Daily Review

Morgan Lewis & Bockius, and Roschier Attorneys. Fountainvest Partners are being advised by Citigroup, Fangda Partners, Freshfields, Bruckhaus, Deringer, Kirkland & Ellis, and Roschier Attorneys. Tencent is being advised by Paul Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.

 

Activist investor Elliott has taken a position in Germany’s Bayer, adding to the slew of investments the fund has made in German companies.

 

News of the Elliott stake comes in the aftermath of Bayer’s $63bn takeover of Monsanto. The German company faces thousands of lawsuits over a suspected cancer link to the US company’s Roundup weedkiller.

 

 

Slack Technologies, a provider of chat and direct messaging services for businesses, has hired Goldman Sachs to lead its initial public offering next year as an underwriter.

 

Slack is rounding up its underwriting syndicate and hopes to fetch a valuation of well over $10bn in its IPO, whose exact timing will depend on market conditions.

 

 

Crestline Investors, a credit-focused institutional alternative asset manager, has closed Crestline Specialty Lending Fund II with over $800m in capital commitments.

 

Crestline Direct Lending provides flexible senior debt capital solutions to lower-middle and middle-market businesses, with a focus on senior secured, unitranche and second-lien opportunities ranging from $15m to $100m.

 

Pioneer Corporation, the global car electronics company, and Baring Private Equity Asia, announced the Pioneer Revitalization Plan. The Plan comprises a ¥77bn ($683m) investment from BPEA in Pioneer and a cash offer from BPEA to existing Pioneer shareholders of approximately ¥25bn ($222m).

 

“I believe BPEA shares our vision for a return to growth, making it the best partner to implement the Pioneer Revitalization Plan. Mindful of my responsibilities as Pioneer’s leader, it was only after very careful consideration that I concluded that an alliance with BPEA is imperative to the success of the Pioneer Revitalization Plan. My mission is to help revitalize Pioneer as quickly as possible and return the Company to a position where it can deliver products and services that delight all of our customers." Koichi Moriya, Pioneer President and CEO.

 

Pioneer was advised by Nomura, and Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu. BPEA was advised by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and Mori Hamada & Matsumoto.

 

Berkshire Hathaway is looking to acquire a 10% stake in Kotak Mahindra Bank.

 

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is looking to pick up a 10% stake in Kotak Mahindra Bank. 

 

A stake acquisition by Berkshire Hathaway may be conducive to Uday Kotak, the billionaire head of Kotak Mahindra Bank, who has been asked by India's central bank to lower his holding in the private-sector lender to 20% by the end of this year, and to 15% by March 31, 2020.

 

Berkshire Hathaway is likely to invest between $4bn and $6bn in the private-sector bank by buying promoter stake or through a preferential allotment.

 

 

Beijing ByteDance Technology, one of the world’s most valuable startups, is in talks to raise about $1.45bn to invest in artificial intelligence and media content. 

 

ByteDance, owner of news aggregator Jinri Toutiao, is in talks with investors including major Chinese government-led funds and state-owned investment banks. 

 

 

Chinese medical tech platform WuXi AppTec raised $1bn in its Hong Kong listing, sources said, valuing the company at $10bn in a deal that marks one of this year’s last big stock offerings in the Asian financial hub.

 

WuXi AppTec intends to use the proceeds from the listing to expand capacity across its units globally, invest in seven China projects such as a Chengdu R&D campus and set up a bio-analytical laboratory in San Diego.