EMEA
Berry Global Group, proposed new bid for British packaging company RPC Group worth £4.83bn incl. debt ($5.42bn). RPC has agreed to a higher takeover offer from plastics maker and has ditched a lower bid from Apollo Global Management.
RPC, Europe’s biggest plastic packaging group, said it had revoked support for Apollo’s offer in favor of Berry Global and said its directors would recommend shareholders to vote in favor of the new proposal.
Berry’s offer of 793 pence in cash for each RPC share is 1.4% higher than Apollo’s proposal.
RPC is advised by Rothschild & Co, Deutsche Bank, Jefferies & Company, Credit Suisse, Slaughter & May, and FTI Consulting. Berry Global is advised by Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and Wells Fargo Securities.
Mastercard's window to counterbid for payments firm Earthport had lapsed, which potentially clears the way for Visa’s offer to go proceed.
Earthport, which offers a lower-cost option to traditional payments systems, has been at the heart of a bidding battle between Mastercard and Visa since the end of December. The company, which had earlier backed Mastercard’s bid, most recently urged shareholders to accept Visa’s higher offer.
“(Mastercard) has today exercised its right to terminate the cooperation agreement entered into by Bidco and Earthport with immediate effect,” the company said in a statement, adding it had valid acceptance from only 0.29% shareholders of Earthport.
Earthport is advised by N+1 Singer, Rothschild & Co, Bird & Bird, and Newgate Communications. Visa is advised by Goldman Sachs, Ashurst, and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.
Sainsbury’s new chairman Martin Scicluna will take up his role on Sunday.
Scicluna starts the job at a difficult time after Britain’s competition regulator said last month its initial view was that Sainsbury’s purchase of Walmart’s Asda should be blocked in the absence of the sale of a large number of stores, or even one of the brands.
EDP prepares the sale of its electricity generation assets in Portugal.
EDP-Energia de Portugal is working on a plan to sell some of its electricity generation assets in Portugal, to free up cash to drive its renewable energy expansion.
It is currently looking to divest part of its operations in Portugal, which altogether account for 90% of electricity generation and distribution in the country.
Deutsche and Commerzbank agreed to have merger talks, after several months of speculations.
The management board of Deutsche Bank has agreed to hold talks with Commerzbank on the possible merger, Reuters reported.
First unofficial contacts took place within a tiny group, and the mandate from Deutsche’s board was given more than a week ago.
Talks were at a very early stage and could fall apart, Welt am Sonntag said. Speculation about a possible merger that could value €24bn ($27bn) between Germany’s two largest listed lenders has been rife for months, heightening under the tenure of Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, who has emphasized the importance of strong banks.
Onesavings and Charter court are in merger talks.
British challenger bank OneSavings is in advanced talks to buy Charter Court Financial Services and create a lender worth more than £1.6bn ($2bn), Sky News reported.
OneSavings is one of the banks aiming to challenge Britain’s biggest lenders. Charter Court, a specialist mortgage bank, was launched in 2008.
Sky said under the plan OneSavings, which has a market value of £905m ($1.2bn), would use its equity to make a bid for Charter Court, valued at £733m ($954m).
German utility EWE launches the sale of 26% minority stake.
German regional utility EWE is expecting bids for 26% of its capital, which could be valued at up to €1.6bn ($1.8bn).
Infrastructure investor Macquarie and Allianz were expected to submit a joint bid, as are Canadian pension fund OMERS, Australian infrastructure fund IFM and Dutch pension fund PGGM, according to Reuters.
Citi is managing the sale.
Metro's Real hypermarkets attract bidder consortiums. (RE)
Metro’s Real hypermarkets' chain has attracted several bidder consortiums, Reuters said.
Kaufland owner Schwarz group has tied up with retail property investor X+Bricks led by former Corestate Chief Executive Sascha Wilhelm. Separately, shopping mall operator ECE is working with Morgan Stanley Real Estate on a possible acquisition of Real.
“We are following the discussions about Real’s future very closely. However, we are not an operative retailer and do not want to become one,” ECE said in a statement.
Apax considers $1.6bn sale of Engineering Ingegneria Informatica, an IT firm. (FS)
Apax is sounding out prospective bidders for Engineering Ingegneria Informatica, a deal that could value the Italian IT services firm at more than €1.5bn ($1.7bn), told Reuters.
Engineering Ingegneria Informatica offers application management, application migration, optimization, and other software services worldwide.
Apax bought about 37% of the firm in 2016 in tandem with investment firm NB Renaissance. The pair have since taken majority control and delisted the business from the Milan stock market.
Apax is now exploring strategic options to cash out of the company in a bid to take advantage of its strong performance.
AMERICAS
Entegris and Versum Materials on Friday highlighted additional benefits from their planned all-share merger, while rival bidder Merck said it had brought in Goldman Sachs to help with its counteroffer.
Electrochemical companies Entegris and Versum said in a letter to shareholders they now expect $125m in cost benefits, or $50m more in annual earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, more than initially identified.
“We are confident the combined company will meet or exceed the newly stated cost synergy goals as well as realize the other benefits of this merger,” Versum chairman Seifi Ghasemi and Entegris Chief Executive Bertrand Loy said in the letter.
Versum is advised by Lazard, Latham & Watkins, Simpson Thacher & Barlett, and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom. Entegris is advised by Morgan Stanley and Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz. Merck is advised by Goldman Sachs, Guggenheim Partners, and Sullivan & Cromwell.
Airbnb has bought HotelTonight, an app for finding hotel rooms at a discount, as it wades more in-depth into the hotel-booking business to attract a wider variety of travelers. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The acquisition of HotelTonight accelerates Airbnb work to build an end-to-end travel platform that serves everyone, meeting enormous demand from-and for-boutique hotels.
"Working with the incredible team at HotelTonight, we will offer guests an unparalleled last-minute travel experience that provides unique, memorable hospitality on every trip, on any schedule, at any time." Brian Chesky, Airbnb Co-Founder, CEO, and Head of Community.
Nvidia is competing for Mellanox with Intel, which has already offered $6bn for the Israeli company. Nvidia would pay at least 10% more than the price provided by Intel. Microsoft and Xilinx are considering their offers.
Nvidia’s advantage is that it would have a greater chance of obtaining the US and Chinese regulatory approval as Intel and Mellanox control the market for InfiniBand technology, a networking communications standard commonly used in supercomputers.
Mellanox is advised by JP Morgan. Xilinx is advised by Barclays. Microsoft is advised by Goldman Sachs.
The US Federal Communications Commission said it had halted the informal 180-day “shot clock” on the review of the merger of wireless providers Sprint and T-Mobile to give the public three additional weeks to comment on the $26bn tie-up.
The FCC said the decision was made after the third- and fourth-largest US wireless carriers had filed significant additional information on their network integration plans for 2019-2021 and other new information on the merger.
T-Mobile and Sprint in separate statements called the FCC decision “a positive step” that the FCC is “so deeply engaged in understanding this transaction and our recent filing, and we completely understand their desire” to stop the clock “to fully review the merits of our merger.”
Sprint is advised by Centerview Partners, JP Morgan, Mizuho Securities, SMBC Nikko, The Raine Group, Goodwin Procter, Morrison & Foerster, Potter Anderson & Corroon, and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom. T-mobile is advised by Deutsche Bank, Evercore, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, PJT Partners, Allen & Overy, DLA Piper, Hogan Lovells, Latham & Watkins, Richards Layton and Finger, and Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz. Softbank is advised by Morrison & Foerster.
Anchor Partners has acquired Quality Industries, specializes in metal fabricated products and services. Financial terms were not disclosed.
"The addition of Quality Industries to the Anchor Partners family of companies, makes Anchor one of the largest privately-owned manufacturers in the southern United States, with over one million square feet of manufacturing and fabrication space." Tra Willbanks, Anchor Partners CEO.
Quality Industries is advised by Angle Advisors.
JMC Platform Fund II has acquired Mansfield Sales Partners, a leading provider of revenue and B2B sales consulting services to the technology sector and private equity portfolio companies. Financial terms were not disclosed.
“My team and I are extremely pleased to be supporting the high-growth revenue and sales objectives of JMC portfolio companies. We look forward to continuing to drive profitable growth in JMC’s Platforms. We also look forward to continuing to help and support our non-JMC clients with our comprehensive suite of sales services.” Greg Dunne, Mansfield Sales Partners Founder and now JMC Operating Partner.
Mason Wells has made an investment in RJW Logistics Group, a provider of supply chain logistics services for consumer packaged goods companies. Financial terms were not disclosed.
“We are proud of the business we have built and excited about the opportunity to partner with Mason Wells to continue the rapid growth of RJW. Mason Wells will provide RJW with additional resources to achieve the Company’s long-term growth initiatives and to continue to develop our industry-leading retail LTL consolidation services.” Kevin Williamson, CEO on behalf of the Williamson family ownership group.
Signa together with RFR aims to buy New York's Chrysler Building for $150m. (RE)
Signa Holding, Austria’s largest privately owned real estate company, will buy the iconic Chrysler Building in New York City in partnership with property firm RFR Holding for about $150m, Reuters said.
Signa and RFR are equal partners in a joint venture that signed an agreement on Friday to buy the building from the Abu Dhabi Investment Council at a fraction of what it paid to own it.
DowDuPont to split material science unit on April 1.
Chemicals producer DowDuPont would separate its material science unit, to be named “Dow,” on April 1, the first split in its planned break-up into three companies.
The company also declared a dividend for DowDuPont stockholders, who will receive one share of Dow for every three shares of DowDuPont held as of March 21. In addition, Dow’s board declared a dividend for the second quarter of 2019 of $525 million.
Insys hires Lazard to advise on the divestment of Subsys.
Insys Therapeutics said it tapped Lazard to advise the drugmaker on its plans to explore strategic options and is in talks to divest its fentanyl sublingual spray Subsys.
The company said in November it would review strategic alternatives for its portfolio of opioid-related assets, including Subsys. “We are in active negotiations with multiple parties regarding the potential divestiture of Subsys,” Saeed Motahari, Insys CEO.
The potential divestiture process is being led by JMP Securities. “We engaged Lazard thereafter to advise us on our capital planning and strategic alternatives across the business. These are two independent efforts.” Insys spokeswoman.
Starboard acquires a stake in Zayo. (FS)
Starboard Value has built a 4% stake in Zayo Group Holdings and is asking the US communications infrastructure provider to consider a sale, according to the letter sent by Starboard to Zayo.
Starboard, which has been in contact with Zayo over the past several months, believes a sale of the company may be the best option for shareholders and said the process must be conducted in a “purely objective way,” according to the letter.
APAC
India’s bankruptcy court approved global steel giant ArcelorMittal's bid for debt-ridden Essar Steel, potentially ending months of court battles and opening the country’s steel industry to outsiders.
ArcelorMittal confirmed the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) had approved the takeover of the 10m tonne steel plant of Essar Steel by itself and Japan’s Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal, paving the way for the first significant foreign participation in India’s steel sector.
“We welcome today’s pronouncement by the NCLT Ahmedabad. We hope to complete the transaction as soon as possible.” ArcelorMittal said in a statement.
ArcelorMittal is advised by Credit Suisse, Linklaters, and Sullivan & Cromwell. Nippon is advised by Sullivan & Cromwell.
Linde considers the sale of South Korea assets to IMM for $1.2bn. (FS)
German industrial gases group Linde has agreed to sell its South Korean assets to local private equity firm IMM for 1.3tn won ($1.15bn), said Reuters.
The move is seen as part of Linde’s efforts to divest assets in South Korea and elsewhere to win antitrust clearance for its $86bn merger with rival Praxair, which will create an industry leader.
Thyssenkrupp-Tata Steel JV set to face stiff opposition in Europe.
Thyssenkrupp and Tata Steel will not go very far in concessions to gain approval for a planned steel venture, as their offer might not be enough to satisfy the European Commission.
The two companies last year struck a deal to combine their European steel units to create the continent’s second-largest steelmaker after ArcelorMittal, a move that must be cleared by the European regulators.
Brussels last month sent a statement of objections in its antitrust review of the transaction, effectively asking for remedies in exchange for approval in three areas — electrical steel, galvanized steel for car parts, and packaging steel. While Thyssenkrupp and Tata Steel are working on a remedy package, they are unlikely to make far-reaching concessions, increasing the risk of a lengthy struggle with the Commission.
Boyu to raise $3.6bn for its largest fund. (FS)
Chinese private-equity (PE) firm Boyu Capital, known for cutting lucrative deals at home, has closed its latest US dollar-denominated fund with $3.6bn in committed capital, DealstreetAsia reported.
The fund, Boyu’s fourth and most significant to date, has received strong backing from its existing investors, including family offices, sovereign funds, and pension funds.
|
