Food/Beverage

News

Mrs. Fields' Bankruptcy Plan Confirmed

Mrs. Fields Original Cookies said its plan of reorganization was confirmed by the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

Interstate Files Amended Reorg Plan

Interstate Bakeries Corp. has moved one step closer to emerging from bankruptcy, saying Monday it has filed an amended reorganization plan with the US bankruptcy court in the Western District of Missouri.

Food For Thought: Restaurant Deals

It’s no secret that the credit crunch has made financing difficult for the private equity industry, but some PE shops are dipping their toes in the retail space.

Speculative-Grade Defaults In Nonfinancials Headed Higher: S&P

Standard & Poor’s warned last week that the three-year US cumulative default rate between 2008 and 2010 among speculative-grade nonfinancials could rise to 23.2%, the worst on record since 1981.

Ratings Actions & Outlooks

Select rating downgrades and outlooks from Moody's and S&P.

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Articles

Unraveling Indian Conglomerates

Domestic dealmakers may still occasionally garble the pronunciation of Tata Group, but the Indian conglomerate has nevertheless made a name for itself in US M&A circles. Other Indian multinationals are doing the same, as Mahindra, UB Group, Wipro Technologies, Essar Group and Reliance Group, among others, are fast becoming familiar names in state-side auctions. The difficulty for sellers, however, is that it can be impossible to precisely pinpoint the motivations of these buyers.

Special Generalists

Private equity investors are typically split between the generalist and the specialist camps. One side is marked by opportunistic funds that will back a company in nearly any sector or field, while the other is niche-driven, relying on industry contacts and sector familiarity to source transactions and spot market dislocations. Increasingly, however, there is a category of investor that might fit somewhere in between, as a number of so-called generalists have worked to build up their qualifications in various industries.

Wall Street's New Geography

Last Monday, just as Barclays began its integration of Lehman Brothers employees, the geography of Wall Street was once again changed dramatically. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the last independent US bulge-bracket banking firms left standing after a year of credit tumult, were given Federal Reserve approval to form bank holding companies. A day later, Warren Buffett announced a multi-billion dollar investment in Goldman Sachs. And amid all of this, the Fed changed its policy on equity investments, allowing hedge funds and private equity firms to increase their stakes in banks.

A Transformer

A certain swagger is required to be able to walk into a company and transform a business. Greg Brenneman, who was recently named the chairman of private equity firm CCMP Capital Advisors, has that swagger in spades. For years he has been a go-to executive who could parachute down into a stagnating company and revitalize the operations in short order.

Lehman's Shafir Joins Citi

Mark Shafir, most recently chairman and co-head of M&A at Lehman Brothers, has left the bankrupt firm for Citigroup, where he will become head of global M&A.

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