Berry Global considers counter-bid to Apollo’s £4.7bn RPC Group offer.
US-based Berry Global Group announced it was considering a possible cash offer for RPC Group, rivalling its former parent Apollo Global Management's £4.7bn ($6.2bn) offer to buy the British packaging maker. Berry Global requested Europe's biggest plastic packaging maker for diligence information. The Board of RPC confirmed that it would engage with Berry in accordance with its obligations and to advance discussions in the interests of delivering the best value to shareholders.
Apollo's offer of 782 pence per share represented a premium of 15.6% to RPC's closing price on Sept. 7, the last trading day before the offer period began. Aviva Investors, which owns a 1.93% stake in RPC said that it does not agree with the terms of Apollo's offer.
Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo are advisors to Berry. Deutsche Bank, Jefferies & Company, Credit Suisse, Evercore, Rothschild & Co, Slaughter & May and FTI Consulting are advisors to RPC Group. BNP Paribas, Barclays, Citigroup, HSBC, Davis Polk & Wardwell, Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison, Sullivan & Cromwell and Maitland are advisors to Apollo Global Management.
Guardsquare, a fast-growing and market-leading security company focused on protecting complex mobile applications run by rapidly transforming enterprises across industries, received a $29m investment from Battery Ventures. It is the global company's first round of institutional financing. As part of the transaction, Battery Ventures acquired a majority stake in Guardsquare and Battery General Partner Dharmesh Thakker and Battery Principal Paul Morrissey will join Guardsquare's board.
The company—whose technology is already embedded in more than quarter of Android apps on the market today—will leverage the partnership with Battery to more aggressively invest in sales, marketing, R&D and customer-success efforts.
"We are extremely happy to welcome Battery as a shareholder," Jürgen Ingels, a Guardsquare board member and early investor in the company stated. "This enables us to put a turbo on further growth. It is also a great endorsement of the Belgian tech scene.”
Ring Automotive has agreed on the sale of its operations to OSRAM, a global lighting manufacturer. Ring Automotive is a highly regarded brand in the specialist areas of Lighting, Inspection and Power Management for passenger and light commercial vehicles. Financial terms were not disclosed.
George Skalski, Managing Director of Ring Automotive, said, "We look forward to working alongside OSRAM and believe that the transaction is very positive news for all of our colleagues and customers. The acquisition secures continued investment in the business, which will support our future growth plans and our leading-edge product innovation."
Altice to acquire significant stake in IdInvest's Molotov.
Telecom company Altice is about to close a significant investment in French startup Molotov — the two companies have entered into exclusive negotiations. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Jean-David Blanc declares: "Our exchanges with Patrick Drahi, Alain Weill and their teams have instantly reflected a common vision around development, innovation and growth. This new stage will endow us with means to the extent of this ambition and will allow us to become the Spotify of the TV in France and abroad."
Brookfield considering a potential offer for Dutch Royal KPN.
Canada's largest alternative asset manager is holding exploratory talks with Dutch pension funds about partnering on a potential bid for KPN, which has a market value of about €10.5bn ($12.1bn). Brookfield hasn't approached KPN yet, and discussions are at an early stage. The firm may opt to not proceed with an offer.
KPN shares jumped as much as 9.9% on the news, their strongest intraday gain since 2013.
Elliott raised its stake in Telecom Italia.
Elliott Management has upped its stake in Telecom Italia from 8.8% to 9.4%, according to a SEC filing, in a move bound to increase the stakes in a power battle over the Italian phone group with top shareholder Vivendi. Vivendi's share is just under 24%.
Telecom Italia shares have fallen around 40% in the past year, partially due to the governance battle between its top two shareholders. The shares rose on the news, trading up 4.7% at €0.48 ($0.55). According to the filing, Elliott bought the new shares at a price of between €0.46 ($0.53) and €0.53 ($0.60) per share.
Venture funds-backed Prenetics has acquired Kelaa App.
500 Startups and Arbor Ventures-backed genetics and digital health company Prenetics has acquired Kelaa App, a product of Soma Analytics and associated assets. The acquisition is a part of Prenetics Group's plan to expand its digital health solutions. Founded in Germany in 2013, Soma Analytics has built a workplace app, Kelaa, that helps prevent workplace stress by encouraging a state of mindfulness.
"Soma brings with them a depth of world-class research into the impact of workplace preventative health, allied to a truly impactful and measurable mobile app Kelaa, that is already having a demonstrative effect in the workplace," said Avi Lasarow, CEO of Prenetics International.
Tallgrass Energy and Blackstone entered into a definitive agreement to acquire 100% of the membership interests in TGE's general partner Tallgrass Energy GP, as well as an approximately 44% economic interest in Tallgrass, for total cash consideration of approximately $3.3bn. Affiliates of GIC, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, will be a minority investor in the transaction. The closing of the transaction remains subject to customary closing conditions and is expected within the first quarter of 2019.
"Tallgrass is managed by an exceptional team that has an outstanding track record of commercial, operational and financial success," said Sean Klimczak, Global Head of Infrastructure at Blackstone. "This transaction represents a rare opportunity to invest in a large-scale U.S. midstream infrastructure platform that connects high-production supply basins to key markets and is underpinned by long-term contracts. We are excited to partner with and to support the established Tallgrass management team over the long term as they execute on their robust backlog of attractive growth projects."
Baker Botts acted as legal advisor to Tallgrass. Citigroup acted as the financial advisor and Vinson & Elkins acted as the legal advisor to Blackstone on the transaction. Sidley Austin acted as the legal advisor to GIC.
CACI International to acquire LGS Innovations from Madison Dearborn and CoVant Management for $750m.
Madison Dearborn Partners and CoVant Management signed a definitive agreement to sell LGS Innovations, a leading provider of command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance and cyber products and solutions to the U.S. Intelligence Community and U.S. Department of Defense, to CACI International for $750m.
"We want to acknowledge the outstanding strategic execution of the LGS team during our ownership, and the important contributions they have made to their customers' missions," said Joseph Kampf, Chairman of LGS Innovations and Chairman & CEO at CoVant. "They are well-positioned to continue delivering innovative technology solutions for our national security as a part of CACI."
Kirkland & Ellis and Crowell & Moring acted as legal advisors, and BofA Merrill Lynch acted as financial advisor to LGS Innovations.
