EMEA
Scout24 rejects a joint bid from Hellman & Friedman and Blackstone.
RPC Group gives more time for Apollo to make an offer.
Verdane invests in leading eSourcing company Scanmarket.
Czech investor, Daniel Kretinsky seeks Metro bid.
Takeaway raised €680m through new shares and convertible bonds offering.
AMERICAS
Trian to cancel PPG board challenge after new financial targets release.
BlueRun Ventures closed $130M fund.
Resolute Ventures closed $75m Fund IV.
APAC
Baring PE and CVC are shortlisted for $1.5bn Godiva Asia Sale.
CVC Capital launches $5bn fifth Asia vehicle.
Carlyle and Nomura to join forces for Japanese beer maker Orion bid.
Chinese apartment rental platform, Danke Gongyu acquired a rival in a $200m deal.
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EMEA
Scout24 rejects a joint bid from Hellman & Friedman and Blackstone.
German online classifieds company Scout24 has rejected a €4.7bn ($5.3bn) takeover offer from private equity firms Hellman & Friedman and Blackstone, potentially paving the way for a bidding war.
The company said in a statement late on Friday that Hellman & Friedman and Blackstone had submitted a joint bid to Scout 24’s shareholders of €44 ($50) per share - 8% higher than Friday’s closing share price of €40 ($45).
“The management board of Scout24 AG has rejected the proposed offer price as inadequate,” the company said.
Speculation about a takeover of Scout24, which was previously owned by Hellman & Friedman, has been rife since December when the Financial Times said U.S. technology-focused buyout firm Silver Lake was expected to be among the bidders looking to acquire Scout24.
RPC Group gives more time for Apollo to make an offer.
RPC Group, Europe’s biggest plastics packaging maker, said the deadline for its private equity suitor Apollo Global Management to make a firm offer for the company has been extended to Jan. 23.
RPC Group, which first announced the talks in September last year, said the takeover panel granted the extension on the company’s request and that discussions with Apollo are ongoing.
RPC Group was advised by Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Evercore, Jefferies & Company, Rothschild & Co and Slaughter & May.
Transcom signed an agreement to acquire TMS connected. The transaction is expected to close during February 2019, subject to regulatory approval. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
TMS connected is one of the leading customer service providers specialized in the utilities industry in Germany. The company was founded in 1988 and has been servicing the utilities industry for more than 30 years.
“Welcoming TMS connected as well as all TMS team members to the Transcom family will not only increase our footprint in the strategically important German market but also within the utilities sector, one of the strongest growing outsourcing industry verticals in Germany and beyond. This will provide an opportunity for both companies to fully capture growth opportunities with current and future clients”, Michael Weinreich, Transcom President & CEO.
Verdane invests in leading eSourcing company Scanmarket.
Verdane Edda has invested in Scanmarket, a cloud-based SaaS suite within strategic sourcing software. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The goal of the investment is to strengthen Scanmarket’s position as a best of breed solution within eSourcing and to build a leading international Source-2-Contract (S2C) software company that helps procurement professionals in achieving cost savings.
“This partnership allows us to accelerate our investments into product development and marketing, so that even more companies can benefit from the cost savings generated by our clients from adopting our platform”, Betina Nygaard, Verdane CEO.
Leading mobile games company, Playtika, announced that it has completed its acquisition of Austria-based developer Supertreat. The announcement comes just a few weeks after the company acquired German puzzle and hidden object specialist, Wooga, and a little more than a year after it acquired Jelly Button Games, both significant steps in the company's strategy to further expand into casual games. As part of the acquisition, Playtika will add the successful "Solitaire Grand Harvest" app to its growing portfolio of casual game titles. Financial terms were not disclosed.
"Solitaire is one of the most evergreen single-player games and a very competitive category, but Supertreat cracked it and succeeded in creating one of the highest grossing solitaire games within just a year of its launch," Nir Korczak, Playtika Chief Marketing Officer.
Czech investor, Daniel Kretinsky seeks Metro bid.
Czech investor Daniel Kretinsky is preparing a potential bid for Metro, sending shares in the German retailer as much as 6% higher on Friday.
Kretinsky, the main owner and CEO of Czech power group EPH and a shareholder in France’s Le Monde newspaper, and Tkac already own a roughly 10% stake in Metro, which has a total market value of about €5.2bn ($5.9bn).
Takeaway raised €680m through new shares and convertible bonds offering.
Takeaway, an online food delivery marketplace in Continental Europe, has successfully placed 8.35m new ordinary shares of the Company, representing approximately 19% of its outstanding share capital.
The company raised approximately €430m ($485m) through an accelerated bookbuild offering at an issue price of €52 per new share, as well as a concurrent offering of convertible bonds in the aggregate principal amount of €250m ($284m) due January 2024. After launching the capital increase of approximately 6.5m ordinary shares, investor demand enabled the company to upsize the capital increase to 8.35m ordinary shares.
AMERICAS
Trian to cancel PPG board challenge after new financial targets release.
Trian Fund Management will not challenge PPG Industries Inc’s board of directors at its 2019 shareholder meeting after the U.S. paints and coatings company met some of the activist hedge fund’s demands and announced new financial targets.
Trian, run by billionaire Nelson Peltz, asked PPG last October to replace its Chief Executive Michael McGarry with former CEO Chuck Bunch, look at how it uses its balance sheet, explore a break-up of the company, and eliminate the company’s practice of re-electing only a portion of its board instead of its entirety every year.
“Over the last several months, PPG has actively engaged with many of our shareholders. The targets and objectives announced today resulted from PPG’s planning process, are responsive to a broad set of shareholder feedback and demonstrate confidence in the Company’s long-term prospects and operational excellence,” McGarry said in a statement.
BlueRun Ventures closed $130M fund.
BlueRun Ventures has brought in $130m for its sixth flagship fund, which it will use to make early-stage investments in startups focused on digital health, mobile software, and fintech.
Founded in 1998, the Bay Area-based firm has backed B2B payments startup PayStand and mobile therapeutics provider Hello Heart.
Resolute Ventures closed $75m Fund IV.
Resolute Ventures has closed its fourth namesake fund on $75m. Headquartered in San Francisco, the firm makes pre-seed and seed investments in a variety of sectors, with a portfolio that includes dog-product subscription service BarkBox and weight-loss device maker Lumen.
Resolute closed its third flagship vehicle on $65m in 2017.
APAC
Baring PE and CVC are shortlisted for $1.5bn Godiva Asia Sale.
Baring Private Equity Asia and CVC Capital Partners are among suitors that were picked to make final offers for Asia-Pacific assets being sold by premium chocolatier Godiva.
North Asian buyout firm MBK Partners and Marunouchi Capital, an investment arm of Japan’s Mitsubishi, were also shortlisted to proceed to the next round of bidding. The assets could fetch as much as $1.5bn. The confectioner’s owner Yildiz Holding has asked for final offers to be submitted in the next few weeks.
CVC Capital launches $5bn fifth Asia vehicle.
Private equity firm CVC Capital Partners has officially launched its fifth Asia-focused vehicle that is looking to raise up to $5bn, the largest ever Asian fund raised by the firm.
Carlyle and Nomura to join forces for Japanese beer maker Orion bid.
Carlyle Group and Japan’s biggest investment bank Nomura are planning a joint takeover bid for beer maker Orion Breweries. Both companies could pay tens of billions of yen for Orion, the fifth biggest beer maker in Japan.
The Okinawa Prefecture, Japan-based brewery expects the deal to help the company expand in the United States and in other parts of Asia.
Asahi Group Holdings, currently the largest shareholder in Orion, is expected to keep its 10%.
Chinese apartment rental platform, Danke Gongyu acquired a rival in a $200m deal.
Danke Gongyu, a Chinese online platform that connects landlords with long-term tenants, is acquiring Whale Capital-backed housing asset management platform iShangzu for $200m. Once the transaction is completed, iShangzu’s assets and shares will be merged into Danke Gongyu, bringing the number of assets on Danke’s platform to around 400k items across 10 first-tier cities as well as emerging prime areas.
iShangzu, established in August 2015, offers property management services such as housing trusts, interior design, leasing and maintenance services to landlords.
This acquisition comes after Danke Gongyu completed its $70-m Series B+ round in June last year.
The round was led by New York-based Tiger Global Management and participated by China Media Capital, Gaorong Capital, Joy Capital, Vision Plus Capital, Betelsmann Asia Investments and Shenzhen Youjin Investment Management.
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