NEW YORK, May 21 (Reuters) – Roche Holding AG
teamed up with Sigma-Aldrich Corp to make an
unsuccessful bid for Life Technologies Corp earlier
this year, people familiar with the matter said.

Life Tech, the genetic testing equipment maker that
announced a $13.6 billion sale to Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc
in April, also received a rival bid from “strategic
party A,” according to Life Tech’s filings with regulators on
Tuesday that detailed how the merger came together.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Oaktree Capital LLC (OAK.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the world’s largest distressed debt investor, said its two founders could each receive as much as $79.9 million in a secondary offering of its shares if the firm clears net proceeds of $367.6 million.

In a regulatory filing late on Monday, Oaktree said its chairman Howard Marks and president Bruce Karsh, which founded the firm in 1995, would each cut their stake from 14.4 percent to a minimum of 13.4 percent.

NEW YORK, May 20 (Reuters) – Specialty chemicals producer
Rockwood Holdings Inc’s pigments businesses have
attracted offers from buyout firms including Blackstone Group LP
and Advent International Corp, several people familiar
with the matter said.

The auction for the assets, in which Apollo Global
Management LLC, Bain Capital LLC, Golden Gate Capital
LLC and Rhone Group LLC are also participating, is now in its
second round, with meetings with management taking place, the
people said.

May 20 (Reuters) – Pactera Technology International Ltd
said on Monday that Blackstone Group LP,
together with the company’s management, made a $680.3 million
non-binding proposal to take China’s largest technology
outsourcing firm private.

Pactera said it expected its board of directors to form a
special committee of independent directors to consider the
consortium’s offer of $7.50 per share. Pactera shares surged
31.1 percent to $6.90.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Onex Corp (OCX.TO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) has called off its auction of medical imaging firm Carestream Health Inc after failing to find a buyer that was willing to meet its price expectation of as much as $3.5 billion, three people familiar with the matter said this week.

Bain Capital LLC, the last remaining private equity firm that was talking to Onex about a possible deal, dropped out of the auction this week, the people said. Another interested party, Thomas H. Lee Partners LP, exited the process earlier, they added.

NEW YORK, May 17 (Reuters) – Onex Corp has called
off its auction of medical imaging firm Carestream Health Inc
after failing to find a buyer that was willing to meet its price
expectation of as much as $3.5 billion, three people familiar
with the matter said this week.

Bain Capital LLC, the last remaining private equity firm
that was talking to Onex about a possible deal, dropped out of
the auction this week, the people said. Another interested
party, Thomas H. Lee Partners LP, exited the process earlier,
they added.

May 17 (Reuters) – An activist hedge fund has urged Swedish
oil and gas company Petrogrand AB to drop exploration
activities in Russia, explore strategic alternatives and replace
its chief executive, according to a letter from the fund to the
company’s board of directors.

Nanes Balkany Partners LLC, which in the last three months
amassed a stake of just under 5 percent in Petrogrand, has not
received an official response after sending the letter to the
company last month, according to a person familiar with the
matter.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Alternative asset managers such as Blackstone Group and KKR & Co have for decades scoured the stock market for undervalued companies. Now they are trying to convince investors that shares in their own firms are a bargain.

As a group, their valuations tend to be weighed down by at least three factors. Because they have gone public relatively recently, their track record as public companies is relatively short. The presentation of their results is complicated and makes comparisons difficult. What is more, their founders and partners have retained significant stakes, which can be negative for their stock when investors fear a significant share sale.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Alternative asset managers such as Blackstone Group LP (BX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and KKR & Co LP (KKR.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) have for decades scoured the stock market for undervalued companies. Now they are trying to convince investors that shares in their own firms are a bargain.

As a group, their valuations tend to be weighed down by at least three factors. Because they have gone public relatively recently, their track record as public companies is relatively short. The presentation of their results is complicated and makes comparisons difficult. What is more, their founders and partners have retained significant stakes, which can be negative for their stock when investors fear a significant share sale.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Bain Capital LLC has emerged as the last party standing in the race for Yankee Candle Co Inc, three people familiar with the matter said, making it likely that the largest scented candle maker in the United States will stay in private equity hands.

Final bids for Yankee Candle, currently owned by Madison Dearborn Partners LLC, are due this week and the people said on Wednesday that other buyout firms that had made first-round offers for the company, including Advent International Corp, CVC Capital Partners Ltd, Clayton, Dubilier & Rice LLC and Ares Management LLC, had lost interest.