Acquisitions Monthly articles from February 2009

Acquisitions Monthly archives from February 2009

Running on empty.(EDITORIAL)
February 1, 2009... On December 19 2008, in one of his last acts as President, George Bush gave the US automotive industry a stay of execution. The US government agreed to use part of the US$700bn originally pledged to rescue the financial markets to help ailing...

Worldwide M&A falls by 29.6% to US$2.9trn: European M&A drops to lowest level since 2005. Estimated financial advisory fees down by 29.8%. Withdrawn M&A reaches milestone.(MARKET INTELLIGENCE)
February 1, 2009... Ending five consecutive years of M&A growth, the volume of worldwide mergers and acquisitions totalled US$2.9trn in announced deals during 2008, a fall of 29.6% from 2007 totals and the lowest level for annual deal activity since 2005....

Fourth-quarter premia stable as crisis deepens: 2008 saw a rise in annual bid premia, as nCipher and SPG Media shareholders secured the highest premia of the final quarter.(MARKET INTELLIGENCE)
February 1, 2009... As the UK's economic outlook worsens, taking with it increasing numbers of business casualties, the fourth quarter's bid premia survey shows that for the fifth consecutive quarter, average premia levels remained in excess of 50%. The...

January snapshot: synopses of the largest global deals announced last month.(MARKET INTELLIGENCE)
February 1, 2009... US: Pfizer Inc (PI) agreed to acquire all the outstanding common stock of Wyeth (WY), a manufacturer and wholesaler of pharmaceuticals, in a transaction valued at US$67.286bn. PI offered US$33 in cash and 0.985 common shares per WY share. Based...

Caught in the headlights: Germany's auto industry has seen two giant pair-ups so far and the crisis-stricken auto suppliers sector should lead to many more, with widespread consolidation on the cards.(SECTOR REPORTS: FOCUS ON GERMAN AUTOMOBILES)
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Schaeffler and Conti, and Porsche and VW tie-ups could be just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the number of deals Germany's auto sector will see in the next 12 to 24 months. In particular, Schaeffler's...

Automotives in reverse: the faltering global economy is forcing automotive companies to confront the long-standing issue of overcapacity in the industry. This could provoke sweeping changes.(SECTOR REPORTS: FOCUS ON GLOBAL AUTOMOBILES)
February 1, 2009... This year will be critical for the automotive industry, as plummeting sales expose the financial frailties of the sector. But analysts are divided over whether this will lead to substantial changes in ownership among major manufacturers and...

Britannia and Co-op to create 'super-mutual': more mutual mergers expected after draft amendment to Butterfill Act passes Parliament.(SECTOR REPORTS: FOCUS ON FIG)
February 1, 2009... Businesses that are owned by their customers are expected to take part in a wave of consolidation after the Government has lent its tacit support to a proposal by the Co-operative to take over the UK's second largest building society, the...

Barclays' Eastern question: bank endures storm as it tries to ease market fears that a recapitalisation could give Gulf investors control of group.(SECTOR REPORTS: FOCUS ON FIG)
February 1, 2009... Shares in Barclays Bank gyrated wildly during the second half of January, losing 60% of their value in the six trading days from Friday January 15, only to recoup 73% of this fall on Monday January 26. Investors were spooked by fears that...

RWE goes Dutch: Germany's second largest utility group has defied the credit crunch with its 9.3bn [euro] purchase of Dutch counterpart Essent. Though questions have been asked about the high price paid, the acquisition is nonetheless a very good fit.(SECTOR REPORTS: FOCUS ON UTILITIES)
February 1, 2009... As any art collector knows, rarity usually carries a high premium. Currently, the utilities market is no different. The Netherlands is one of the few markets left where utilities consolidation is still possible in Western Europe. The rest...

Mandelson's right Royal Mail rebellion: Peter Mandelson, the UK Business Secretary, faces growing disquiet among his party's own backbenchers over his plans to privatise Royal Mail and sell a stake to TNT. He must cut a deal with them if he wishes to succeed.(SECTOR REPORTS: FOCUS ON TMT)
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] By the end of January, 103 British MPs--or 15% of the House of Commons--had signed up to an Early Day Motion to register their opposition to the privatisation of Royal Mail--a cause that Business Secretary Lord...

Lawyers' crystal ball: having invited comments from financial advisers for the January issue of Acquisitions Monthly, we turned to law firms asking them to look ahead at the European M&A market in 2009 picking out sectors, countries or companies that may see the most activity.(LEGAL & REGULATORY)
February 1, 2009... "It is certainly not a great act of prophecy to assert that M&A volumes will remain low in 2009. High levels of activity correlate with favourable economic conditions and easily accessible credit, two things that are unlikely to rematerialise...

Capitalising on the chaos: advisers around the world envisage little recovery in vanilla deals until after the summer but expect pockets of activity, such as distressed sales, to take place.(MOVING IN THE MID-MARKETS: MID MARKET VIEW)
February 1, 2009... Mid-market advisers at M&A International, a leading global network of corporate finance firms, predict little recovery in transaction levels until at least the third quarter of the current year. Speaking on a conference call entitled "How...

North West battens down hatches: the shortage of credit and the economic downturn means the North West of the UK will face a challenging year ahead. But some acquirers are tempted to take advantage.(MOVING IN THE MID-MARKETS)
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The credit crunch and subsequent fall-off in deals in the North West region is leading to a re-focusing by parts of Manchester's advisory community. The city has the country's largest number of M&A advisors outside...

Daily mail offloads evening standard to Russians for 1 [pounds sterling].(MOVING IN THE MID-MARKETS)
February 1, 2009... Associated Newspapers--which is owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust--recently sold a 75.1% stake in its loss-making London newspaper, the Evening Standard, to former Russian spy, Alexander Lebedev, and his London-based son, Evgeny. ...

Tribal acquires newchurch.(MOVING IN THE MID-MARKETS)
February 1, 2009... UK public sector consultancy Tribal Group has acquired London-based health consultancy New church for up to 10.5m [pounds sterling]. Newchurch, led by managing director Kingsley Manning, was one of the early proponents of the UK...

Bloomsbury buys Bard publisher and Wisden.(MOVING IN THE MID-MARKETS)
February 1, 2009... Harry Potter publisher Bloomsbury has bought Arden, the classic producer of Shakespeare texts for schools and universities, for an undisclosed sum from Cengage Learning. This is its second acquisition in as many months after buying cricket...

One fleet place changes hands.(MOVING IN THE MID-MARKETS)
February 1, 2009... The London headquarters of law firm Denton Wilde Sapte has been bought by AIM-listed London & Stamford Property from Legal & General Assurance for 74m [pounds sterling]. This is the company's largest acquisition since flotation on AIM in...

Eidos in play.(MOVING IN THE MID-MARKETS)
February 1, 2009... UK computer games publisher Eidos has said it is in talks with a suitor about a possible takeover. The developer behind the Lara Croft series of games cautioned that discussions were "at a very early stage and that there can be no...

Once more unto the breach.(BEHIND THE BUYOUTS: PRIVATE EQUITY COLUMN)
February 1, 2009... Defaults and the breaching of covenants are increasingly coming back to haunt leverage buyout groups in 2009. January kicked off with ostensibly publicity-shy global private equity firm BC Partners taking the unusual step of announcing to the...

Bridgepoint attempts biggest buyout in Europe this year.(BEHIND THE BUYOUTS)
February 1, 2009... Bridgepoint is hoping to close the largest buyout of 2009 so far with its recommended offer for Finnish private healthcare operator Terveystalo Healthcare. The pan-European buyout firm has launched a 162m [euro] offer for Terveystalo and...

UK private equity opens up.(BEHIND THE BUYOUTS)
February 1, 2009... UK private equity firms have woken up and made significant inroads into transparency, according to the first report produced by the Guidelines Monitoring Group. The GMG was set up to review the buyout industry's compliance with the Walker...

UK buyout volumes halved.(BEHIND THE BUYOUTS)
February 1, 2009... The value of private equity deals slumped by 58% last year in the UK, making it the quietest year since 1995. The banking crisis meant that the total value of buyouts announced in the three months to the end of December dropped by 82% to just...

Blavatnik goes for broke.(BEHIND THE BUYOUTS)
February 1, 2009... Len Blavatnik, the publicity-shy 51-year old Russian-born oligarch with US citizenship, is no longer the billionaire he once was, thanks to the continuing global economic downturn. His private equity company, Access Industries, which owns 12.5%...

ICG draws up LBO watch list.(BEHIND THE BUYOUTS)
February 1, 2009... Intermediate Capital Group (ICG), the UK mezzanine and leveraged loan investor, has drawn up a watch list of portfolio assets which have suffered marked deterioration in their operating performance since the end of September. Releasing its...

HgCapital sells Orbiscom.(BEHIND THE BUYOUTS)
February 1, 2009... HgCapital has completed its latest disposal, selling Dublin-based payments software company Orbiscom, and signalled that it is switching to buying-mode after a strong run of exits over the past 18 months. MasterCard paid US$100m for...

European buyouts at lowest level in five years.(BEHIND THE BUYOUTS)
February 1, 2009... European buyout value fell to its lowest level for five years in 2008 weighed down by restrictions in credit markets and the deteriorating economic climate. Total buyout value across Europe fell back to 73bn [euro] (US$97.76bn) from 185bn...

Bain leads 535m [euro] Italian buyout.(BEHIND THE BUYOUTS)
February 1, 2009... Bain Capital has teamed up with native Italian buyout house Clessidra to acquire Italian credit checking business Cerved. Cerved was sold by a consortium of banks including Bank of Italy, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Banco Popolare and...

BRICs to play key role in chemicals sector: Bernd W Schneider, from PricewaterhouseCoopers Corporate Finance Beratung in Frankfurt, Germany, provides an overview of M&A deals and trends in the chemicals subsectors involving BRIC countries since 2000.(BRICS: FOCUS ON CHEMICALS)
February 1, 2009... Brazil, Russia, India and China, also known as the BRIC countries or the BRICs, are among the fastest growing economies in the world and have abundant raw material deposits for use by the chemicals and related industries. By 2007 the BRICs'...

A game of two halves: after a cracking start, with novel activity in the form of hostile takeovers and Indian promoters parting with their businesses, the year ended in an anti-climax.(REGIONAL FEATURE: INDIA)
February 1, 2009... Indian M&A and private equity activity, after the whirlwind progression of the last few years, was inevitably going to feel the effects of a global market crash. Sure enough, the second half of the year, as the drying up of liquidity bordered...

Disa.(M&A capital markets round-up)
February 1, 2009... HSH Nordbank and Nordea have been mandated as joint mandate lead arrangers on a 251.7m [euro] senior credit facility backing Mid Europa Partners' buyout of DISA, and its merger with existing portfolio company Wheelabrator. HSH will act as...

KMD.(M&A capital markets round-up)
February 1, 2009... Sponsor EQT and pension fund ATP have acquired Danish state owned IT provider KMD in a DKr2bn deal. The deal is backed by a 50% equity cheque and 50% debt, provided by an all Danish club of Danske Bank, Nordea, Nykredit, FIH and by ATP...

N&W Global Vending.(M&A capital markets round-up)
February 1, 2009... Syndication of the 470m [euro] N&W Global Vending through bookrunners Bank of Ireland, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Calyon, ING, Intesa Sanpaolo, Natixis and SG is close to completion, with banks, already at target hold levels, set to bring in a...

Socotech.(M&A capital markets round-up)
February 1, 2009... Bookrunners are still in the market with 260m [euro] facilities backing the buyout of Socotech, a French provider of technology and inspection services to aggregates mining and quarry operators. BNP Paribas, Calyon, Natixis and SG are mandated...

Haniel.(M&A capital markets round-up)
February 1, 2009... Building materials group Xella has closed syndication of 970m [euro] of debt backing the PAI and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners buyout of the business from Haniel. Bookrunning mandated lead arrangers are BNP Paribas, RBS, UniCredit (HVB)...

Biomnis.(M&A capital markets round-up)
February 1, 2009... French medical diagnostics group Biomnis has been acquired by Duke Street in a 217m [euro] buyout backed by senior debt provided by Fortis and a mezzanine facility arranged by AXA. Biomnis was founded over a century ago as Laboratoire...

N&W Global Vending.
February 1, 2009... The 470m [euro] debt package supporting the buyout by Investcorp and Barclays Private Equity of Italy based vending machines maker N&W Global Vending has launched through bookrunners Bank of Ireland, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Calyon, ING, Intesa...

NDS Group.(M&A capital markets round-up)
February 1, 2009... Initially mandated bookrunners JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley have been joined by bookrunners Bank of Ireland, BNP Paribas and Lloyds TSB on the facility backing Permira's public to private bid for German set-top box maker NDS Group. The...

M&A deal data.
February 1, 2009... M&A DEAL DATA This country analysis included acquisitions and buyouts announced between 25 October 2008 and 21 January 2009. Benelux Target Bidder Ego Lifestyle BV Netherlands-- Koninklijke...

Pending bids for UK public companies.(M&A Deal Data)
February 1, 2009... Pending Bids for UK Public Companies Target Bidder Cambrian Mining PLC--Coal, Western Canadian Coal Corp Canada iron mining co --Coal mining co Financial Adviser:...

Completed bids for UK public companies.(M&A Deal Data)
February 1, 2009... Completed Bids for UK Public Companies Target Bidder Enodis PLC--Mnfr, whl food equip Manitowoc Co Inc United States-- Special purpose acq vehicle Financial...

Acquisitions of UK private companies.(M&A Deal Data)
February 1, 2009... Acquisitions of UK Private Companies Target Bidder CEL Group Ltd United Kingdom-- Wincanton PLC United Kingdom-- Pvd logistics svcs Pvd transp, logistics Svcs Sales: n/a ...

UK divestments.(M&A Deal Data)
February 1, 2009... UK Divestments Target Bidder ATP Oil & Gas Corp United EDF Production UK Ltd States--Oil, gas expl, prodn France--Electric utility SUB/DIV BEING SOLD: ATP Oil & Announcement...

Target rest of the world.(M&A Deal Data)
February 1, 2009... Target Rest of the World Target Bidder AIG Pte Bank Ltd Switzerland-- Aabar Investments PJSC Utd Arab Pvd bkg, wealth mgmt svcs Em--Oil, gas expl, prodn co Sales ($): n/a ...

European acquisitions in North America.(M&A Deal Data)
February 1, 2009... European Acquisitions in North America Target Bidder Agtech Products Inc United Danisco A/S Denmark--Mnfr States--Mnfr biotech prod ingredients, sweeteners Sales ($): 12.00m ...

European acquisitions in rest of the world.(M&A Deal Data)
February 1, 2009... European Acquisitions in Rest of the World Target Bidder Arawak Energy Ltd Jersey 63.1%-- Vitol Holding Sari Switzerland-- Oil, gas expl, prodn Oil, gas expl, prodn Sales ($):...

Return on divestment: Hein Marais, partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP discusses how to maximise value from the sale of non-core assets in the current downturn.(POST MERGER INTEGRATION)
February 1, 2009... Current economic conditionsy may force corporates to refocus on their core businesses and look to realise value from underperforming or non-core assets. In doing so, they will need to apply a more thorough approach to the divestment planning...

Islamic finance put to the test: the credit crunch is the first major test for the revival of Islamic finance, which has been one of the fastest growing sectors of banking. However, the credit drought is not the only challenge that it is facing.(MENA REPORT)
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] On the face of it, Islamic finance should have been one of the great beneficiaries of the credit crunch. If nothing else, it took a sober approach to structuring transactions, which became so lacking with...

Gulf swing: the Middle East market is dominated by growth capital and features mammoth international-focused funds largely unencumbered by leverage. Despite this, global gloom has prompted a change of tack for many of the region's private equity and sovereign fund investors.(MENA REPORT)
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Until recently, one of the biggest challenges facing the largest Middle East investors was finding enough deals for its huge pools of capital and Western fears regarding foreign ownership. Now, the same players are...

Citadel Capital: the art of value creation.(Local Insight Regional Footprint World-Class Expertise)
February 1, 2009... Citadel Capital is a Cairo-based private equity firm focused on acquisitions, turnarounds and greenfields in the Middle East and North Africa. With US$ 8.3 billion in investments under control, spanning 14 Platform Companies in industries...

Citadel Capital gears up for outperformance: Hisham El-Khazindar, managing director and co-founder of Cairo-based private equity group Citadel Capital, talks to Acquisitions Monthly about emerging opportunities in the North African region.(SPONSOR'S ARTICLE: CITADEL CAPITAL)(Interview)
February 1, 2009... Hisham El-Khazindar: There are clearly some good deals out there, but our focus for most of 2008, and this will continue for most of this year, primarily on our existing investments. It's very easy to get distracted by all these increasing...

Global turmoil parks merger talk in the UAE: as the boom times recede in the UAE, the M&A focus will probably become more defensive in nature with, state-backed entities seen as likely to play an important role in forthcoming deals.(MENA REPORT)
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Talk of consolidation is rife in the United Arab Emirates, with attention focused on the real estate sector, banking and construction. The global downturn, the flight of capital and cooling property prices have hit...

Big freeze hits MENA capital markets: the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in September 2008 brought capital-raising activities in the Gulf region to a sudden and violent halt. It is now very difficult for local firms to raise finance for M&A transactions. However, there are hopes for a gradual improvement from the second half of the year.(MENA REPORT)
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Gulf boom, which lasted a good six years, is over and the culprit is the financial crisis, which started in the US. The corresponding global economic slowdown and ongoing deleveraging has sent oil prices...

New utility capacity faces crunch: The promising growth in foreign investment in the energy and water sectors of Middle East threatens to come to an abrupt halt as a result of the banking crisis.(MENA REPORT)
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] While most of the GCC countries are now trying to bring overseas companies into industries that were the exclusive preserve of the state until recent years, the shrinking availability--and much higher cost-of...

Oil's next frontier: Iraq's oil reserves are heavily under-development and remain a largely untapped resource. The prospect of unleashing that potential has both oil majors and juniors salivating as the scramble for Iraqi oil begins.(MENA REPORT)
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The government of Iraq has launched plans to sell off more than 40bn barrels of its recoverable oil and gas reserves and is pushing through a new law to open up the country's oil and gas fields to international...