GameTime The brackets are set, $20 bills are being pooled in offices across This contest is open to all PE Week readers, with the top finisher receiving a year-long subscription to Venture Capital Journal (including website access). He or she also will be given ownership of this space for a morning, which can involve anything from a column to a company advertisement to a plea for work. You also could spend 500 words criticizing me, my politics or my Celtics/Red Sox/Patriots. No restrictions, save for certain naughty words like inv*stments. To Play:
The Blackstone Group is looking to raise $10 billion for its next fund, rather than the $8 billion to $9 billion that had been previously reported. www.blackstone.com Warburg Pincus reportedly has sold 6% of Indian mobile communications company Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd. for $561 million. This is Warburg's third sale of Bharti stock since acquiring an 18.52% position just before the company went public on the Bombay Exchange in 2002. The sales have accounted for approximately 12% of the company, and have returned around $1.08 billion for Warburg. DSW Inc., a Columbus, Ohio-based discount shoe retailer, has filed to raise $185 million via an IPO of common stock on the NYSE under proposed ticker symbol DSW. The company is backed by both Cerberus and Back Bay Capital Funding. www.dswshoe.com
ProtoStar Ltd., a Bermuda-based satellite company focused on the Asia-Pacific region, has received an undisclosed amount of first-round funding from New Enterprise Associates and SpaceVest. www.protostarsat.com Zealand Pharma AS, a Danish developer of novel peptide-based drugs, has raised 13 million euros in additional Series C funding, bringing the round total to 26 million euros. Second-tranche backers included CDC Entreprises Innovation, AGF Private Equity and Life Sciences Partners. The first tranche closed on January 1, with support from BankInvest, LD Pensions, Dansk Erhvervsinvestering and Vaekstfonden. www.zealandpharma.com
The Riverside Co. has sold Clayton Group Services Inc. to U.S. Laboratories, a division of Bureau Veritas BV. No financial terms were disclosed. Clayton Group Services was acquired by riverside in October 2001, and is a International Paper Co. (NYSE: IP) has agreed to sell its Industrial Papers business to Kohlberg & Co. for approximately $180 million. The deal is expected to close next quarter. www.internationalpaper.com Providence Equity Partners has agreed to become the largest single shareholder (25.5%) in Retos Cartera SA, an inv*stor consortium that has agreed to buy Spanish media group Recoletos for 941 million euros from Pearson PLC. BorgWarner Inc. has sold its holdings in AG Kuehnle, Kopp & Kausch for 42 million euros to private equity group Turbo Group GmbH. www.borgwarner.com Churchill Equity Partners has sold the assets of Leeco Steel Products Inc. to O'Neal Steel Inc. No financial terms were disclosed for the transaction, which featured Brown Gibbons Lang & Co. as the sell-side advisor. Leeco is a Darien, Ill.-based niche steel service center focused on specialized types of steel plates, and was acquired by Churchill in 1997. www.leecosteel.com Iesy, a German cable company controlled by Apollo Management, has agreed to buy rival Ish for approximately 955 million euros, according to The Wall Street Journal. Max Capital has sold portfolio company Continental Structural Plastics Inc. to Richard L. Scott Inv*stments LLC, with W.Y. Campbell & Co. serving as the sell-side advisor. No financial terms were disclosed, except that American Capital Strategies provided $14 million in senior subordinated notes and redeemable preferred and common equity. Antares Capital Corp. and Bank One Corp. provided a revolving credit facility and senior term loans. CSP is a provider of compression-molded plastic components to the automotive and truck markets.
Valera Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Cranbury, N.J.-based drug company focused on urological and endocrine conditions, has filed to raise $74.75 million via an IPO of common stock on the Nasdaq under proposed ticker symbol VLRX. The company has raised over $30 million in venture capital funding from firms like Sanders Morris Harris, Psilos Group Managers, the New Jersey Technology Council and Wheatley Partners. Submarino SA, a Brazil-based online retailer, is planning to raise up to $187 million via an IPO later this month on the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange's New Market. The company is backed by such private equity firms as TH Lee Putnam Ventures, Goldman Sachs and Warburg Pincus. www.submarino.com PSF Group Holdings Inc., a Kansas City-based provider of pork products, has filed to raise $100 million via an IPO of common stock. It has not yet selected either an exchange or trading symbol. The company is majority-owned by ContiGroup Companies Inc., while other shareholders include MetalMark Capital and Oaktree Capital Management. www.psfarms.com
V.I. Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: VITX) has completed its merger with privately-held Panacos Pharmaceuticals Inc. A related $20 million PIPE financing led by Great Point Partners also has been completed. Panacos has raised over $25 million in VC funding from A.M. Pappas & Associates, Ampersand Ventures, Mitsui & Co.,
Frederick Horton has joined GSC Partners as a partner and managing director. He most recently was responsible for the CDO business at Trust Company of the West. In other GSC news, the firm also has added Edward Steffelin as a vice president. He previously served as portfolio manager of the CDO funds at Trust Company of the West and, before that, was a principal with Allianz Risk Transfer. www.gscpartners.com Wouter Moerel has joined the Andrew Nelson has joined Close Brothers Private Equity as an inv*stment manager. He most recently worked for the Vasudev "Vas" Bhandarkar has joined BlueRun Ventures (f.k.a. Nokia Venture Partners) as a venture partner. www.brv.com Frederic Sebbag has joined Astorg Partners as an associate. He previously worked with Calyon Corporate Finance as an associate director and, before that, as an associate in the private equity division of Banque Paribas. www.astorg-partners.com
ABRY Partners has closed its fifth buyout fund with $900 million. www.abry.com Siemens Mobile Acceleration has changed its name to Siemens Acceleration in Communications, to better reflect a new inv*stment mandate that expands beyond early-stage wireless companies. The firm now will inv*st in all types of communications startups, and plans to commit $100 million over the next five years. www.acceleration.siemens.com Mizuhu International PLC, the London-based arm of Japan-based Mizuhu Securities, is setting up a private equity division. It will be led by David Porter, who previously served as head of private equity with Nomura International PLC. www.mizuho-sc.com The California Clean Energy Fund, a $30 million venture capital fund created as part of PG&E's bankruptcy settlement, has reached a partnership agreement with VC firms Nth Power, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and VantagePoint Venture Partners. The three firms will provide matching funds and access to key strategic partners. www.calcef.org
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March 14, 2005 
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