By Soyoung Kim and Jessica HallOct 18 (Reuters) - Several small-to-mid-sized healthcare
assets have garnered interest from private equity firms, with
Medtronic Inc’s Physio-Control unit fetching bids after
past efforts to sell the business failed, sources said.In February, Medtronic said it had restarted the process of
finding a buyer for its Physio-Control unit, which makes
automated external defibrillators. The unit has about $450
million per year in revenue.Although the Medtronic unit has failed to find a buyer in
the past, it now has received interest from private equity
firms in an auction process that is “pretty far along,” said a
source familiar with the situation, who declined to be named
because he was not authorized to speak to the media.Private equity firms have been active in healthcare this
year, as they bet on rising use of services by aging
populations in the United States, Europe and elsewhere.Medtronic said it was proceeding with the divestiture as
planned, but declined further comment.Meanwhile, World Courier Ground, which provides quick
delivery services for medical samples, legal briefs and
financial documents, has been put up for sale, sources said.
The sources could not be identified because the talks were not
public.The courier business has attracted a wide array of interest
from private equity firms and rival delivery services, said the
source.World Courier could not be immediately reached for
comment.Meanwhile, Press Ganey Associates Inchas
attracted takeover interest from firms including TPG Capital LPHellman & Friedman, sources said.Press Ganey collects data and performs surveys that medical
centers and hospitals use to improve service, cut costs and
increase patient care.Press Ganey, which has about $100 million in EBITDA
(earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and
amortization), could fetch at least 10-times EBTIDA in a sale,
sources said.Press Ganey, TPG and Hellman & Friedman were not
immediately available to comment.Another healthcare auction, PRA International, fell apart a
few weeks ago, sources said. It is possible that a bidder could
come back with a low offer to try to scoop up the asset as a
bargain, one source said.PRA, a contract research company, could not be immediately
reached for comment. Contract research organizations provide
drug research services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology
companies.The last big private equity deal in healthcare was also for
a contract research company, Pharmaceutical Product Development
Inc . PPD was acquired for $3.9 billion in cash by
Carlyle GroupHellman & Friedman.
* Co says sold record number of two wheelers in Q2Oct 18 (Reuters) - Hero MotoCorp , India’s largest
motorcycle maker, reported a better-than-expected 19 percent
rise in quarterly profit, and said it is confident of growing
sales despite concerns over rising inflation and fuel costs in
Asia’s third-largest economy.High interest rates that have dented car sales are expected
to benefit two-wheeler manufacturers, with many first-time
buyers plumbing for motorcycles or scooters in the world’s
second-fastest growing major auto market.”We remain confident of carrying forward the buoyancy in our
sales. We expect our retail volumes to peak during the festive
month of October,” Hero MotoCorp CEO Pawan Munjal said in a
statement. He added the company was expanding capacity to meet
the expected demand.Industry motorcycle sales in September rose 20 percent from
a year previous, against a 1.8 percent fall in domestic car
sales, industry data showed this month.Hero MotoCorp, which ended a 26-year joint venture with
Japan’s Honda Motors this year, said it sold a record
1.5 million two-wheelers during the quarter, a growth of 20
percent from a year earlier. The company has targeted sales of
over six million vehicles in this fiscal year, Munjal had said
in July.The New Delhi-based firm reported net profit of 6.04 billion
rupees ($123 million) for its fiscal second quarter ended
September, up from 5.06 billion rupees a year earlier. Net sales
rose 28 percent to 57.84 billion rupees.Analysts on average expected net profit 5.6 billion rupees
on revenue of 58 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters
I/B/E/S.Raw material costs increased by more than a quarter to 42.64
billion rupees.Earlier this year, Hero Investments agreed to buy Honda’s 26
percent stake in the joint venture, formerly known as Hero
Honda, for around $851 million.The deal gave Hero freedom to explore new products and
export opportunities in markets where Honda has a presence, a
move it had been barred from while in the joint venture, but
marked its former partner as a competitor for domestic sales.It also faces growing competition from rivals such as Bajaj
Auto .Shares in Hero MotoCorp ended down 0.4 percent on Tuesday
ahead of the results, after rising as much as 1.1 percent, in a
Mumbai market that fell 1.6 percent.Hero MotoCorp shares, valued at $8.1 billion, are down 0.1
percent this year, compared with a more than 13 percent in the
sector index and a decline of over 18 percent in the
benchmark index .
($1=49.3 Indian rupees)
* Sees Q4 rev $1.03 bln to $1.06 bln vs est $1.03 blnOct 17 (Reuters) - Business software maker VMware Inc on Monday posted quarterly profit ahead of market
estimates, helped by growth in the Asia Pacific market, and it
forecast fourth-quarter revenue above analysts’ expectations.VMware, whose software is used to build cloud computing
data centers and boost the efficiency of personal computers and
servers, forecast fourth-quarter revenue of $1.03 billion to
$1.06 billion.Analysts were expecting revenue of $1.03 billion, according
to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.Net income for the third quarter more than doubled to
$177.5 million, or 41 cents a share, from $84.6 million, or 20
cents a share, a year ago.Excluding items, the company earned 53 cents a share.Revenue rose 32 percent to $941.9 million.Analysts, on average, had expected the company to earn 50
cents a share, excluding items, on revenue of $929.4 million.Shares of the company fell to $84.99 after closing at
$89.52 on the New York Stock Exchange.
* Sees Q4 rev $1.03 bln to $1.06 bln vs est $1.03 blnOct 17 (Reuters) - Business software maker VMware Inc on Monday posted quarterly profit ahead of market
estimates, helped by growth in the Asia Pacific market, and it
forecast fourth-quarter revenue above analysts’ expectations.VMware, whose software is used to build cloud computing
data centers and boost the efficiency of personal computers and
servers, forecast fourth-quarter revenue of $1.03 billion to
$1.06 billion.Analysts were expecting revenue of $1.03 billion, according
to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.Net income for the third quarter more than doubled to
$177.5 million, or 41 cents a share, from $84.6 million, or 20
cents a share, a year ago.Excluding items, the company earned 53 cents a share.Revenue rose 32 percent to $941.9 million.Analysts, on average, had expected the company to earn 50
cents a share, excluding items, on revenue of $929.4 million.Shares of the company fell to $84.99 after closing at
$89.52 on the New York Stock Exchange.
* Republicans question agency’s authority over contractorsBy Ayesha RascoeWASHINGTON, Oct 13 (Reuters) - BP will be
allowed to participate in an upcoming U.S. offshore oil and gas
lease sale despite its role in the largest offshore oil spill
in U.S. history, a top government regulator said on Thursday.Michael Bromwich, head of the newly formed Bureau of Safety
and Environmental Enforcement, said his agency determined that
it would not be appropriate to ban BP from obtaining new leases
to drill offshore.”They don’t have a deeply flawed record offshore,” Bromwich
told reporters after testifying at a House Natural Resources
committee hearing.”The question is, ‘Do you administer the administrative
death penalty based on one incident?’ and we’ve concluded
that’s not appropriate.”The department has scheduled a lease sale in December,
offering more than 20 million acres for development in the
western Gulf of Mexico.It will be the first offshore lease sale since an explosion
on the Deepwater Horizon rig last year killed 11 workers and
ruptured BP’s Macondo well, spewing more than 4 million barrels
of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.In the days after the accident, observers raised the
possibility that the government may bar BP from moving ahead
with its offshore drilling program in response to the
disaster.SLAP ON THE WRISTRepresentative Edward Markey, the top Democrat on the House
committee, said he thinks the government should reconsider its
decision not to suspend BP.He also called for Congress to raise the fines that
companies face for violating offshore drilling regulations.The drilling enforcement agency issued citations on
Wednesday against BP and its top contractors, Transocean and Halliburton , for last year’s drilling
accident. By law, the companies face fines of up to $35,000 a
day, per incident for the violations.Based on that statute and length of time between the
explosion and the capping of the Macondo well, Markey said that
BP would face at most $21 million in fines for its seven
citations. He said Halliburton and Transocean would each face
at most $12 million in fines.Markey said he thinks the fines are not high enough, with
BP’s potential penalties representing just seven hours of
profit for the company by his estimates.”That fine obviously does not even begin to approach the
amount needed to be a deterrent against a repeat of this
tragedy. That fine is a slap on the wrist,” Markey said at the
hearing.Bromwich agreed that the penalties need to be raised,
reiterating his call that civil fines should at least be in the
six-figure range.The agency has not offered details on the amount of fines
the companies may face. Bromwich said the agency will have to
determine what time period would be used to assess fines for
each citation.Some Republican lawmakers at the hearing questioned the
agency’s authority to issue citations to contractors.
Traditionally, the agency has only regulated well operators.Bromwich said government lawyers believe the agency can go
after contractors based on statutes in the Outer Continental
Shelf Lands Act.
* Toyota to close 3 plants until at least Oct 15, Nissan
still open* Nikon, Canon, Nippon Meat Packers also affectedTOKYO, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Honda Motor Co said its
Thai plant remains under water as flooding in the centre of the
country worsens, closing down 4.7 percent of its global output
and hammering other Japanese firms that have made the nation
their Southeast Asian production hub.The flooding, in some ways reminiscent of the March 11
earthquake and tsunami that destroyed factories and crumpled
supply chains in Japan, has forced local and foreign companies
to shutter plants or evacuate personnel as waters rise.Among Japan’s big three automakers, Honda risks losing the
most from the floods.Toyota Motor Corp has been forced to curtail
production because of disruption to its supply of parts rather
than any physical damage to its own facilities, while Nissan
said it may experience some disruption.”Cars at the facility (in Ayutthaya, central Thailand)
appear to be floating,” Honda spokesman Tomohiro Okada said.As no one is allowed into the area, Honda is still unable to
assess the damage to production machinery or give any estimate
of when output, halted since Oct. 4, can restart, he added.”We think resuming production will take some time,” Nomura
analyst Masataka Kunugimoto wrote in a report.If it takes three months, that would mean lost production of
60,000 vehicles and could shave 25 billion yen ($325 million)
off operating profit, he estimated. For the year to March 31,
Honda expects operating profit of 270 billion yen.Honda’s Thai plant supplies parts to other factories in the
region, so the damage may infect its supply chain and hurt
output in other locations unless it can rustle up parts from
elsewhere.”Capacity utilisation in Japan is already high to meet
post-earthquake recovery demand, so Honda’s Japanese plants may
not be able to supply sufficient volumes,” Kunugimoto said in
his report.Toyota said on Wednesday that it would close its three Thai
plants, which account for around 8 percent of its global
production, until at least Oct. 15 because of a dearth of parts.Nissan’s plant will operate normally until Thursday, a
spokesman said, but output from Friday remains “a question
mark”.Other Japanese firms affected by the floods include Nikon
Corp , which was forced to halt production of cameras in
Thailand, while Canon said it would be
unable to operate its printer plant in Ayutthaya until at least
Friday because of flooding.Nippon Meat Packers , Japan’s leading maker of ham
and sausages, said on Wednesday that two of its plants in the
region had been closed since Saturday and it was not yet sure
when they would reopen.Shares of Honda fell 2.2 percent, compared with a 0.4
percent decline in the benchmark Nikkei average. Toyota
fell 0.3 percent, Nissan dropped 1.6 percent and Nikon lost 3.5
percent. Canon ended the day 0.3 percent lower with Nippon Meat
Packers losing 1.5 percent.
* At $3.4 bln, would be biggest fund buyout in Japan since
2008 crisisTOKYO, Oct 12 (Reuters) - U.S. private equity firm Bain
Capital plans to finalise a deal to buy Japanese restaurant
chain Skylark Co from a unit of Nomura Holdings Inc for
about 260 billion yen ($3.4 billion), a source with knowledge of
the matter said.At that price the transaction would mark the biggest private
equity buyout in Japan since the 2008 financial crisis and
highlight a revival of deal making following Japan’s devastating
March 11 earthquake and tsunami.Bain Capital began talks with Nomura Principal Finance to
buy Skylark last year. Negotiations were put on hold after the
March earthquake and slowed again in August after an outbreak of
dysentery traced to Skylark restaurants.Talks between Bain and Nomura Principal are in the final
stages and the two sides aim to reach an agreement by the end of
the month before Nomura Holdings reports its earnings for the
July-September quarter, the source said, speaking on condition
of anonymity because the deal is not yet public.Nomura Holdings, Japan’s largest brokerage, said in a
statement that media reports on the deal did not represent
announcements by the company.Officials at Bain and Skylark declined to comment.In dollar terms, the $3.4 billion price tag is the same as
in March, before the earthquake delayed the deal.Nomura Principal, the broker’s buyout unit, has been
unloading portfolio companies, agreeing to sell ball bearing
maker Tsubaki Nakashima Co to Carlyle Group for about
$800 million earlier this year.Nomura Principal originally invested in Skylark in 2006
through a management buyout with UK private equity firm CVC
Capital Partners . It currently controls a 77.8 percent
stake in the restaurant chain along with other investors with
money in a Nomura fund.
ISS, which advises large institutional investors on proxy
voting, had criticized the board’s lack of independence and
poor stewardship even as News Corp reeled from the fallout of a
phone hacking scandal at its London-based News of the World
tabloid.News Corp hit back against the criticism. ISS’
“disproportionate focus on the News of the World matter is
misguided,” the company said, but acknowledged the scandal
could affect the wider business’ operations.ISS had called for shareholders to vote News Corp Chief
Executive Officer Rupert Murdoch, his two sons James and
Lachlan, and 10 other directors off the board in the Oct. 21
election.The proxy advisory firm was also critical of the
compensation package for Rupert Murdoch even as the phone
hacking scandal threatened to destabilize the business.News Corp told shareholders its CEO’s compensation
reflected the performance of the company during a successful
period.
