Private equity firm EQT may offer less than €300m for Springer Science and Business Media, a publishing company owned by private equity firms Candover and Cinven, according to the Sunday Telegraph.
The potential €300m figure is lower than its owners had hoped to fetch. The offer would reportedly give Springer an enterprise value of €2.4bn.
According [...]

U.K. stocks were little changed as raw-material producers followed metals prices lower and banks declined, overshadowing gains in Thomas Cook Group Plc and TUI Travel Plc shares.
Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. and Fresnillo Plc lost at least 2 percent as metal prices fell in London. Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and Lloyds Banking Group Plc, [...]

London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index declined 0.4% to 5,303.52. On Friday, the index rose 1.5% after stronger-than-expected U.S. jobs data boosted hopes for a recovery in the U.S. economy. See Europe Markets.
 A debate about bonus payments at banks returned to the spotlight after government officials reportedly moved to levy a direct tax on bankers’ bonuses [...]

MetLife Inc., the biggest U.S. life insurer, expects to report its first profit in a year in the fourth quarter as investments in private equity, hedge funds and other holdings recover. The stock rose as much as 4.1 percent.
Net income in the period will probably fall to $340 million to $485 million from $954 million [...]

The incoming chairman of Markstone Capital Group LLC, the private equity firm caught up in a New York bribery case, said he doesn’t expect investors to pull out of the $800 million, Israel-focused fund but acknowledged restoring confidence will be his main job.
Markstone tapped former Israeli U.N. Ambassador Dan Gillerman last week. The previous chairman, [...]

THE Asian Development Bank plans to help raise more than $US2 billion ($A2.2 billion) in private equity and venture capital to increase clean-energy spending in the region.
The bank was evaluating a program to invest as much as $US100 million in venture-capital funds to raise $US1 billion and was investing $US100 million in five private [...]

The Carlyle Group , the U.S. buyout giant backing China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co Ltd (601601.SS: Quote, Profile, Research), could make a $4 billion profit — a return of more than six times its investment — once China’s No.3 life insurer floats shares in Hong Kong.
That would be the biggest investment return for a private [...]

Large public pension funds in New York, California and Ohio are looking increasingly to alternative investments in hedge funds, private equity and emerging markets in a global hunt for yield, senior managers and trustees said.
The global credit crisis has put a squeeze on money managers who must try to boost returns by looking at nontraditional [...]

Octus, Inc. (OTCBB: OCTI), a leading smart energy efficiency company, today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement with AGS Capital Group, a New York-based value fund, to provide investment capital of up to $5 million through a reserve equity financing facility.
<br /><br />”This financing facility will catalyze the near-term launch of the Octus [...]

European stock markets eased slightly Monday, as investor appetite for risk diminished. The dollar’s strength weighed on all markets with crude oil, gold and bond yields slightly lower.
As Friday’s surprise improvement in U.S. jobs data continued to ripple through European trade, speculation that the Federal Reserve may begin signaling the end of its near-zero interest [...]