Private Equity

Escalating criticism by political foes of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney for his work at Bain Capital is unfairly giving private equity a bad name, an industry trade association said Monday. "There is a lot of misinformation being spread, purely for political purposes and on both sides of the aisle, as it pertains to private equity, said Steve Judge, interim head of the Private Equity Growth Capital Council. "While the business model has evolved over time, the fact of the matter is private equity provides capital and operational expertise to companies that are often underperforming or on the brink of failure.

Lehman Bros. Holdings Corp., now just the odds and ends of the global financial behemoth that collapsed in September 2008, received court approval Tuesday to exit bankruptcy early next year. Lehman may now wind down its remaining operations, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge James Peck said at a hearing in New York. Once a mammoth investment bank and brokerage, Lehman is now a collection of assets including real estate, private equity and banking investments. Peck, who has spent more than three years overseeing the bankruptcy, choked up as he looked back on the largest ever bankruptcy, one that accelerated the global financial crisis and eroded confidence in markets worldwide.

  Shortly after Mitt Romney resigned from Bain Capital in 1999 to run the Olympics in Salt Lake City, potential investors received a prospectus touting the extraordinary profits earned by the private equity firm that Romney controlled for 15 years. During that time, Boston-based Bain acquired more than 115 companies, according to the prospectus. Bain's estimated annual returns were more than five times that of the Dow Jones Industrial Average in the same period. Now a front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, Romney says his Bain experience shows he knows how to create jobs.

The Occupy Wall Street movement has led many banks to hire extra security. Manhattan's Amalgamated Bank has rolled out the red carpet. The bank, owned by the Workers United labor union, has emerged as the unofficial financial institution of the anti-Wall Street movement. Even people who hate banks, it seems, need a bank. "It was quite obvious we were not going to open a Bank of America account," said Wylie Stecklow, who serves on Occupy Wall Street's finance committee.

Second of three parts The J.D. Byrider used-car dealership in Visalia, Calif., sits amid a jumble of tow yards, hubcap vendors and vacant lots littered with empty beer cans. It may not look like much, but selling aging cars to waitresses, secretaries and farmworkers is a lucrative business. That's why private equity firm Altamont Capital Partners of Palo Alto bought the J.D. Byrider chain in May for a reported $50 million. Altamont's offices, on the 10th floor of a luxury office tower overlooking Stanford University, are 200 miles and a world away from the Visalia lot. On a recent morning, a dozen executives could be seen huddled in a glass-walled conference room, reviewing a slide presentation on plans to buy some franchised Byrider lots.

99 Cents Only Stores Inc. has agreed to be sold in a deal valued at about $1.6 billion, the deep-discount retailer said Tuesday, as investors are eyeing dollar stores that have grown in popularity during the economic downturn. The City of Commerce chain will be acquired by Los Angeles private equity firm Ares Management and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board for $22 a share in cash, a 7.4% premium over Monday's closing price of $20.49. The chain said the current family management team will remain.

Two House Democrats want to question two major investors in solar panel manufacturer Solyndra about the failure of the Fremont, Calif., company. Reps. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills) and Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) asked that executives from two of Solyndra's largest private investors, Argonaut Private Equity and Madrone Capital Partners, be called to testify at a hearing Friday or in the near future. Solyndra Chief Executive Brian Harrison and Chief Financial Officer W.G. Stover Jr. are expected to testify Friday about the failure of the company, which received a $535-million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy in 2009 as part of the Obama administration's economic stimulus plan.

WASHINGTON — Carlyle Group is planning to raise $100 million through an initial public offering. The private equity firm is going public even as fears about the global economy have punished stock markets. Many companies canceled their IPOs in August. Private equity firms buy companies and later try to sell them for more money. They often borrow money to fund their purchases. The business slumped during the recession. Other large private equity companies have gone public recently.

Shares of 99 Cents Only Stores Inc. surged Monday after a report that the City of Commerce discount chain would receive a new buyout offer. The company's stock rose $1.42, or 8.6%, to $18. Private equity firm Apollo Global Management has been courting 99 Cents Only and plans to make an offer for the chain, according to a news report. The bid would rival a $1.3-billion buyout proposal that 99 Cents Only received in March from the company's founding family and a Los Angeles investment firm.