NEW YORK (Reuters) – Australia’s Brambles Ltd (BXB.AX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) has held discussions with document destruction company Shred-it about selling its U.S. information management business, after private equity firms did not meet its $2 billion-plus valuation expectations, according to several people familiar with the matter.

Brambles has also discussed a potential sale of its Recall subsidiary with Ohio-based Cintas Corp (CTAS.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), which offers document management services including shredding, one of the sources said.

Several private equity firms including Apollo Global Management (APO.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Thomas H. Lee Partners and Onex Corp (OCX.TO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) had considered buying Recall earlier this year, but their interest cooled due to a substantial valuation gap, according to the people familiar with the matter.

Shred-it, controlled by Canadian private equity firm Birch Hill Equity Partners, has spoken to banks about financing a potential deal, the sources said.

Brambles, Shred-it and Cintas declined to comment. Apollo and THL did not have immediate comment.

Brambles, the world’s top pallet supplier, has said it plans to announce a decision on the Recall divestiture by the end of May. It is on track to announce an outcome as previously indicated, one source said.

The process has been slowed down as potential buyers balked at the valuation expectation of Brambles, which had hoped to fetch more than 9 times the unit’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of some $240 million — or about $2.2 billion — the sources said.

NEW YORK, May 14 (Reuters) – Chemicals maker DuPont and Co has shortlisted four potential buyers for its car paint business after evaluating revised offers received on April 30, according to people familiar with the matter.

The consortium of Blackstone Group LP and Bain Capital, the KKR & Co LP -Onex Corp pair, Carlyle Group LP, and Apollo Global Management LLC have advanced to the next round as DuPont seeks to negotiate with a smaller number of potential buyers, the sources said.

Sources have said the unit could be worth as much as $4 billion.

The business attracted initial bids from other private equity groups — a consortium of TPG Capital Management LP and Advent International; and Clayton Dubilier & Rice teamed up with CVC Capital Partners, Reuters has reported.

Those groups are now out of the process, the sources said.

The four shortlisted parties have been given access to more detailed financial information to allow for in-depth due diligence, they said.

DuPont spokesman Gregg Schmidt declined to comment as did representatives from Carlyle, KKR, Bain, TPG, Advent, CD&R and CVC.

By Greg Roumeliotis

(Reuters) – Carlyle Group LP (CG.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the private equity firm that went public earlier this month, on Tuesday reported that first-quarter earnings dropped 26 percent as it failed to match a strong 2011 first quarter.

Carlyle’s decline was mostly due to its corporate private equity segment that contributes two-thirds of its distributable earnings. Carlyle could not raise as much cash from its investments as it did this time last year, when its Asian buyout funds sold assets.

In the first quarter of 2012, Carlyle sold down stakes in Dunkin’ Brands Group Inc (DNKN.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Nielsen Holdings NV (NLSN.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Triumph Group Inc; sold a portion of its stake in India’s HDFC Ltd (HDFC.NS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and completed a $600 million initial public offering of Allison Transmission Holdings Inc (ALSN.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

“We frequently hold investments for four, five or six years. Thus we would encourage those who hold or follow our units not to focus disproportionally on quarter-to-quarter results,” Carlyle co-founder and co-chief executive David Rubenstein said on a conference call.

Carlyle went public May 3 in a $671 million IPO that met with lukewarm investor interest. Carlyle had to discount its IPO to $22 per share on May 2, below the expected price range of $23 to $25 per unit.

Its shares rose 0.3 percent to $21.10 early Tuesday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – President Barack Obama is due to attend a fundraiser hosted by one of private equity’s leading lights on Monday evening, the same day his campaign launched a scathing attack against his Republican rival Mitt Romney’s private equity record.

Romney’s presidential bid has spurred attacks on the private equity industry, which is often accused of raiding companies and cutting jobs at a time of high unemployment and growing income inequality.

Tony James, the No. 2 at the world’s largest private equity firm, Blackstone Group LP, is hosting the fundraiser at his luxury Manhattan apartment and at least 60 figures from the world of business and finance are expected to attend.

James, Blackstone’s chief operating officer, has been a loyal supporter of Obama, in sharp contrast to his boss, Stephen Schwarzman, a staunch backer of Romney and a fierce critic of Obama’s economic policies, particularly on taxes.

But James has been critical of political attacks on private equity. In February, he told reporters he found “inaccurate and unfair” depictions of his industry distressing and stressed that private equity provides critical capital for startups, growing companies and struggling businesses on a scale that cannot be replicated.

The fundraiser coincides with what some of Obama’s critics argue qualifies as such an attack. On Monday, Obama’s re-election campaign launched a six-minute video that featured the demise of a steel company, which Bain Capital LLC bought in 1993 under Romney’s leadership.

Less than a decade later, the still mill was padlocked, and 750 people lost their jobs. Bain profited on the deal, receiving $12 million on its $8 million initial investment and at least $4.5 million in consulting fees, according to the Reuters special report.

May 13 (Reuters) – Concho Resources Inc said it would buy all of the oil and natural gas assets of Three Rivers Operating Company LLC, a portfolio company of private equity firm Riverstone Holdings LLC, for $1 billion in cash.

Three Rivers owns 200,000 net acres in the Permian Basin, an area spanning Texas and New Mexico that is undergoing an exploration boom fueled by crude over $90 a barrel and technology such as horizontal drilling to extract oil.

The company had only acquired its assets in the last two years and the sale to Concho in a relatively short time frame underscores the growth prospects of the U.S. energy sector.

Earlier this year, Riverstone participated in a consortium led by Apollo Global Management LLC that agreed to pay about $7.15 billion for El Paso Corp’s oil and gas exploration and production business.

Concho would finance the deal with its $2 billion credit facility, which had about $1.8 billion available as of the end of March, and would sell $200 million to $400 million of non-core assets from the acquisition and its existing assets over the next nine months, the company said in a statement Sunday.

“This acquisition is expected to be immediately accretive to earnings, discretionary cash flow, production and reserves on a per share basis and provides an additional platform to significantly grow our production in the Permian Basin,” Timothy Leach, Concho’s CEO, said in the statement.

Three Rivers is mostly owned by Riverstone/Carlyle Global Energy and Power Fund IV, a private equity vehicle managed by Riverstone and launched together with Carlyle Group LP in 2007. The two private equity firms have since stopped working together on new funds.

By Greg Roumeliotis

(Reuters) – Towers Watson & Co (TW.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), a New York-headquartered professional services company, said on Sunday it would buy Extend Health Inc, operator of the largest private Medicare exchange in the United States, to boost its health benefits offering for employers.

Health insurance exchanges are in the spotlight as the Supreme Court reviews Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law, whose provisions include the operation of subsidized, state-regulated health insurance markets in 2014.

By running a private Medicare exchange since 2006, through which consumers compare plans from different carriers side by side, Extend Health claims to have already helped over 130 companies, including Ford Motor Co (F.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), General Motors Co (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Caterpillar Inc (CAT.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), save as much as $400 million annually in retiree health insurance costs.

Towers Watson said on Sunday it would pay $435 million, less net debt and certain transaction costs, for Extend Health and that it anticipated the acquisition to be dilutive to adjusted earnings per share by 2 percent or less in year one and then slightly accretive in year two.

“This is an important time for retiree health benefits. Both companies have a strong track record of helping employers develop strategies and create programs for employee and retiree benefits,” Bryce Williams, CEO of Extend Health, said in a statement.

Under the deal, Williams is to lead a new business segment within Towers Watson dubbed “Exchange Solutions” that will inherit Extend Health’s more than 30 Fortune 500 employers and over 200,000 retirees.

NEW YORK, May 10 (Reuters) – Warburg Pincus LLC [WP.UL] has raised more than $5 billion in just over seven months for its 11th global private equity fund, a major step on the way toward its $12 billion target, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

Warburg Pincus Private Equity XI is the second-largest buyout fund globally by capital targeted that is currently tapping investors for money, behind Blackstone Real Estate Partners VII (BX.N: Quote, Profile, Research), which is targeting $13 billion.

Mega-buyout funds have struggled with a tough fundraising environment as their returns have been hit by tighter financing conditions. But Warburg markets its offering differently, focused on growth investing rather than the usual financial engineering by leveraged buyouts.

About 50 investors, both existing and new, participated in the first fundraising close, which marked the securing of the commitments and took place in early May, the sources said. They included public and corporate pension funds, endowments and sovereign wealth funds from.

The firm has identified opportunities to put some of the capital to work immediately, they added.

Warburg Pincus declined to comment.

The fundraising environment remains tough for private equity, with 23 funds raising an aggregate $18.5 billion in the first quarter of 2012 and taking an average of 20.9 months to fundraise, topping the previous average high of 20.4 months for funds closing in 2010, according to market research firm Preqin.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Warburg Pincus LLC has raised more than $5 billion in just over seven months for its 11th global private equity fund, a major step on the way toward its $12 billion target, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

Warburg Pincus Private Equity XI is the second-largest buyout fund globally by capital targeted that is currently raising funds, behind Blackstone Real Estate Partners VII, which is targeting $13 billion.

Mega-buyout funds have struggled with a tough fund-raising environment as their returns have been hit by tighter financing conditions. But Warburg markets its offering differently, focused on growth investing rather than the usual financial engineering by leveraged buyouts.

About 50 investors, both existing and new, participated in the closing, which took place in early May, the sources said. They included public and corporate pension funds, endowments and sovereign wealth funds from.

The firm has identified opportunities to put some of the capital to work immediately, they added.

Warburg Pincus declined to comment.

Warburg is offering investors a headline management fee of 1.4 percent and carried interest — the share of fund profits that go to the firm — of 20 percent, the sources said. Big investors may be charged a 1.3 percent management fee.

By Greg Roumeliotis

(Reuters) – Apollo Global Management LLC (APO.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the private equity firm headed by billionaire Leon Black, posted better-than-expected first-quarter earnings on Tuesday as its portfolio delivered more in management and incentive fees it charges investors.

Alternative asset managers have had a hard time convincing investors of their value. Peer Carlyle Group LP (CG.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) has been stuck around its IPO price of $22 per share following its $671 million stock market debut on May 3.

Apollo, whose shares hit a 2012 low of $11.97 on Monday, has been diversifying beyond buyouts into areas such as credit and real estate in a drive to make its earnings less volatile and easier for investors to anticipate. Last month its credit assets overtook its buyout assets in size.

The strategy appeared to pay off on Tuesday as the firm saw strong gains in its capital markets segment, which is active in mezzanine debt, non-performing loans and hedge funds with a focus on investment in companies in financial distress.

“We believe our first-quarter results demonstrate the strength of Apollo’s global integrated platform and that 2012 is off to a terrific start in terms of capital formation, capital deployment, and cash distributions for our shareholders,” Black, Apollo’s CEO, said in a statement.

Apollo, whose investments include casino operator Caesars Entertainment Corp CRZ.O, chemicals company LyondellBasell Industries NV (LYB.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and real estate investor Realogy Corp, reported higher economic net income (ENI), a measure of its profitability, bucking a first-quarter trend among its peers Blackstone Group LP (BX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and KKR & Co LP (KKR.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

By Greg Roumeliotis

(Reuters) – Blackstone Group LP (BX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the world’s largest alternative asset manager, is close to securing a major managed account on behalf of CalPERS, one of private equity’s largest investors, a source familiar with the matter said on Friday.

In an increasingly competitive fundraising environment, diversified private equity firms have been capitalizing on their scale by offering large pension funds the opportunity to invest in special accounts across their investment funds.

This boosts the assets under management of firms such as Blackstone, which have moved beyond buyouts into areas such as credit, hedge funds and real estate. In exchange for their major commitments, the investors get a break on management fees.

An agreement between CalPERS and Blackstone could be reached as early as next week, the source said, without elaborating on the size of the deal or its details. The source was not authorized to speak publicly about the issue and asked not to be identified.

Spokespeople for Blackstone and CalPERS declined to comment.

The CalPERS commitment would represent a coup for Blackstone after the New Jersey Division of Investment(NJDOI), which manages a $66.2 billion pension fund, agreed last December to invest $1.8 billion across Blackstone’s investment businesses, bringing its total commitment to $2.5 billion. <ID:N1E7B70VA>