Acquisitions Monthly articles from November 2007

Acquisitions Monthly archives from November 2007

Nominate your M&A deals and your firm for awards.(AWARDS NOMINATIONS CLOSING)
November 1, 2007... Acquisitions Monthly magazine encourages firms to make submissions for the 2008 Acquisition Monthly Awards for M&A and buyout work completed during 2007. The winners will be influenced primarily by the range of submissions, our own...

October snapshot: synopses of the largest global deals announced last month.(MARKET INTELLIGENCE)
November 1, 2007... US: Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) has agreed to acquire all the outstanding common stock of Commerce Bancorp, Cherry Hills, New Jersey (CB), a bank holding company, in a stock swap transaction valued at US$8.64bn. TD offered US$10.5 in cash and...

Premia dip in third quarter: public-to-private offers for Oasis Healthcare and Trace Group generate the highest premia of the third quarter.(MARKET INTELLIGENCE)
November 1, 2007... The volume of eligible for UK listed companies that reached completion in the third quarter of 2007 remained virtually static, comprising 23 such offers, a drop of only one deal from the second quarter's total of 24. The average premia to the...

Multiples by industry sector: we take a look at the p/es currently being paid across industries on the sale of private companies to private equity, relative to trade sales and public company comparables.(MARKET INTELLIGENCE)
November 1, 2007... The last year has been a busy year for all involved in M&A with some sectors continuing to soar and others coming back into favour. Sectors of particular interest to private equity buyers (Graph I below) are Leisure and Travel, Healthcare and...

Ukraine's political fallout fails to knock out investors: despite an identity crisis, lack of clear leadership and a troubled path toward democracy, the country's economy has been robust with Western investors keen to pile in.(REGIONAL REPORT: UKRAINE)
November 1, 2007... Stuck between Russia and Poland, Ukraine has not had it easy. In the 1980s, when Ukraine was still part of the Soviet Union, it experienced the world's worst nuclear disaster during peacetime and, more recently, as an independent country, the...

Making IT deliver post-merger: IT systems can make or break a merger. With IT increasingly central to business processes, M&A professionals are under growing pressure to get this aspect of the deal right beforehand.(SECTOR REPORTS: POST MERGER INTEGRATION)
November 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] After hours of long sweaty negotiations and burning the midnight oil, a deal is finally thrashed out by the exhausted counterparties. A price is agreed, memoranda of understanding are signed, celebrations are held...

Skype's nosedive: lack of integration was an important factor in eBay's decision to write off US$1.4bn from the value of Skype last month.(SECTOR REPORTS: POST MERGER INTEGRATION)
November 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] If you won the lottery, would you return to work? The founders of Skype faced a similar dilemma when online auctioneer eBay agreed to buy their internet telephony business in September 2005 for an initial US$2.5bn,...

UC Rusal pushes on: Russia's UC Rusal became the world's largest aluminium company after its merger completed in March 2007. How will it react to Rio Tinto Alcan knocking it from the top spot?(SECTOR REPORTS: POST MERGER INTEGRATION)
November 1, 2007... In August 2006, it was leaked to the press that Russia was about to get a new national champion, after almost two years of intermittent talks. The outcome of those talks was the creation of aluminium giant UC Rusal, forged from a three way...

High premium bids for utilities: despite the global credit crisis, investment banks and infrastructure funds appear as willing as ever to raise as much debt as necessary to finance bids for UK businesses.(SECTOR REPORTS: FOCUS ON UTILITIES)
November 1, 2007... The sale of Southern Water at the beginning of October to a consortium of investors led by JPMorgan Asset Management for just under 4.2bn [pounds sterling] represented a premium of more than 30% to the regulated asset value (RAV) of the utility...

Chinese banks look overseas: as the Chinese Communist Party met, the country's banks were considering overseas purchases.(SECTOR REPORTS: FOCUS ON FIG)
November 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The five-yearly gathering of the Chinese Communist Party seems an unlikely place to do M&A deals. Less than 20 years ago, the Red army was battering down student democracy campaigners in Tiananmen Square, amidst a...

The industrial age of the French mid-markets: as French mid-market companies assess the impact of the summer's credit market turbulence, industrial players are seizing the opportunity to spend some money.(MOVING IN THE MID-MARKETS: FOCUS ON FRANCE)
November 1, 2007... Mid-market advisers everywhere seem to be breathing a sigh of relief at the extent to which the markets seem currently to have escaped the effects of the credit crunch, and France would appear to be no exception. There is no doubt that the...

Tax-driven deals expected: Alistair Darling's decision to scrap existing capital gains tax reliefs could lead to a flurry of business sales.(MOVING IN THE MID-MARKETS)
November 1, 2007... Alistair Darling's decision to scrap existing reliefs and create one flat rate of capital gains tax (CGT) could lead to a flurry of business sales, according to tax experts and corporate financiers. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, as...

Cookson to buy Foseco: material science group launches $1 bn bid for UK business.(MOVING IN THE MID-MARKETS)
November 1, 2007... UK materials science group Cookson is set to acquire Foseco, a developer of metallurgical chemicals, for 497m [pounds sterling] (US$1bn). Cookson's confirmed offer of 295p per share came just days after the company announced that it had...

Suitors target Abbot: oil services company attracts would-be buyers as industry activity continues.(MOVING IN THE MID_MARKETS)
November 1, 2007... Abbot Group, an oil services business, is weighing up several approaches that could see the FTSE 250 company taken private. On October 4, Aberdeen-based Abbot responded to press speculation by telling the stock exchange that it had received...

Alliance Boots.(M&A capital markets round-up)
November 1, 2007... Bookrunners have sold down close to 100% of Alliance Boots mezzanine tranche. The tranche accounts for 750m [pounds sterling] of the 9.02bn [pounds sterling] of financing backing KKR's take private of the UK group. The mezzanine piece had been...

Bulgarian Telecommunications Company (BTC).(M&A capital markets round-up)
November 1, 2007... Deutsche Bank, RBS and UBS acting as bookrunners with mandated lead arranger UniCredit are likely to launch general syndication of the 1.6bn [euro] debt supporting the buyout of the Bulgarian Telecommunications Company (BTC). Formal syndication...

Saur.(M&A capital markets round-up)
November 1, 2007... Sole bookrunner BNP Paribas has launched general syndication for the 1.94bn [euro] infrastructure financing backing the acquisition of Saur, France's third largest water and waste management services business by the Holding d'Infrastructures et...

Blythe Valley Business Park.(M&A capital markets round-up)
November 1, 2007... The five-year c. 123.2m [pounds sterling] secured term loan backing the acquistion of Blythe Valley Business Park has been mandated to Natixis as bookrunner and mandated lead arranger. The sponsors are Doughty Hanson Real Estate Fund and...

HSS.(M&A capital markets round-up)
November 1, 2007... The 260m [pounds sterling] loan backing the buyout of HSS, the UK tool hire business, by Och-Ziff has also launched through mandated lead arrangers Barclays and SG. Debt is split between a 90m [pounds sterling] eightyear term loan B priced at...

Nidan Soki. (M&A capital markets round-up).
November 1, 2007... The senior debt backing the first leveraged buyout in Russia, the acquisition of the fruit juice company Nidan Soki by Lion Capital, has been launched. The bookrunners are Goldman Sachs and UniCredit (CA-BA). VTB is a mandated lead arranger....

Rhiag Group.(M&A capital markets round-up)
November 1, 2007... Mandated lead arranger and bookrunner ING launched a 295m [euro] package supporting Alpha Private Equity's buyout of Rhiag Group from CVC. The deal closed in August and general syndication follows a joint lead arranger phase with Nadxis, GE and...

SLV.(M&A capital markets round-up)
November 1, 2007... Dresdner Kleinwort is out with a 220m [euro] debt package supporting HG Capital's buyout of SLV. Debt here is split between a 170m [euro] senior loan and 25m [euro] tranches of second-lien and mezzanine debt. HgCapital is to become the majority...

Sarkozy takes charge of Fortress France: there were brief hopes that France might become more open under its new President Nicolas Sarkozy. If anything, economic patriotism has hardened under the new regime as new champions are created.(LEGAL & REGULATORY)
November 1, 2007... France's siege mentality has been all too evident in past takeover attempts involving its national champions. When aluminium producer Pechiney was taken over by Canadian peer Alcan in 2003, newspapers ran "horror" stories predicting that huge...

Thanks darling! How will deals involving acquisitions of private companies be structured after April 5 2008? What should sellers do before then to minimise their capital gains tax exposure?(LEGAL & REGULATORY)
November 1, 2007... In a controversial Pre-Budget Report on October 9 2007, Alistair Darling announced the end of taper relief and indexation on capital gains and the introduction of a flat rate tax of 18% for disposals after April 5 2008. The changes apply to UK...

Flexible France: despite their strong ties to local banks, evergreen sources of capital and strong representation by the national venture capital association, France's top-tier private equity firms have still had to adapt to a volatile year in the credit markets.(BEHIND THE BUYOUTS: FOCUS ON FRANCE)
November 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In a perfect model, private equity spends all of its cash on undervalued assets until the market crashes. It then raises a new fund and takes advantage of the inevitable fall in prices. Although the market...

Sovereign makes three bolt-ons.(BEHIND THE BUYOUTS)
November 1, 2007... Sovereign Capital, a UK buy-and-build private equity specialist, has made a bolt-on acquisition for portfolio company LPM, just one of three it has made in the past month. No sum was given for the acquisition of Dependable Services, a...

Gresham has appetite for pasty and toothpaste deals: UK mid-market firm makes two investments in space of one week, including loss-making toothpaste manufacturer Betts from LBO giant Permira.(BEHIND THE BUYOUTS)
November 1, 2007... Gresham Private Equity, a London, Birmingham and Manchester-based lower mid-market private equity firm, has made two acquisitions in one week with the purchases of food retailer West Cornwall Pasty Company and toothpaste manufacturer Betts...

SVG buys into Permira Japan deal.(BEHIND THE BUYOUTS)
November 1, 2007... SVG Capital, a fund of funds investor with significant capital in European private equity group Permira's funds, is putting 127.8m [pounds sterling] into Permira's US$2.2bn deal to acquire Japanese life science group Arysta Lifesciences, the...

BPE buys Swiss communications group.(BEHIND THE BUYOUTS)
November 1, 2007... Barclays Private Equity, the private equity arm of the UK bank, has hit the ground running with its recently-closed 2.4bn [euro] fund, completing three deals in a month. The London-headquartered firm acquired the majority of the share...

AAC makes first splash with ocean deal.(BEHIND THE BUYOUTS)
November 1, 2007... Ocean Media Limited, a UK magazine publisher and exhibition organiser, has been bought for an undisclosed sum by AAC Capital Partners, which spun out of ABN Amro's private equity arm ABN Amro Capital Partners earlier this year. The vendors...

M&A deal data.
November 1, 2007... M&A DEAL DATA This country analysis included acquisitions and buyouts announced between September 19 2007 and October 17 2007. Benelux Target Bidder FABORY Group (NT)--Manufacture, ...