Kohlberg & Company recently announced the firm had signed a definitive merger agreement to acquire Centerplate, a Spartanburg, South Carolina based provider of food and concession services to sports venues and other entertainment facilities across the US and Canada.

What’s interesting about this public-to-private transaction is how the last 12 months of deteriorating valuations on Wall Street is now presenting some interesting opportunities to the  PE firms patiently waiting on the sidelines.  Centerplate traded nearly as high as $18 a share last October and with Kohlberg’s proposed offer of $4 a share, is essentially paying about 5.5x EBITDA for a service based business that has actually shown descent top-line growth (and steady cash-flow) in each of the past 3 years.  At that multiple it most likely didn’t take the most sophisticated Excel model to justify the offer and pull the trigger.  It remains to be seen the activity that now follows as we near Q4 of 2008.

China’s sovereign wealth fund recently announced the investment of approximately $2.5 billion into mega firm TPG’s latest fund with a target close of $15 to $20 billion. What’s so interesting about this commitment is that it follows China’s well noted direct investment of $3 billion into The Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX) last summer.

China’s Blackstone investment could not have been more poorly timed as BX is off more than 50% since its 2007 IPO. However, despite the Blackstone sting, China is demonstrating the wealth fund is not afraid to re-up in US managed private equity. The larger lesson learned as an outside private equity investor is that the safe way to get your positive returns is to stay the traditional course and be an LP in funds.