DealZone

The owner of Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. hamburger chains said it has received a new takeover offer that has no evidence of committed financing and is subject to several conditions. Still, fast-food investors scarfed down CKE shares on the news.

In February, CKE agreed to be bought by private equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners for $619 million cash. It had until Tuesday to shop for other offers. That’s when Porter Orlin, a New York-based investment manager holding a chunk of CKE shares, piped up with a letter saying he was opposed to the deal because it undervalued the business.

The company posted a six-fold jump in quarterly profit in March that beat market expectations, as it cut costs and got a tax boost. The figures covered a tough first few months for the industry, when bad weather and high unemployment hit sales.

If the new bidder gets bold enough to go public in its move to unseat the private equity buyers, could hunger for fast food become a theme of the M&A recovery?

Nobody can question Eastman Kodak‘s intention in raising some $700 million. Getting a commitment from private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts to buy up to $400 million of its debt is also a perfectly logical step for the old-economy stalwart as it lumbers into the digital age. What KKR is thinking is another matter.

KKR says the investment reflects its belief in Kodak’s strategy. They’re also getting warrants in Kodak to purchase up to 53 million shares of its common stock. The Wall Street Journal says KKR could end up owning close to 20 percent of the company.

The 24/7 Wall St blog notes that the fall in Kodak’s share price following the news shows the market isn’t blindly convinced of KKR’s intelligence. But Kodak’s bonds got a boost, if for no other reason than there’s a buyer out there.

Opportunistic buyers, lovingly dubbed “tourists” by those in the industry, have moved into the secondary private equity market. They’re looking for positions in brand-name private equity funds at knock-down prices. As I wrote in a DealTalk today:”Pension funds and wealthy middle-east sovereign wealth funds are buying up investments in private equity funds, pushing up prices and sidelining secondary firms that specialise in acquiring the assets.”The market for second-hand private equity assets — where private equity investors offload assets to specialist buyers — has mushroomed as the credit crisis has intensified. And increasing numbers of cash-strapped investors are concerned about meeting their future commitments to buyout funds.”New investors have been attracted to deals by steep discounts to net asset value, forcing up prices for specialist buyers, such as Goldman Sachs (GS.N) and HarbourVest Partners (HVPE.AS) that last month closed secondary funds after reaching their $5.5 billion and $2.9 billion targets respectively.”Read the full piece here.

With the market talking of green shoots, it seems only a matter of time before the predators of the private equity world begin stalking the market again. Simon Meads and I took a look at the issue earlier today.

We found that though many private equity houses are still licking the wounds inflicted by ill-judged boom year deals, others remain keen and ready to go. Many of these firms timed it just right, either raising funds late in the credit cycle or selling companies at the top of the market.

Private equity companies in a good position include Advent International, Bridgepoint, CVC, Charterhouse, Cinven, PAI and Warburg Pincus.

First Reserve is sitting on another $9 billion of spending money for energy deals after finishing raising its latest buyout fund, Fund XII. The private equity giant, which specialises in energy investments, said the fund is the largest ever raised in the energy sector and exceeds its previous fund, Fund XI, which raised $7.8 billion in 2006. 

The fund appears to be lower than target, however. London-based private equity intelligence firm Preqin said in a recent report that the fund had a $12 billion target.

“Energy remains a large, dynamic and complex industry where change creates new, attractive investment opportunities,” said William Macaulay, Chief Executive Officer of First Reserve in the press release (below).

Poor Dow Chemical.

Not only did the company end up having to buy Rohm and Haas at basically the same steep price it agreed to last year, but it has also become the favorite target of lawyers, bankers and maybe even judges at the Tulane Corporate Law Institute, an annual gathering of top dealmakers.

Timothy Ingrassia, head of Goldman Sachs mergers and acquisitions business in the Americas struck the first blow on Thursday morning.

 ”You’ve already had Dow Chemical’s unique interpretation of the merger agreement. There was never a transaction that made Apollo look better,” Ingrassia said, referring to private equity firm Apollo’s previous efforts to get out of an agreement to buy Huntsman Corp. 

There's no shortage of ill will towards bankers at the moment.

But some executives in the private equity and hedge funds industries feel they are getting beaten with the same stick by politicians and the public, despite feeling relatively blameless in this crisis.

BC Partners managing partner Andrew Newington, speaking at the Reuters Hedge Fund & Private Equity Summit in London today, explained.

"There is clearly no political goodwill towards financial services in general and everyone within financial services is being lumped into the same bucket," he said.