Filed under: Movers and shakers, Raising money, GS Capital Partners

Carl Icahn is one of the top billionaire activist investors that traders actively watch (and follow with real money trades). On Thursday, an Icahn Enterprises (NYSE: IEP) subsidiary announced the closing of its sale of four Nevada casinos to a Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) managed real estate fund called Whitehall Funds.

Valued at $1.2 billion, the sale includes the Vegas-strip Stratosphere, two off-strip Arizona Charlie’s casinos and Aquarius Casino in Laughlin.

Last month the transaction was approved by the Nevada Gaming Commission, so Icahn is definitely getting the funds. Here’s a full list of Icahn’s most current top holdings, and Mr. Icahn is buried in some of these positions. He may want to average down rather than go after new targets.

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Filed under: Management, Raising money

The private equity scene in the US continues its freeze. So many firms are looking for opportunities overseas, especially in Asia. For example, according to a piece in The Wall Street Journal, TPG is finishing up its deal to purchase a 43.4% stake in NIS Group, a Japanese lender.

Interestingly enough, it looks like JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM) wants to jump in too.

The firm announced that it has plowed $750 million into a new fund that’s focused on Asia. The main principals of the fund, Varun Bery and John Troy, are the folks who built TVG Capital Partners, which has extensive experience in Asia.

No doubt, Asia is still growing at a nice clip, which means that deals require less debt. And, because of regulatory requirements, the deal-making tends to be in the form of minority stakes, which means less by way of equity capital infusions.

However, the fact remains that many other funds are gunning for the Asian market — including Blackstone (NYSE: BX) — which could drive valuations and lead to the kinds of problems that we’ve seen in the US.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar On the internet Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

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Filed under: Deals, Raising money

The government of Qatar has begun investing in Credit Suisse (NYSE: CS) and the country’s prime minister says that Middle East country is prepared to put up to $15 billion into U.S. and European banks.

For the Swiss the deal may have some benefit. A report on Bloomberg states, “Credit Suisse in March 2006 became the first European bank to get a license for the Qatar Financial Centre, a self-regulated business park designed to attract lenders to the Gulf state as part of a plan to diversify the economy away from oil and gas.”

The statement from the Qatar government raises two questions, one which has been causing political friction for some time. Congress and some officials in the Bush administration have wondered in public whether it is good for foreign sovereign funds to own very large pieces of the largest U.S. banks. The fear is that these entities could push their financial and political agendas through their equity stakes. The comments by the government are absurd. Troubled banks can either take sovereign money or face the threat of going under. No one in the Congress has recommended that the U.S. government put money into these banks, so where else will the capital to save these firms come from?

Read the entire story at 24/7 Wall St.

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Filed under: Raising money, Citigroup, Activist investing

“No Exit” is a 1944 play by Jean-Paul Sartre, which contains the famous line, “Hell is other people.” At this point, the title could also describe Delphi’s current Chapter 11 problem.

On the way to getting out of Chapter 11, auto parts company Delphi ran into the credit environment. Its $6.1 billion exit package, which has been set up by a group of banks lead by Citigroup (NYSE: C) and JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM), is in trouble. With the current fixed income markets in lock-down, hedge funds and other institutions don’t want the Delphi paper.

Read the entire story at 24/7 Wall St.

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Filed under: Raising money, Investments

Still losing money by the billions, Citigroup (NYSE: C) has been scrambling to raise capital. Foreign investors have been welcome investors, and the bank has cut jobs and raised fees in a major effort to maintain liquidity. This day, Private Equity Hub is reporting that Citi might sell some of its private equity interests as part of that effort.

Apparently, Citi is considering selling two private equity holdings. The first involves $1 billion in investments held by Nikko Cordial, a Japanese brokerage firm that Citi acquired last year. The other private equity interest is in Court Square Capital Partners, in which it holds a roughly $400 million stake.

An interesting question about this is who will benefit most from this. Yesterday, Caryle’s Louis Gerstner stated that the current private equity slowdown offers the biggest players excellent opportunities to increase their investments as weaker investors panic and sell their stakes. Will panicked Citi be selling its investments on the cheap?

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Filed under: Raising money, Investments, Value and lack thereof

Landry’s Restaurant (NYSE: LNY) received a letter from Tilman Fertitta, Chairman, President and CEO of LNY to acquire all of the company’s outstanding common stock for $23.50.

LNY closed at $16.67. LNY over all option implied volatility of 59 is above its 26-week average of 41 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price risk.

M&A Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com

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Filed under: Options, The Blackstone Group, Raising money, Public or private?

Alliance Data Systems (NYSE: ADS) is recently at $39.00 in pre-open trading, below its close of $65.60. ADS says affiliates of The Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX) have informed ADS that they don’t expect closing the merger due to problems obtaining approvals from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).

ADS announced on May 17, 2007 it would be acquired for $81.75 in cash ($7.8 billion) by BX. ADS is expected to announce Q4 EPS on January 30. ADS February option implied volatility of 105 is above its 26-week average of 41 according to Track Data, suggesting more massive risk.

M&A Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com

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Filed under: Raising money, Public or private?

Funds backed by Qatar might take a $3 billion stake in Credit Suisse (NYSE: CS), another step toward sovereign funds owning a piece of nearly every big financial institution in the US and Europe. Due to losses related to subprime financial instruments, it is a good thing that the entities have money to invest.

According to The Sunday Telegraph, “powerful funds backed by the Qatari government are considering assembling a significant stake in Credit Suisse, one of Europe’s largest banks.”

Continued at 24/7 Wall St.

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Filed under: Raising money, Apax Partners

Apax Partners, which took clothier Tommy Hilfiger private in 2006 and had planned to take the company public again soon, has shelved (subscription) those IPO plans in light of the weakened capital markets.

The company said that, “Considering current volatile market conditions, management and shareholders decided to postpone an IPO process until such time that market conditions have stabilized”.

Regardless of when the IPO takes place, the $1.6 billion buyout of the company is a shining example of the value-adding changes that buyout shops can make. After Apax took it private, the company moved its headquarters to Amsterdam, and let its U.S. sales plummet by 50% in one-year, focusing instead on the European market where the label is trendier and able to sell at higher price-points.

As recently as October, it was expected that Apax would be able to book a $1.7 billion profit on the company. As strong as the performance has been of late, I can’t help wondering whether Hilfiger would do ideal remaining private. Even with improved financial statements, Hilfiger is best-known as a brand that was iconic during the 1990’s, and Apax might have a hard time getting investors to pay up for that.

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Filed under: Raising money, Public or private?

Tech Confidential had an interesting conversation Wednesday with Mark Pincus, the Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur who founded the Zynga Game Network. Zynga brings players together via Facebook and other social networks and boasts several popular titles, including a version of the trendy poker game Texas Hold ‘Em and a Scrabble knockoff called Scrabulous, each with about half a million people playing daily.

The startup recently won a $10 million Series A round, led by Union Square Ventures and including Avalon Ventures, Foundry Group and power angels Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn, and Clarium Capital managing partner Peter Thiel. We asked Pincus about how Facebook Inc.’s opening up its application programming interface, or API, is changing today’s on the web applications, including games.

Continue reading at TechConfidential.com.

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