An affiliate of New York-based investment and private equity firm Signal Capital Management has stepped up its involvement in the domestic US oil and gas sector by signing a letter of intent to acquire and develop the largest undeveloped domestic oil and gas field, located in Alaska. Signal, in partnership

Arma Partners is acting as financial adviser to e-commerce site PriceMinister on its proposed sale to Rakuten, announced on 17 June 2010.   The transaction is valued at approximately EUR200m and is expected to complete during July 2010.   With over 11 million unique monthly visitors and 12 million members,

Prudent Energy, a clean energy storage company with offices in North America and China, has added another USD10m in venture capital funding to top off its oversubscribed series C round. Jafco Asia, Mitsui Ventures, CEL Partners and other investors will bring total outside funding within the last three months to

Offshore firm Appleby has acted as the Cayman Islands counsel for Costin New Materials Group in relation to its global offering and listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on 21 June 2010. The Appleby team was led by Tan Li Lee, a counsel in Appleby’s Hong Kong office, assisted

The Dow Chemical Company has closed the sale of its Styron division to an affiliate of Bain Capital Partners, the private equity firm.  Dow has elected to retain a 7.5 per cent equity position in Styron, which is now a privately held materials company. Also included in the transaction are

Paragon Wealth Management, a registered investment adviser firm, has created a video on the front page of its website to discuss why active wealth management is more effective than passive. "There has always been a debate of whether buy and hold is better," says Dave Young, president of Paragon Wealth

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Usen, the Tokyo-based cable broadcaster and media content provider, have signed a definitive agreement whereby KKR will acquire Intelligence, the recruitment services subsidiary of Usen, for JPY32.5bn (approximately USD356m). Established in 1989, Intelligence’s three core business areas are permanent job placement, temporary staffing and outsourcing, and

The Teamsters Union has requested that private equity firms be prohibited from acting as underwriters for the public offerings of companies they control in a letter to the chief executives of NYSE Euronext and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. Teamster-affiliated pension and benefit funds have more than USD100bn invested in

Vanguard Management, a business unit of Vanguard Minerals, has entered into a business development agreement with Genesis Venture Fund India I, a private venture capital fund that makes investments in emerging growth companies in India. Under the terms of the agreement, Vanguard Management will provide ongoing business development and management

Partners Group, the private markets investment manager, has closed its latest European mezzanine programme at EUR553m, making it the largest dedicated direct private debt investment programme raised by the company to date. Investors including corporate and public pension plans, insurance companies, financial institutions, endowments and high net worth individuals from