuals have been there and done that and my sense is they are not...

Excerpt - The two proposed buyers of Clear Channel Communications filed two lawsuits on Wednesday against six banks that agreed to finance the company’s $19.5 billion buyout. Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners, two private equity firms, sued the bank consortium in New York state court for breach of contract, accusing them of refusing to honor their commitment to finance the deal. Additionally, the two firms and Clear Channel itself sued the banks in Bexar County, Texas, where the broadcaster is based, accusing the banks of interfering with the closing of the takeover. ~ snip ~

SH 130 Concession Company LLC finalized the legal details of a financial close with Texas DOT on a $1,360m toll concession to build SH130 segments 5&6 Thursday and Friday last week in bankers' offices in New York City - at Orrick, 666 Fifth Avenue. The actual money flows should occur on Thursday or Friday (Mar 13 or 14) this week, Jose Maria Lopez de Fuentes, president of Cintra North America, told us this morning. Hundreds of documents and over 20 lawyers were involved last week representing TxDOT, private equity people, banks, mostly European, the TIFIA loan group from FHWA, and...

AUSTIN – State Transportation Commission Chairman Ric Williamson is proud that he can still work a bulldozer, a skill he learned early on the ranch and in the gas fields. Others would say he still drives it at meetings, committee hearings and town hall gatherings. Mr. Williamson, 55, is one of the most influential men in Texas. He has the ear of the governor, with whom he speaks almost daily. He is the architect behind the state's road plan for the next 25 years. He is smart, studious, self-made. And critics, who seem as endless as a West Texas highway,...

Private equity deals getting riskier: lenders Jill Treanor in London June 7, 2007 ALARM bells have been sounded by two lenders about the way loans were being handed out to fund the booming private equity sector. Royal Bank of Scotland, in the throes of a record-breaking takeover of the Dutch bank ABN Amro, admitted there were signs the market was getting "quite toppish", while Intermediate Capital warned it was turning away deals because they were too risky. Riskier loans are being granted because banks are able to offload their exposure to rivals by forming large syndicates. Debt is a crucial...

Alltel to Be Acquired by TPG Capital and GS Capital Partners for $71.50 Per Share Alltel Corp. (NYSE: AT) today announced that it has signed a definitive merger agreement to be acquired by TPG Capital and GS Capital Partners ("GSCP”), in a transaction valued at approximately $27.5 billion. Under the terms of the merger agreement, TPG Capital and GSCP will acquire all of the outstanding common stock of Alltel for $71.50 per share in cash. The purchase price per share represents a 23% premium over Alltel’s closing share price prior to media reports of a potential transaction published on...

Temasek Holdings, the investment arm of the Singapore government, is offering of up to $1.6 billion for local packaging house STATS ChipPAC—a bid that analysts said may undervalue the once-troubled firm. Temasek subsidiary Singapore Technology Semiconductors said Thursday it would pay $1.14 per share for the 64.4 percent of STATS ChipPAC that it doesn't already own, rising to $1.23 per share if its final stake exceeds 90 percent. The offer, which is conditional on Temasek obtaining at least half of the company, represents an 18.2 percent premium on its most recent share price. Though both parties are declining to comment...

GENEVA – The booming U.S. private equity market could be heading for a crash as interest rates rise and hedge funds, desperately seeking higher returns, pour money into the sector, the chief investment officer for the biggest pension fund in the United States warned on Wednesday. "The biggest one (asset bubble) I'm afraid of at the moment is private equity," Mark Anson, CIO for the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), told the International Fund Management 2005 conference organised by ICBI. "The current overhang of leveraged buyouts committed but not invested is $182 billion (end-2003 figure). A lot of money...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Private equity funds are snapping up power plants and pipelines once sought by aggressive buyers like El Paso Corp. (NYSE:EP - News), Dynegy Inc. (NYSE:DYN - News) and Mirant Corp. (Other OTC:MIRKQ.PK - News) as these former industry heavyweights focus on repairing their businesses.CenterPoint Energy's (NYSE:CNP - News) sale of its Texas Genco Holdings Inc. (NYSE:TGN - News) electricity generator, announced last month, was the industry's largest deal this year. Like the more than $5 billion in other power deals this year, the buyers were financial groups that typically buy, fix up and sell assets in...