Water Street Healthcare Partners, a private equity firm focused exclusively on healthcare, has acquired Medical Specialties Distributors. Headquartered in Massachusetts, Medical Specialties Distributors is a provider of infusion products, supplies, biomedical services and technology solutions to the growing home infusion therapy market. The acquisition expands Water Street’s current group of healthcare companies to 12. With US demographics shifting toward an older population and an increasing number of people suffering from chronic conditions, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services projects that home healthcare expenditures will reach more than USD90bn by 2014. Medical Specialties Distributors supports a broad base of customers

The Walt Disney Company has sold Miramax Films to Filmyard Holdings, a company in which Colony Capital is a partner, for over USD660m subject to certain adjustments. Partners in Filmyard include Los Angeles businessmen Ron Tutor and Tom Barrack, Colony Capital and other individuals. The transaction is subject to certain regulatory approvals and is expected to close between 10 September 2010 and the end of the calendar year. The sale of Miramax Films includes rights in over 700 film titles, including Academy Award winners like Chicago, Shakespeare in Love and No Country for Old Men. Also included are non-film assets,

Wright Express, a provider of payment processing and information management services to the US commercial and government fleet industry, has entered into a definitive share purchase agreement to acquire the Australian assets of Retail Decisions consisting of its fleet and prepaid card businesses. The assets are being acquired from Palamon Capital Partners, a private equity firm, and its co-investors Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners and AlpInvest Partners for approximately AUD353m in cash (approximately USD318m). The all cash transaction is anticipated to be immediately accretive to the company’s adjusted net income and is expected to close in the third quarter, subject

Yorkville Advisors, the alternative investment firm, has completed its 20th standby equity distribution agreement, a proprietary equity financing, for 2010. This transaction was an AUD25m (USD23m) facility with Australian Stock Exchange listed New Guinea Energy, a company focusing on oil and gas exploration in Papua New Guinea. It represents the fourth oil and gas standby equity distribution agreement since the beginning of the year. Pioneered nine years ago by Yorkville, a standby equity distribution agreement aims to offer companies a flexible and cost effective way of raising capital in pursuit of their growth strategy. The terms enable an investee company,

Xtreme Power, a provider of power resources for utility-scale power management and energy storage systems, has closed a USD29.5m financing round co-led by Bessemer Venture Partners, The Dow Chemical Company through its venture capital group, and existing investor Sail Venture Partners. Additional investors include Posco ICT and SkyLake. Umesh Padval, a partner with Bessemer Venture Partners, and Walter Schindler, managing partner at Sail Venture Partners, have joined the board of directors. The financing will support Xtreme Power’s technology development, production expansion, and large-scale power projects. "Xtreme Power’s technology significantly enhances the value that renewable energy generators provide to the grid,

The State Street Private Equity Index posted a 2.22 per cent return for the quarter ending 31 March 2010, 372 basis points lower than the fourth quarter of 2009 return and 868 basis points higher than the return recorded during the year ago period.  The first quarter of 2010 return for the European and rest of world regions were -1.9 per cent and 4.0 per cent, respectively, with both reflecting a slight decrease from the prior quarter. For the second quarter 2009 to the first quarter of 2010, all private equity recorded a 22.7 per cent one-year end-to-end return.  Mezzanine