Halozyme, a biopharmaceutical company bringing disruptive solutions to significantly improve patient experiences and outcomes for emerging and established therapies, completed the acquisition of Antares Pharma, a specialty pharmaceutical company, for $960m.
"We are pleased to have reached this agreement with Halozyme, as this transaction showcases the value of Antares' highly complementary business, provides our shareholders with attractive and certain value, and brings together industry-leading expertise and drug delivery platforms to accelerate growth and create new opportunities. As we remain committed to continuing to serve our partners, I would like to thank our employees for their hard work and dedication to this mission. We look forward to working with the Halozyme team to complete the transaction and deliver best-in-class therapies and drug delivery solutions," Robert F. Apple, Antares President and CEO.
Antares Pharma was advised by Jefferies & Company, Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom and Sard Verbinnen & Co. Jefferies & Company was advised by White & Case. Halozyme was advised by Bank of America, Wells Fargo Securities, Weil Gotshal and Manges, Argot Partners and Joele Frank.
CD&R and TPG to acquire the remaining shares in Covetrus for $2.2bn. (FS)
Private equity firms Clayton, Dubilier & Rice and TPG Capital agreed to acquire the remaining shares in Covetrus, an American company providing animal health products and related services, for $2.2bn.
"Our Board and management team are currently reviewing the offer as we look for ways to help Covetrus continue to grow and better serve our customers, employees, suppliers, business partners and shareholders. There can be no assurance that any transaction will be consummated, but regardless of the ultimate outcome, this is a vote of confidence in our future from our largest shareholder, CD&R. As always, we remain focused on empowering veterinarians and driving better care for animals across the globe," Covetrus.
Covetrus is advised by Goldman Sachs, Lincoln International and Weil Gotshal and Manges. Clayton, Dubilier & Rice is advised by BMO Capital Markets, Deutsche Bank, Mizuho Securities, UBS, Debevoise & Plimpton and Ropes & Gray. Debt financing is provided by BMO Capital Markets, Deutsche Bank, Mizuho Securities and UBS.
US business software maker Oracle is set to gain unconditional EU antitrust clearance for its $28.3bn acquisition of US healthcare IT company Cerner,
Reuters reported.
Oracle announced the deal, its biggest ever, in December last year. It will give it access to a trove of data and could attract more healthcare clients to its cloud platform.
Oracle is advised by Hogan Lovells. Cerner is advised by Centerview Partners, Goldman Sachs, Clifford Chance and Latham & Watkins. Financial advisors are advised by Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson.
Altaris Capital, an investment firm, completed the acquisition of Intricon, an international company and joint development manufacturer of micromedical components, sub-assemblies and final devices, for $241m.
“We are excited to enter into this transaction with Altaris, which will deliver a compelling valuation to our shareholders and enable us to accelerate the advancement of our joint development manufacturing capabilities in micromedical technology across a broad range of high growth markets. Our team has done an outstanding job of establishing Intricon as the partner of choice for companies that are bringing truly advanced technology to medical devices. As we enter the next chapter for our company, we believe that Altaris is the ideal partner to help us further advance our mission," Scott Longval, Intricon President and CEO.
Intricon was advised by Piper Sandler and Blank Rome. Altaris Capital was advised by Linklaters and Schiff Hardin.
D.R. Horton, America’s builder, completed the acquisition of Vidler Water Resources, a water resource and water storage business, for $288m.
Following its acceptance of the tendered shares, D.R. Horton completed the acquisition of Vidler through a merger of its directly owned subsidiary with and into Vidler, with Vidler being the surviving corporation, in which all shares not tendered into the offer were cancelled and converted into the right to receive cash equal to the $15.75 offer price per share, without interest and less any applicable tax withholding.
Vidler was advised by Bank of America and Dorsey & Whitney. D.R. Horton was advised by Gibson Dunn & Crutcher.
Prospect Hill Growth Partners, a private equity firm, completed the acquisition of MOTIS Brands, a vertically integrated e-commerce company, from Rotunda Capital Partners, a global investment firm. Financial terms were not disclosed.
“We enjoyed our partnership with MOTIS and Rich and wish the team continued success. Under our ownership, MOTIS transitioned from a one-website storefront to a leader in several categories, with US-based manufacturing, multiple branded DTC websites, and a proven acquisition platform,” Corey Whisner, Rotunda Capital Partners Partner.
Motis Brands was advised by Brown Gibbons Lang & Company and Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff. Prospect Hill Growth Partners was advised by Ropes & Gray.
Prysm Capital, a growth equity firm, led a $165m Series B round in Clear Street, a fintech company, with participation from NextGen Venture Partners, Walleye Capital, NEAR Foundation, McLaren Strategic Ventures, and Validus Growth Investors, as well as angel investors Illia Polosukhin, Moses Lo, and Alastair Trueger.
“We founded Clear Street to replace the outdated tech infrastructure being used across capital markets. It shouldn’t take six months to open an account or a year to begin trading a new asset class. Clients are demanding better technology and better service. Clear Street is stepping up to address this issue head-on. Our cloud-native platform provides the services and data that investors need to compete in today’s markets,” Chris Pento, Clear Street Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer.
Clear Street was advised by Piper Sandler and Caliber Corporate Advisers.
Butterfly Equity-backed Bolthouse Farms, a vertically integrated farm company, agreed to acquire Evolution Fresh, a producer of primarily organic, cold-pressed, premium juice products, from Starbucks, an American multinational chain of coffeehouses and roastery reserves. Financial terms were not disclosed.
"Evolution Fresh is a natural extension of the Bolthouse Farms portfolio and we look forward to welcoming the team. At Bolthouse Farms, with the support of Butterfly, we strive to ensure that the acres we grow and beverages we make have a positive impact on the land, on the people who make up our company, and on all people. By bringing Evolution Fresh into our portfolio, we will extend our spirit of ingenuity and innovation, sharing resources and passion for high-quality, nutrient-dense juices to pioneer solutions for today's food system," Jeff Dunn, Bolthouse Farms Chairman and CEO.
Bolthouse Farms is advised by Finn Partners and Kirkland & Ellis.
TotalEnergies, an energy company that produces and markets energies on a global scale, agreed to acquire a 50% stake in Clearway Energy, a renewable energy, from Global Infrastructure Partners, a global investment company, for $1.6bn.
“We are extremely pleased to partner with TotalEnergies to continue leading the energy transition in the US. We are proud of the growth and accomplishments of the Clearway team since our initial investment in 2018, and we are confident that with TotalEnergies as a partner, Clearway will be able to accelerate the deployment of cost-competitive renewable power in the US. We are extremely pleased to partner with TotalEnergies to continue leading the energy transition in the US. We are proud of the growth and accomplishments of the Clearway team since our initial investment in 2018, and we are confident that with TotalEnergies as a partner, Clearway will be able to accelerate the deployment of cost-competitive renewable power in the US,” Adebayo Ogunlesi, GIP Chairman and CEO.
TotalEnergies is advised by Latham & Watkins.
KKR led a $200m Series C round in Semperis, a pioneer in identity-driven cyber resilience for enterprises, with participation from Ten Eleven Ventures, Paladin Capital Group, Atrium Health Strategic Fund, Tech Pioneers Fund and Insight Partners.
"From day one, Semperis has been on a mission to be a force for good. With Semperis' multi-layered identity protection, organizations can fend off cyber attacks without being forced to choose between two bad options: paying the criminals or getting shut down. With the combined experience that KKR, Ten Eleven Ventures, Insight Partners, and other esteemed investors in this round bring scaling high-growth cybersecurity companies, we have an elite group of strategic partners in our corner to help advance our mission," Mickey Bresman, Semperis CEO.
Semperis was advised by fama PR.
SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led a $150m Series B round in Firework, a livestreaming commerce and digital transformation platform.
"With this investment, our growth engine is firing on all cylinders. Our core technology and business model have already been proven in the market many times over, and with this capital to realize our vision, Firework can now focus most of our efforts on evolution and growth, in all its forms – growing our team, growing our user base, and growing our technology, to ensure the Firework platform never loses step with the bleeding edge of next-generation customer experience," Vincent Yang, Firework CEO.
Firework was advised by Scratch Marketing + Media.
KKR-backed Paddle, the complete payments infrastructure for SaaS companies, agreed to acquire ProfitWell, a provider of subscription metrics and retention automation software, for $200m.
"At ProfitWell, we're committed to supercharging revenue growth for some of the most exciting, forward-thinking businesses on the planet - and by joining forces with Paddle we see an opportunity to do even more. Paddle shares our mission to help thousands of software businesses avoid the operational hurdles that stand in the way of growth by taking these problems on completely ourselves. Those shared objectives, combined with the natural cultural fit between our two companies, meant adding our subscription metrics and retention tools to the offering just made perfect sense. We're delighted to have the opportunity to bring our teams together to build a truly holistic, powerful payments infrastructure at the heart of the SaaS market," Patrick Campbell, ProfitWell CEO.
SiriusXM, an American broadcasting company, agreed to acquire Team Coco, an online streaming platform that provides episodes, event information, and video clips related to the Conan talk show, for $150m.
"We are thrilled that Conan remains committed to producing his incredibly successful podcast and will now expand his role into executive producing an exclusive Team Coco radio channel for SiriusXM. Conan has built an amazing brand and organization at Team Coco with a proven track record of finding and launching compelling and addictive podcasts. We look forward to continuing to grow the Team Coco brand," Scott Greenstein, SiriusXM President and Chief Content Officer.
Greenlight Guru, a software company in Indianapolis, Indiana, agreed to acquire Vertex Intelligence, a data science company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
"The acquisition of Vertex Intelligence enables us to help medical device companies achieve True Quality through proactive decision support across the entire medical device product life-cycle," Nick Tippman, Vertex Intelligence CEO.
Lightrock, a global growth equity investor, led a $150m Series E round in Mainspring Energy, an onsite power generation provider, with participation from Khosla Ventures, Bill Gates, Fidelity Investments, Princeville Capital and Lineage Ventures.
"Mainspring's radical flexibility in clean power generation — the ability to operate multiple fuel types, to turn on and off rapidly, to be placed anywhere, easily and affordably — has the potential to demonstrably speed the world's move to zero-carbon electricity. Lightrock invests in companies that can deliver significant, measurable climate impact, and Mainspring fits ideally into our portfolio, which also includes innovators in fields such as hydrogen electrolysis and biogas conversion," Kevin Bone, Lightrock Partner.
Institutional Venture Partners, a private equity firm, led a $140m Series D round in Monte Carlo, the data reliability company, with participation from Accel, GGV Capital, Redpoint Ventures, ICONIQ Growth, Salesforce Ventures, and GIC.
Monte Carlo intends to use the capital infusion to continue improving experiences for its hundreds of customers, scale the data observability category to new verticals, and grow its US and EMEA go-to-market and engineering teams.
Rose Park Advisors led a $125m Series D round in Booster, a mobile energy delivery platform, with participation from Chaac Ventures, Equinor Ventures, Mitsubishi Corporation and Thayer Ventures. Renewable Energy Group, Cercano Management, Conversion Capital, Enterprise Holding Ventures, Invus Opportunities, Madrona Venture Group, Maveron Ventures, Perot Jain and Version One Ventures.
"The supply chain powering transportation is overly reliant on costly fixed infrastructure. Given the extraordinary growth of the 'delivery-of-everything' economy, customers need reliable solutions that enable them to become more carbon-efficient today without compromising on cost or flexibility," Frank Mycroft, Booster CEO and Founder.
Citi in talks to buy Deutsche Bank Mexico.
Citigroup is weighing a deal to buy Deutsche Bank's Mexican bank,
Reuters reported. Citi is planning to set up a new local unit in the country, and the deal will help it sidestep a lengthier approval process for a new license.
Talks are in early stages and may not result in a deal. Any sale would require regulatory approval and Deutsche Bank would keep the brokerage it relaunched in the country earlier this year.
Kohl's braces for bidders revising down offers. (FS)
Bidders competing to acquire Kohl's are preparing to make binding offers that are lower than the indicative bids they submitted earlier this year to reflect the market downturn and the US retailer's deteriorating business,
Reuters reported.
The bidders, which include private equity firm Sycamore Partners, brand holding firm Franchise Group, and JC Penney investors Simon Property Group and Brookfield Asset Management, plan to lower their offers by at least 10% to 15%.
Wendy's investor Peltz explores taking over burger chain. (FS)
Wendy's Co's largest shareholder Nelson Peltz is considering a potential takeover bid for the burger chain almost two decades after the billionaire hedge fund manager invested in the company,
Reuters reported.
Wendy's shares rose about 14% in extended trading after Trian Fund Management, Peltz' firm, said it will explore a transaction on its own or with others that could include an acquisition, business combination or other transaction.
Sierra Club warns BlackRock it may pull $12m over climate stance. (FS)
US environmental group Sierra Club has warned BlackRock it may pull a $12m investment after the money manager said it would likely support fewer climate-focused shareholder resolutions at annual company meetings this year,
Reuters reported.
The world's biggest asset manager said this month it was less likely to support such votes as many were too prescriptive in their demands and not in the interests of clients.
Hedge fund Elliott chases oil and gas deals, bucking Wall Street. (FS)
Energy bankers who lost one client after another when poor returns pushed many investment firms out of the US oil patch got a welcome email earlier this year,
Reuters reported.
Elliott Management, a hedge fund founded and co-led by billionaire Paul Singer and best known for its activist investing, wrote to the bankers in January inviting them to pitch opportunities to acquire US oil and gas acreage.
Andreessen Horowitz raises $4.5bn for fourth crypto fund. (FS)
Venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz has raised $4.5bn for its fourth cryptocurrency fund, bringing its total funds raised for digital currency investments so far to more than $7.6bn.
About $1.3bn from the fund will be used to invest in seed rounds of startups and $3bn for venture investments,
Reuters reported.
EMEA
The sale of Chelsea FC to US investor Todd Boehly has been approved by the UK government, bringing a close to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich’s near 20-year ownership of the football club,
Bloomberg reported.
The approval of the $5.3bn sale ends months of uncertainty for fans and staff of the London club, which Abramovich was forced to put up for sale in early March shortly before being sanctioned as part of the UK’s response to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Todd Boehly is advised by Robey Warshaw and Latham & Watkins. Clearlake Capital Group is advised by Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison and Sidley Austin. Roman Abramovich is advised by The Raine Group.
Thoma Bravo, one of the largest private equity firms in the world, agreed to acquire Mercell, a platform for public e-tendering and services, for $490m.
"Mercell has built an outstanding SaaS network of buyers and suppliers in the Nordic region for public tendering. As a private company, we believe Mercell will benefit from our knowledge, network and resources to better achieve its long-term potential and continued growth trajectory. We are truly thrilled to work in partnership with Terje and his team to continue to expand globally, to further invest in product development, and to continue to make strategic acquisitions," George Jaber, Thoma Bravo Senior Vice President.
Mercell is advised by ABG Sundal Collier, JP Morgan and Thommessen. Thoma Bravo is advised by SEB Corporate Finance, Kirkland & Ellis, Schjodt and Fogel & Partners.
Equatorial Coca-Cola Bottling Company, a bottler of The Coca-Cola Company across North and West Africa, and Castel Group, a French beverage company, agreed to merge their Algerian soft drinks businesses. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The proposed integration will allow both companies to combine their respective capabilities and expertise to drive performance across a consolidated beverage platform to serve the Algerian market more effectively and efficiently, driving value for the Coca-Cola System's key stakeholders including consumers, customers and suppliers.
ECCBC is advised by Rothschild & Co and Latham & Watkins. Castel is advised by Alantra and Lacourte Raquin Tatar.
Unicaja, a Spanish savings bank based in Málaga, agreed to acquire the remaining 50% stake in the Liberbank insurance joint venture from Aegon, a Dutch multinational life insurance, pensions and asset management company, for €177m ($187m).
"Aegon will continue to grow its business in Spain and Portugal through its key life and non-life joint ventures with Banco Santander as well as through its own channels, which have generated significant profitable growth over the last years," Aegon.
Aegon is advised by Mediobanca.
Amdocs to acquire MYCOM OSI for $188m.
Amdocs, a provider of software and services to communications and media companies, agreed to acquire MYCOM OSI, a company providing SaaS-based cloud network and service assurance solutions to communications service providers globally, for $188m.
“This is a strategic growth move that builds on our other recent successful acquisitions in the network and cloud space and executes on three of our core strategic pillars intelligent network automation, 5G and cloud. As the network and services of the 5G era become increasingly dynamic and complex, a holistic, end-to-end approach is key and can only be achieved with a powerful AI-backed assurance solution suite. That’s why we’re so excited to welcome the highly talented and dedicated MYCOM OSI team to Amdocs,” Shuky Sheffer, Amdocs President and Chief Executive Officer.
Amdocs is advised by Babel PR.
BEWI, a provider of packaging, components, and insulation solutions, agreed to acquire the remaining 49% stake in Cellpack, a Danish paper packaging company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The acquisition of Cellpack has provided BEWI with a broadened product offering within paper packaging, in line with the company's strategy to provide its customers with complementary solutions. The BEWI group expects to continue strengthening its offering and production capacity within paper packaging.
Faurecia exploring asset sales after Hella deal completion.
The French auto parts group is working with advisers as it weighs selling its emissions-control unit and Hella’s special applications division.
The emissions business may fetch about $534m, while the Hella unit could be valued at as much as $1bn.
EQT is considering selling a stake in GlobalConnect. (FS)
Private equity firm EQT is considering the sale of a minority stake in Nordic fiber network operator GlobalConnect,
Bloomberg reported.
EQT's infrastructure arm is working with advisers on the potential divestment, which could attract interest from other investment funds as well as pension managers. A deal could value GlobalConnect at between $7.5bn.
Tottenham Hotspur FC gets $187m boost from owners.
The owners of Tottenham Hotspur FC will inject $187m into the English Premier League football club ahead of the new season,
Bloomberg reported.
ENIC Sports, the majority owner of Tottenham, will allocate the funds to help the club invest on and off the pitch.
Austria sells first ever green bond.
Austria became the latest government to enter the green bond market with a $4.3bn debt sale,
Reuters reported.
The bond, due to mature on May 23, 2049, priced for a yield of 1.88%, and Austria's Treasury retained $267m of the issuance. The bond attracted $26bn of investor demand.
European governments have shown strong interest in issuing green bonds, which fund environmentally friendly projects, as investor demand has surged in recent years.
