EMEA
Virgin Atlantic and Cyrus Capital led consortium to acquire Flybe Group.
Auction for Orsted's assets worth up to €2.5bn is entering its final stage.
Norvestor acquired a 60% stake in Wellit, a logistics software provider.
Triton's new fund closed at €5bn.
Astrog closed its seventh fund at €4bn.
Elior is awaiting bids for its Areas business at an expected valuation of up to €2bn.
UBS Asset Management's newest fund closed at €1bn.
Muzinich & Co closed a new Pan - European fund at €707m.
AMERICAS
PE transactions in the US are at the highest level since 2007.
Qatar Investments Authority wants to raise its investment in the US to $45bn.
New Mountain wants to raise $1bn for minority investments.
Energy Spectrum raised $779m for its new fund.
APAC
Quadrant wants to sell its fitness chain in Australia, worth A$2bn.
PTC India's $284m wind business attracts bidders.
TPG Capital formed a joint venture with China International Capital.
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EMEA
Virgin Atlantic led consortium to acquire Flybe Group. (FS)
Virgin Atlantic, Stobart Group, and Cyrus Capital made an offer for Flybe Group equity at £2.2m ($2.8m).
Cyrus, Stobart Group and Virgin Atlantic have committed to make available a £20m ($26m) bridge loan facility to support Flybe's ongoing working capital and operational requirements. Following completion of the Acquisition, Cyrus, Stobart Group and Virgin Atlantic are intending to provide up to £80m ($103m) of further funding to the Combined Group to invest in its business and support its growth, as well as a contribution of Stobart Air.
"The Board of Stobart Group believes that bringing Stobart Air together with Flybe and partnering with Virgin Atlantic and Cyrus Capital is the best way for us to play an active role in UK regional flying. The combined entity will be a powerful combination with sufficient scale to compete effectively in the UK and European airline markets.It will allow us to continue to work with Flybe and provides an excellent opportunity to continue to grow passenger numbers at London Southend Airport." Warwick Brady, Stobart Group CEO.
Flybe was advised by Evercore and Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner. Stobart was advised by Barclays and Hill Dickinson. Cyrus was advised by Morgan Lewis & Bockius. Virgin was advised by Rothschild & Co, Herbert Smith Freehills, and FTI Consulting.
Auction for Orsted's assets worth up to €2.5bn is entering its final stage.
The Danish power distribution and residential customer businesses are well-run and have a high level of customer satisfaction. However, they are not a sales channel supporting the company’s long-term international growth in renewables.
Orsted's Board of Directors has therefore decided to initiate an auction to assess the market interest in acquiring Orsted's above business. The cut-off price to reach the second round of the process was €2.5bn ($2.8bn).
Enel, SEAS-NVE, ATP, OMERS, PKA, and CDPQ showed interest and are lining up final bids. Final bids are expected around the second half of February. Orsted aims to pick a buyer by the end of June.
Orsted is being advised by Danske Bank.
Norvestor acquired a 60% stake in Wellit, a logistics software provider.
Norvestor Equity has signed an agreement to invest in Wellit. Norvestor will become the majority shareholder in Wellit holding 60%, while founders and management will hold the remaining shares. Financial terms were not disclosed.
“Norvestor is truly excited to have joined forces with this strong management team of a great and innovative company. Coming from a long career within oil and gas, I see great potential in Wellit to change industry dynamics, way of working and save operator and supplier costs. We look forward to working with the team and support the continued expansion and development of Wellit.” Erling Gunnerod, Norvestor Partner.
After six years’ ownership, Axcel agreed to sell Mita-Teknik to partner and minority shareholder, the Andersen family. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The Danish company is a leading supplier of control solutions for the wind power industry.
“Mita-Teknik has faced unfavourable market conditions in recent years, which has meant that our investment hasn’t been a great success. Selling the business back to the Andersen family is therefore the best possible option for the company’s further development. I’ve enjoyed working with the Andersen family and wish them all the best for the future.” Lars Cordt, Axcel Partner.
Triton's new fund closed at €5bn.
Triton Fund V has successfully closed at €5bn ($5.7bn) – at the hard cap, surpassing the €4bn ($4.6bn) target. The closing took place in December 2018.
Triton V received commitments from returning, and new LPs made up of a diversified range of institutional blue-chip investors including pension funds, insurance companies, and sovereign wealth funds. The Triton V investor base is geographically diversified across Europe, North America, and Asia.
Triton V will continue the ‘all weather’ mid-market private equity investment strategy and will seek to generate value in the geographies in which Triton has strong local knowledge, such as the Nordics, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, France, UK, and Benelux.
Astrog closed its seventh fund at €4bn.
French GP Astorg has held a first and final close on €4bn ($4.6bn) for Astorg VII, surpassing the initial target of €3.2bn ($3.7bn) after three months on the fundraising trail.
Astorg VII will be deployed mainly in European companies with a value of between €200m ($229m) and €2bn ($2.3bn), and more occasionally in companies operating in the healthcare and software sectors in the US.
Elior wants bids for its Areas business, which it expects to sell for up to €2bn. (FS)
France’s Elior wants bids for its Areas business, which focuses on railways and motorway catering, to be submitted by the end of January.
Elior, which is Europe’s third-largest catering group, hopes to raise €1.5bn to €2bn ($2.3bn) from the sale of Areas, whose €1.8bn ($2.1bn) 2017-18 revenue accounted for nearly a third of its sales.
Around 10 private equity funds - including Carlyle, KKR, Lone Star and Blackstone - are considering making a bid.
UBS Asset Management's newest fund closed at €1bn.
UBS Asset Management's has held the final close of its second European infrastructure debt fund, which has raised a total of €1bn ($1.1bn) within nine months of its launch, substantially exceeding its original €700m ($802m) target following oversubscribed investor interest.
The strong level of interest is a credit to the platform’s proven strategy, supported by the successful track record of its first fund. The first fund is currently fully deployed across a diversified portfolio of infrastructure financings from which it has delivered investors with superior gross returns averaging 3.8%.
Muzinich & Co closed a new Pan - European fund at €707m.
The fund focuses on providing financing solutions for lower mid-market companies to fund growth, acquisitions, expansions, and transitions.
“While we had an initial fund size target estimate of €500m, we have seen strong demand from investors who are looking for attractive yields. We believe our offering – as one of the very few Pan-European private lenders in the lower mid-market – gives us an advantage in accessing a broad range of investment opportunities in seeking to generate attractive IRRs for our investors." Kirsten Bode, Muzinich & Co Co-Head of Private Debt, Pan-Europe.
AMERICAS
PE transactions in the US are at the highest level since 2007.
Private equity dealmaking in America last year reached the highest level since 2007, with investors buying $800bn of companies and a record proportion of deals involving richer-than-usual valuations. More than three-fifths of the transactions were struck at a purchase price that was at least 10 times higher than the acquired company’s annual profits.
Among the largest deals closed last year were Blackstone’s $17bn buyout of the financial and risk business of Thomson Reuters and KKR’s $10bn take-private of Envision Healthcare, which provides medical staff to hospitals and other medical facilities.
Qatar Investments Authority wants to raise its investment in the US to $45bn.
Qatar Investment Authority aims to raise investments in the United States to $45bn in the next two years as it re-balances its portfolio of assets away from Europe.
In the US, QIA was looking at fundamental sectors such as real estate, technology or US exchanges.
QIA currently has about $30bn invested in the US.
New Mountain wants to raise $1bn for minority investments.
New Mountain Capital has started talking with LPs about raising a $1bn fund dedicated to minority investments. The vehicle would reportedly target small-market and mid-market companies in the US.
Energy Spectrum raised $779m for its new fund.
Energy Spectrum Partners has raised $779m toward a $1.3bn target for its eighth flagship fund.
The firm usually makes investments of between $50m and $200m in midstream energy companies operating in North America's lower middle market.
APAC
Quadrant wants to sell its fitness chain in Australia, worth A$2bn.
Quadrant has hired Citi and UBS to explore a sale of Australian fitness chain Fitness and Lifestyle in a deal that could be worth as much as A$2bn ($1.4bn).
The banks are believed to have already discussed a possible deal with private equity firms.
PTC India's $284m wind business attracts bidders.
The Indian arm of CLP Holdings, Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets and Hero Future Energies are among the companies that are interested in acquiring PTC India’s wind power business that may be valued at around ₹2k crore ($284m).
The Indian renewable energy space is witnessing growing consolidation, amid falling tariffs and the capital intensive nature of the business, particularly in the initial stage, making the availability of low-cost funds critical for the success of a project.
PTC India is being advised by KPMG.
TPG Capital formed a joint venture with China International Capital.
TPG Capital has teamed with the private equity arm of investment bank China International Capital to launch a new platform called China Synergy.
The vehicle will focus on backing Chinese companies but will also be active in other countries, pursuing investments denominated in both dollars and renminbi.
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