VENTURE CAPITAL POST

John Hancock Financial, the US arm of Canadian life insurer Manulife Financial Corp. has bought three office properties in New York, Chiacgo and Boston collectively worth $618 million.

Private equity firms Blackstone Group, CCMP Capital and Investcorp are the only remaining bidders for a minority stake in Italian fashion house Versace. Versace seeks to exit a 20% stake in the first quarter of next year.

Private equity firm Round Hill Capital is reportedly nearing a deal to exit fromproperty group Vitus Immobilien to Germany's Deutsche Annington Immobilien. The deal is expected to be worth €1.3 billion.

The Midtown Manhattan headquarters of Blackstone Group transformed to an animal kingdom as eight dignitaries from Sea World gave their private equity parent a visit.

Private equity giant Blackstone Group stands to get a huge profit from the initial public offering of Hilton Worldwide Holdings scheduled for today, a Bloomberg report said.

A report from Cushman & Wakefield revealed that the private equity industry is still optimistic on the Indian real estate market, with private equity deals in the sector increasing 26% in the first nine months of this year.

An economics expert told Minnesota Public Radio News that the Blackstone Group's strategy to acquire private homes across the US was strategic as the latter was able to dominate and capitalize opportunities in a new market segment.

According to a Bloomberg report, Blackstone Group has made its mark as one of the largest warehouse landlords in the US with its industrial real estate firm formed three years ago, which is already two times its size.

French investment firm Wendel and Nordic Capital are the remaining bidders for Germany's medical patch maker LTS Lohmann. The acquisition deal could bring in EUR1.2 billion to the company owned by Novartis, BWK and German tycoon Dietmar Hopp.

Sources name the Carlyle Group LP and a combined group from Danaher Corp and Blackstone Group LP to have successfully advanced to the final stage of sale negotiations for J&J's diagnostics unit

Hotel operator Hilton Worldwide Inc, owned by private equity firm Blackstone Group LP, will increase the size of its initial public offering to about $2.25 billion, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Antony Leung, the Greater China Chairman of Blackstone Group, would be making an exit from the private equity company to become the Chief Executive Officer of Nan Fung Group Holdings Ltd.

American private equity firm Blackstone Group and its affiliate Panchshil Realty acquired a 49% stake in Express Towers for INR 900 crore. The yield-generating asset was previously held by the Indian Express Group and ICICI Venture.

A report from the Financial News website said private equity companies were now looking for investments in fossil fuels prompted by large discoveries of shale gas in the US.

Reporter Becky Pritchard tried living for one week without using products or services that were supported by the private equity industry-- and was surprised at how difficult the experience was.