Acquisitions Monthly articles from February 2006

Acquisitions Monthly archives from February 2006

January's perennial season.(EDITORIAL)
February 1, 2006... January has proved to be the season for perennial acquisition target favourites to shoot up or show fresh life. Last month's 7.6bn [pounds sterling] merger approach by venerable German gas giant Linde for equally venerable British peer BOC...

The Morning After.(EDITORIAL)
February 1, 2006... Some deals work better than others. The key for companies and their advisers is working out why. Accountancy group KPMG, in a survey of 101 corporate executives responsible for managing deals for the report The Morning After, tries to shed...

Germans build bulging war chests; M&A advisers operating in Germany had a fantastic year in 2005 and indications are that the trend will continue in 2006.(FOCUS ON GERMANY)
February 1, 2006... German trade buyers are already ringing in the year 2006 with enthusiasm and M&A professionals are very optimistic about future deal flow. Business confidence has reached a six-year high in Germany and German companies are determined to expand...

Viewpoints on Germany: will 2006 see an increase in the sale of German generics companies to larger R&D businesses, kick-started by the sale of Hexal last year to Novartis?(VIEWPOINTS)
February 1, 2006... "As more than US$80bn of blockbuster drugs will lose their patent protection worldwide before 2008, these drugs might lose up to 80% of their market share to generic competitors. Consequently, ethical manufacturers tend to turn to 'life cycle...

January snapshot: synopses of the largest global deals announced last month.(MARKET INTELLIGENCE)
February 1, 2006... LUXEMBOURG -- Mittal Steel Co NV (MS) of the Netherlands said it planned to launch an unsolicited tender offer to acquire the entire ordinary share capital of Arcelor SA (AS), a Luxembourg-based manufacturer and wholesaler of steel, for 28.21...

Private company price index retreats; although the PCPI fell back to 13.1 in the quarter to end-September 2005 from 14.0, it simply returned to the level it reached at the beginning of the year, highlighting the robustness of the M&A market.(MARKET INTELLIGENCE)
February 1, 2006... The PCPI tracks the discount between how public and private companies are being valued. The PCPI is calculated as the arithmetic mean of the P/Es for deals where sufficient information has been disclosed. The performance of the market...

Banks strive to fill gaps; Bulge-bracket investment banks are struggling with a lack of junior professionals as bonus expectations grow.(INSTITUTIONS)
February 1, 2006... Bulge-bracket banks are exhilarated by the dynamic European M&A environment, and leading dealmakers are enjoying huge rewards. But the banks are off the pace in one respect. They are straggling to fill vacancies for the junior professionals who...

Pereira to leave Morgan Stanley; European M&A head to rejoin Joseph Perella.(INSTITUTIONS)
February 1, 2006... Paulo Pereira, head of European mergers and acquisitions at Morgan Stanley, is reportedly to leave to join former colleagues at the start-up investment bank and private equity firm being formed by Joseph Perella. Pereira, a Portuguese...

Payan takes charge at SG; Hawkpoint man becomes global head of M&A.(INSTITUTIONS)
February 1, 2006... Michel Payan, an experienced French corporate financier, is the new head of global M&A at Societe Generale Corporate and Investment Banking, reporting to Thierry Aulagnon, global head of investment banking. Payan comes from Hawkpoint where...

Bank of Ireland appoints Tom Hayes.(INSTITUTIONS)
February 1, 2006... Bank of Ireland has appointed Tom Hayes as chief executive of its corporate banking dvision, following Richie Boucher's move to chief executive, retail financial services Ireland: Hayes, a graduate in banking and finance from University...

Guski joins Norton Rose in Frankfurt.(INSTITUTIONS)
February 1, 2006... Nicole Guski is to join the firm in Frankfurt as a banking partner this month. Guski joins from Norton Rose where she was a senior associate in the firm's Frankfurt banking group. She will join a team of five existing banking partners in...

Morning after: the current competitive market is resulting in companies paying on average 43% of expected benefits to the vendor--purchasers have to deliver almost half the synergies just to break even.(LEGAL & REGULATORY)
February 1, 2006... As companies pay more for their assets in a highly competitive M&A market, the room for error in delivering the target benefits of a deal is diminishing. Management teams, who frequently have to pay half the expected synergy benefits to put...

Another big year for oil & gas: the volume of deals this year should at least match the total of just under US$200bn recorded in 2005, as companies continue to view the cheque book rather than the drill bit as the most viable means of replacing their reserves.(SECTOR REPORTS: FOCUS ON OIL & GAS)
February 1, 2006... Morgan Stanley, which led the advisory league table in the sector last year with 14 deals worth almost US$73bn, expects the market to carry on in similar vein over the next 12 months as oil and gas companies--and their investors--have become...

Year of the dog: Goldman Sachs, Allianz and American Express share 10% stake in Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.(SECTOR REPORTS: FOCUS ON FIG)
February 1, 2006... In January, Goldman Sachs, Allianz and American Express became the latest Western investors to take a significant stake in China's increasingly available banking sector. The Goldman Sachs-led triumvirate signed a definitive agreement to...

VNU bidders may have to raise offer; a group of buyout firms including KKR may have to raise its offer of as much as US$8.88bn to win over institutional shareholders.(SECTOR REPORTS: FOCUS ON TELECOMS)
February 1, 2006... In the largest buyout announced so far in 2006, a consortium consisting of KKR, Blackstone Group, Carlyle Group, AlpInvest Partners, Hellman & Friedman, Permira and Thomas H Lee Partners has made an offer of 28 [euro] (US$34) to 28.50 [euro] a...

A technology boom for 2006: record mid-market M&A activity and a buoyant technology sector predicted.(MOVING IN THE MID-MARKETS: US$500M-US$30M)
February 1, 2006... We could be in for a record year of activity, according to the mid-market network M&A International. In a recent global conference call, international members discussed the continuing drivers in the global mid-markets. Some of the main themes...

A man with a vision: Simon Innes, former CEO of Vision Express, is on a mission--to build the biggest corporate veterinary business in the UK. It looks like the Sovereign-backed business CVS is already halfway there.(MOVING IN THE MID-MARKETS)
February 1, 2006... Simon Innes is another of that highly successful breed of corporate retailers who venture into the private equity space in a bid to build new empires out of the public glare. His recent move into the private equity world has seen him busy...

Germany moves from stagnant to substantial; the German mid-markets were steady in 2005 but the players now look forward to a hotter more active twelve months.(MOVING IN THE MID-MARKETS)
February 1, 2006... Despite a relatively stagnant year statistically, the German mid-markets threw up strong pockets of deal flow in 2005 which bodes well for future activity. The drivers were four-fold--secondary buyouts, spin-offs from mid to large sized...

Towards the 100bn [euro] fund: Martin Halusa of Apax Partners envisages private equity funds raising US$100bn funds within the next 10 years. Ben Harding explores whether these comments have credence.(BEHIND THE BUYOUTS)
February 1, 2006... Martin Halusa, CEO of private equity firm Apax Partners, said this week in Davos that he could envisage private equity firms raising US$100bn funds within the next 10 years. A look back at the private equity industry a decade ago shows that...

Annual private equity, debt and mezzanine tables.(BEHIND THE BUYOUTS)
February 1, 2006... Acquisitions Monthly this month publishes its annual equity, debt and mezzanine league tables for Europe and the UK, and supplements with tables for Germany, France and Italy. Private equity tables have been compiled from an exhaustive survey...

Bigger and better: the mezzanine market was buoyant in 2005 with ever-bigger deals and a proliferation of players in the market. As we enter 2006 the market seems confident of another good year, but increased liquidity has its downsides too.(BEHIND THE BUYOUTS)
February 1, 2006... Daniel Morland, director of Close Brothers, neatly sums up the situation in the mezzanine market. "The last 18 months have seen a huge proliferation in the number of debt providers and the nature of the debt they are prepared to provide," he...

Second lien--a stretch too far? An extremely liquid debt market in 2005 drove new innovations, but as it begins to creak, we assess how robust these new structures are likely to be when things turn sour.(BEHIND THE BUYOUTS)
February 1, 2006... Increased liquidity from a diverse range of secondary market players drove the European leveraged finance markets to new heights in 2005. However, some of the structural innovations employed to cater for new investors are untested and could...

TDC.(M&A capital markets roundup)
February 1, 2006... The circa US$15bn Apax Partners-led buyout of Danish telecommunications incumbent TDC, the biggest in European history, is set to launch as planned after the suitors lowered their conditional acceptance threshold to 85% from 90%. The deal...

VNU.(M&A capital markets roundup)
February 1, 2006... ABN AMRO, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan and Lehman Brothers are set to provide the debt backing the circa 7.3bn [euro] take-private of Dutch media company VNU. A seven-strong private equity consortium has made a non-binding offer of 28...

Innovene.(M&A capital markets roundup)
February 1, 2006... The 6.77bn [euro] senior secured debt backing Ineos Group's buyout of Innovene from BP, the largest to date in Europe, is getting a strong response from the market mid-syndication, via mandated lead arrangers Merrill Lynch, Barclays and Morgan...

ONO.(M&A capital markets roundup)
February 1, 2006... ONO is set to close its 3.1bn [euro] senior debt package this week through mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners ABN AMRO, BSCH, Calyon and Fortis. Other mandated lead arrangers are ACF, Banesto, Bank of Scotland, Caixa Catalunya, ICO, JP...

Coral Eurobet.(M&A capital markets roundup)
February 1, 2006... The 2.2bn [pounds sterling] loan backing gaming group Gala's takeover of bookmaker and gaming group Coral Eurobet has closed hugely oversubscribed, via mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners Lehman Brothers and RBS. The deal is in the name of...

Materis.(M&A capital markets roundup)
February 1, 2006... Goldman Sachs, RBS and SG--the three banks that Wendel Investissements upset with its decision to let at least two other banks bid for the mandate to arrange the debt backing its circa 2bn [euro] secondary buyout of French building materials...

Bonna Sabla.(M&A capital markets roundup)
February 1, 2006... Consolis has launched the 525m [euro] loan backing Industri Kapital's buy-and-build with fellow concrete manufacturer Bonna Sabla. CIBC is sole mandated lead arranger and bookrunner. Senior facilities comprise a 130m [euro] seven-year term loan...

BSN Medical.(M&A capital markets roundup)
February 1, 2006... Mandated lead arrangers JP Morgan and Mizuho Corporate Bank are sounding out an extremely small group of potential sub-underwriters for the debt backing Montagu Private Equity's circa 1bn [euro] buyout of BSN Medical. The few banks approached...

Cadbury Schweppes.(M&A capital markets roundup)
February 1, 2006... Cadbury Schweppes has sold its European beverage unit to Blackstone and Lion Capital for 1.2bn [pounds sterling]. Bank of America, Citigroup and JP Morgan are providing the debt. The group's main brands are Schweppes, Orangina, TriNa, Oasis and...

SULO.(M&A capital markets roundup)
February 1, 2006... Waste management company SULO has reverse-flexed its second-lien tranche by 75bp and the B and C tranches by 25bp each on its 1bn [euro] facility following a large oversubscription via mandated lead arrangers Deutsche Bank and UBS. The loan was...

Cortefiels.(M&A capital markets roundup)
February 1, 2006... Spanish clothing retailer Cortefiels 1.43bn [euro] loan has completed its general syndication with an oversubscription, via mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners ING, JP Morgan, RBS and SG. La Caixa has joined as a joint lead arranger. Debt...

Ewt.(M&A capital markets roundup)
February 1, 2006... The sub-underwriting phase of the 550m [euro] loan backing ABN AMRO Holdings' and financial investors Aletheia and Hardt Group's take-private of German cable company Ewt has closed, via mandated lead arrangers ING and SG. Both banks...

Fitness First.(M&A capital markets roundup)
February 1, 2006... Fitness First is finding a good response to its 597.5m [pounds sterling] BC Partners-backed buyout package through mandated lead arranger Mizuho Corporate Bank. The facility is split between a 75m [pounds sterling] five-year term loan A priced...

Frans Bonhomme.(M&A capital markets roundup)
February 1, 2006... The 560m [euro] loan backing Cinven's secondary buyout of Frans Bonhomme is mandated to lead arranger RBS. Calyon and Natexis Banques Populaires have also joined as mandated lead arrangers. Investment vehicle Trocadero, in which Apax Partners...

Groupe Financiere Galaxie.(M&A capital markets roundup)
February 1, 2006... Groupe B&B has launched a 391.3m [euro] facility in connection with its acquisition of Groupe Financiere Galaxie. Natexis Banques Populaires is mandated lead arranger and bookrunner and Eurazeo is the sponsor. The senior LBO elements of the...

Bookrunner ING and mandated lead arranger SG have allocated the 255m [euro] loan package backing PPM's buyout of Jost-Gruppe, a German wheel manufacturer.(M&A capital markets roundup)
February 1, 2006... Bookrunner ING and mandated lead arranger SG have allocated the 255m [euro] loan package backing PPM's buyout of Jost-Gruppe, a German wheel manufacturer. The institutional piece was more than three times oversubscribed with the pro rata piece...

Loxam.(M&A capital markets roundup)
February 1, 2006... Natexis Banques Populaires has been mandated to arrange a 465m [euro] facility backing the MBO of Loxam, the French plant hire business. The loan, which should launch late in Q1, will comprise 440m [euro] of senior facilities and 25m [euro] of...

TSL Education.(M&A capital markets roundup)
February 1, 2006... TSL Education (formerly Times Educational Supplement) is out to market with its 182m [pounds sterling] buyout financing, via mandated lead arrangers Barclays and BNP Paribas. Exponent Private Equity is the sponsor. Debt comprises a 45m [pounds...

Tommy Hilfiger.(M&A capital markets roundup)
February 1, 2006... Citigroup and Credit Suisse have been mandated to arrange the circa 1bn [euro] debt backing Apax Partners' buyout of fashion company Tommy Hilfiger. The company, which has US and European operations, will end up in the hands of the company's...

Warner Howard.(M&A capital markets roundup)
February 1, 2006... Senior syndication of PHS Group's 695m [pounds sterling] loan supporting its acquisition of Warner Howard has closed, via mandated lead arranger and bookrunner Bank of Scotland. Joint lead arrangers are LloydsTSB and Mizuho Corporate Bank. The...

M&A deal data: this country analysis included acquisitions and buyouts announced between 21 December and 19 January.
February 1, 2006... M&A DEAL DATA This country analysis included acquisitions and buyouts announced between 21 December and 19 January. Benelux Target Bidder AM Development BV (NT)--Real Morgan Stanley...