LONDON, July 15 (Reuters) – Private equity firm Advent
International is out of the race for Italian software firm
TeamSystem, sources familiar with the situation said, leaving a
narrowing field of buyout bidders facing off against trade rival
Sage (SGE.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

Advent, Cinven [CINV.UL] and HG Capital had all submitted
indicative bids for TeamSystem, being sold by rival buyout firm
Bain Capital. Second round bids are due towards the end of the
month. [ID:nLDE6671KR]

LONDON (Reuters) – Post-Lehman, European private equity has all but ignored the grimier end of life: the widget-makers, chemicals plants and facilities scrubbers that used to be mainstays of the buyout business.

But that may be about to change.

Debt for new deals has become less scarce and a bit cheaper. Industrial demand has staged a big recovery. And some funds are itching to take profits by offloading long-held portfolio firms, either to each other or public markets.

LONDON (Reuters) – A clutch of buyout firms are lining up against business software provider Sage as they vie to buy Italy’s TeamSystem from Bain Capital, sources familiar with the situation said.

Advent International, Cinven and HG Capital are all into the second round of the auction process, sources said.

LONDON, July 7 (Reuters) – Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) is close to a deal with the Icelandic tycoon who owns generic drugmaker Actavis, to slash its crippling multi-billion-euro debt load, sources familiar with the matter said. Any agreement would move the bank closer to resolving a problem that has dogged it since 2007, when it financed Bjorgolfur Thor Bjorgolfsson’s 4.7 billion euro ($6.3 billion) leveraged buyout (LBO) of Actavis, one of the world’s biggest makers of copycat drugs.

The debt represents Deutsche’s largest block of risky loans held over from pre-credit crisis days. It has ballooned because some of it is in “payment-in-kind” notes that grow in size rather than pay interest.

LONDON (Reuters) – Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) is close to a deal with the Icelandic tycoon who owns generic drugmaker Actavis to slash its crippling multi-billion-euro debt load, sources familiar with the matter said.

Any agreement would move the bank closer to resolving a problem that has dogged it since 2007, when it financed Bjorgolfur Thor Bjorgolfsson’s 4.7 billion euro ($6.3 billion) leveraged buyout (LBO) of Actavis, one of the world’s biggest makers of copycat drugs.

AMSTERDAM/LONDON, June 29 (Reuters) – Dutch construction
group Oranjewoud (ORANW.AS: Quote, Profile, Research) would issue new shares if its
takeover bid for peer Strukton, valued at close to 200 million
euros ($244.1 million), is successful, three sources said on
Tuesday.

Oranjewoud, which offers services to the construction, real
estate, landscape and environment sectors in Northern Europe
and the U.S., would expand its Dutch footprint and capabilities
with the acquisition of much larger builder Strukton.

By Quentin Webb and Victoria Bryan

LONDON(Reuters) – Spurned U.S. suitor Emerson Electric(EMR.N: Quote, Profile, Research) raised its cash offer for Chloride(CHLD.L: Quote, Profile, Research) by more than a third to $1.5 billion, seeking to tempt the British group away from an agreed $1.25 billion deal with Switzerland’s ABB(ABBN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research).

Shares in the UK maker of uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) were up 11.6 percent at 1204 GMT, above Emerson’s sweetened offer, suggesting some investors think ABB could yet trump Emerson’s bid.

LONDON (Reuters) – Goldman Sachs reclaimed the top spot for mergers and acquisitions advice in the first half of 2010, underlining the Wall Street giant’s resilience even as it battles U.S. civil fraud charges.

With global dealmaking still subdued, Goldman’s(GS.N: Quote, Profile, Research) advisory role on nearly $190 billion of transactions allowed it to retake the M&A crown from Morgan Stanley(MS.N: Quote, Profile, Research), which last year bested its arch-rival for the first time since 1996.

LONDON, June 17 (Reuters) – A U.S. investigation has halted
the sale of Inchcape Shipping Services (ISS), the first Dubai
World [DBWLD.UL] business put up for sale since the emirate’s
debt crisis began, people familiar with the matter said on
Thursday.

The Department of Justice (DoJ) is probing the port and
shipping agent’s “government services” arm, two of the people
said. Reuters could not determine the precise nature of the
investigation.

VIENNA (Reuters) – Banks are to get more time to implement new capital rules and some proposals will be eased to ensure the industry can adjust to the new standards, a top central banker and regulator said, lifting the sector on Friday.

“We will ensure the banking sector can move to the new standards through earnings retention and reasonable capital raising,” said Nout Wellink, chairman of the Basel Committee and a member of the European Central Bank.