AMERICAS
Ingredion, a global ingredient solutions provider, agreed to acquire PureCircle, a producer of stevia sweeteners, for $229m.
"The acquisition of PureCircle advances our specialties strategy for sugar reduction and specialty sweeteners, by aligning with one of the most important food and beverage trends shaping the industry and impacting our customers," Jim Zallie, Ingredion President and CEO.
Ingredion is advised by Hogan Lovells and Citigroup. Purecircle is advised by KPMG, Baker McKenzie and Newgate Communications.
A US bankruptcy court approved the $220m sale of failed Oklahoma shale firm Alta Mesa Resources after a lengthy delay and renegotiation prompted by the oil-price crash, Reuters reported.
Creditors agreed to sell the company to a joint venture between Bayou City Energy Management and Mach Resources, a company founded by US shale pioneer Tom Ward. The price is nearly a third less than creditors had negotiated earlier this year.
Buyers set a closing for Thursday, a move that an attorney for Alta Mesa creditors slammed as “gamesmanship” for reducing the deal’s value by more than $5m. The price adjusts by $1.75m for every $1 per barrel change from a $23 per barrel baseline price. The reference price is set two days before closing.
Bayou City is advised by UBS and Kirkland & Ellis.
iFood, a Brazilian delivery startup, agreed to acquire Domicilios.com, a Columbian delivery service, from Delivery Hero, a European multinational online food-delivery service. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The transaction is subject to regulatory approval. iFood will control and own 51% of the new venture, with Delivery Hero owning the remaining 49%.
“Recently, we have worked on the expansion of iFood in Brazil and throughout Latin America. Over time, we have increased our presence in Colombia, which is a strategic country for our growth, ” Fabricio Bloisi, iFood CEO.
Bernhard Capital Partners, a service and infrastructure-focused private equity management, firm completed the acquisition of Ascension Wastewater Treatment, a private sewer utility operator in Louisiana. Financial terms were not disclosed.
"Aligning our organization with Bernhard Capital allows us to leverage the firm's decades of experience, institutional knowledge and readily available resources into enhancing our services and infrastructure – helping to ensure our operations remain consistent, efficient and affordable," Tom Pertuit, Ascension Wastewater Treatment CEO.
Anvil Group, a global risk management firm, completed the acquisition of FlightSafe, an airline safety advisory service. Financial terms were not disclosed.
"Having provided the technology architecture to host the FlightSafe website for many years, we're extremely familiar with the platform and the potential that it offers in our space. As a technology-led business, Anvil is ideally positioned to develop the service even further. We've been working with FlightSafe behind the scenes and have already made significant changes to the user interface to make the service even more accessible and beneficial to those needing to keep abreast of airline risk information," Matthew Judge, Anvil Group Managing Director.
Cisco, a US-based technology conglomerate, agreed to acquire Fluidmesh Networks, a wireless backhaul systems provider. Financial terms were not disclosed.
"With wireless technology playing a greater role in every organization's multi-access IoT strategy, reliable wireless connectivity is paramount to organizations operating Industrial IoT environments, whether that's manufacturing, mining, rail, or ports, where wireless technology automates operations to improve safety and lower costs. The acquisition of Fluidmesh strengthens Cisco's offerings in this space with leading technology that's designed to provide zero loss of data transfer at speeds in excess of 300 Km/h," Liz Centoni, Cisco Senior Vice President Emerging Technologies and Incubation.
Artemis Capital Partners, a Boston-based private equity firm, agreed to acquire BioDot, a manufacturer of low volume precision and dispensing equipment. Financial terms were not disclosed.
"This is an exciting time for our Company and we are thrilled to partner with Artemis. With the combined innovation of BioDot and the strategic ownership of Artemis, we will make a profound difference for our customers by continuing to deliver new high-demand technology-driven solutions globally with the quality and service that they can continue to rely upon," Anthony Lemmo, BioDot Chief Executive Officer.
Alpine Air Express to acquire assets of Great Lakes Airlines. (FS)
Alpine Air Express, a logistics and transportation company, providing regional air cargo services throughout the Mountain Western region of the United States, acquired 27 aeroplanes and associated engines, propellers, spare parts and ground support equipment from Great Lakes Airlines. Alpine is a portfolio company of AE Industrial Partners, a private equity firm specializing in Aerospace, Defense & Government Services, Power Generation, and Specialty Industrial markets. Financial terms were not disclosed.
"This acquisition is highly strategic for our Company, significantly expanding our market presence and ability to serve our customers. We are excited to grow our fleet, maintenance support and spare parts availability while also utilizing our proprietary STC to convert these acquired Beech 1900D aircraft into our expanding cargo operations," Michael Dancy, Alpine CEO.
Namesco, a provider of professional online services including domain name registration, web hosting, website building tools, email services and e-commerce solutions, completed the acquisition of FreeParking Domain Registrars, a domain and web hosting services provider. Financial terms were not disclosed.
“Having grown the FreeParking business into being one of the largest independent registrars of UK domains, it was a natural step for the team at Namesco to take it forward within its group. Following the completion of this transaction I’m confident for the future direction and growth of the FreeParking business, while maintaining a strong focus on client service," Paul Lomax, FreeParking Domain Registrars Founder.
Namesco was advised by Foot Anstey. FreeParking Domain Registrars was advised by Kuits.
Citadel Group, a Canberra-based IT service management company, completed its acquisition of Wellbeing Software Group, a UK-based healthcare software vendor, for $127m.
The acquisition of Wellbeing is an important strategic advancement for Citadel’s expansion into the international healthcare market. It enhances Citadel’s investment in the development of solutions and services that enables clients to optimise, integrate and innovate across their health operations. At the same time, it allows Citadel to widen its existing portfolio into complementary areas, through the addition of Wellbeing’s market radiology and maternity systems.
Citadel Group was advised by Market Eye.
Motive Partners-backed Finantix, a global FinTech specialist, completed the acquisition of InCube Group, a Swiss AI and data science company dedicated to wealth management and insurance. Financial terms were not disclosed.
"We are excited to welcome InCube to the Finantix family, enhancing our AI–based insights and personalisation capabilities. This acquisition is a great fit as we share many values and have a common vision. First and foremost, a relentless focus on the need of our customers to leverage the growing amount of data available and the drive to transform this into actionable business insights. We believe that, by combining InCube's AI–based products, deep data science experience and domain expertise with Finantix's comprehensive offering, our customer-base will benefit from an enriched platform ready to accelerate their innovation capabilities in a data–driven era," Christine Ciriani, Finantix CCO.
Finantix was advised by The Comms Crowd.
DXC-backed Luxoft, a digital strategy and software engineering firm, completed its acquisition of CMORE Automotive, a strategic autonomous drive development company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
“With CMORE Automotive, Luxoft will extend its spectrum of AD/ADAS initiatives, from enabling customers to amplify their fusion, perception and driving function development, testing and validation capacities to delivering transformative AD/ADAS solutions at scale. I want to welcome the CMORE Automotive team to the DXC family,” Dmitry Loschinin, DXC Technology EVP and Luxoft President and CEO.
ADLER Real Estate, a real estate service firm, completed its acquisition of ADO Group and its subsidiary ADO Properties, providers of real estate services in Germany, for $780m. ADO Group's main asset is its stake in ADO Properties, a pure-play Berlin residential real estate company with a real estate portfolio.
“The closing of the business combination is an important milestone on our path to creating one of the largest listed residential real estate companies in Europe,” Thierry Beaudemoulin, ADO Co-CEO.
Investcorp Technology Partners, an alternative investment manager, agreed to acquire Avira, a German cybersecurity firm, for $180m. The transaction is subject to antitrust approval.
“We are proud to be partnering with a firm that offers such a breadth of experience working with growing technology and software companies. The investment confirms our business strategy and enables Avira to further accelerate our profitable growth in the consumer and OEM market segments," Travis Witteveen, Avira Chief Executive Officer.
Skydance, a diversified global media company, completed the acquisition of the animation unit of Ilion Studios, an animation producer. Financial terms were not disclosed.
“The world is going through an unprecedented and uncertain time. Today’s acquisition marks the culmination of many months of work to build one studio across two continents, with the goal of creating the highest-quality animation, led by best-in-class talent from around the world,” David Ellison, Skydance Media CEO.
Norwegian Air considers $4.3bn debt-for-equity deal.
Norwegian Air plans to convert up to $4.3bn of its debt into equity and to issue new shares as it seeks to stay in business following the Covid-19 outbreak that has grounded almost all of its fleet.
The move would allow the airline to tap government guarantees of up to $292m, which are dependent on the company reducing its ratio of debt to equity.
"The proposed measures are necessary in securing the next tranches of the Norwegian government state guarantee program. They are also necessary for the future of the company by strengthening the company's balance sheet," Jacob Schram, Norwegian Air CEO.
Centerview picks Matthieu Pigasse to lead new Paris hub. (People)
Centerview, a US investment bank, hired Lazard’s former France boss, Matthieu Pigasse, to lead its newly-launched Paris office and win business from European companies grappling with the economic damage caused by the coronavirus outbreak. Centerview, which currently operates in Europe from its London outpost, also poached former Lazard bankers Nicolas Constant and Pierre Pasqual.
Pierre Pigasse, who left Lazard in October after 17 years at the firm, will head a 14-strong team of bankers focusing on M&A deals as well as corporate restructurings and financing needs for French and European clients.
“Despite current challenges, we are confident that businesses in France and across Europe are resilient and will be essential contributors to the global economic recovery,” Blair Effron, Centerview Co-Founder.
APAC
EQT Partners announced the termination of the acquisition of Metlifecare, due to the coronavirus circumstances and Metlifecare's failure to comply with its obligations.
Asia Pacific Village Group stated that Covid-19 has reduced or is reasonably likely to reduce Metlifecare’s consolidated net tangible assets by at least $59m and/or reduce Metlifecare’s consolidated underlying net profits by at least 10% in following years. It has also been mentioned that Metlifecare failed to comply with its obligations under the Scheme Implementation Agreement.
Sony, a global provider of entertainment services, is set to invest $400m in Bilibili, a Chinese video site.
“We are excited to partner with Sony, the world’s leader in entertainment and technology. The strategic investment and business cooperation further align our goals to bring best-in-class content offerings and services to our users, as we increase our domestic stronghold in animation and mobile games. We look forward to joining efforts on a broader scale to fulfill the tremendous and growing entertainment needs in China,” Rui Chen, Bilibili Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.
Bilibili is advised by The Piacente Group.
Thailand considers postponing military acquisitions.
The Thai government is considering potentially postponing military procurements in response to the expected economic impact of Covid-19.
"We are considering what is necessary. If we think it is necessary to postpone (a military procurement) programme to future years, we will postpone it so that it doesn't affect contracts with foreign suppliers. This is something we need to talk through, but I think other countries are experiencing similar effects and they will understand what is necessary," Lt Gen Kongcheep , Thai Ministry of Defence spokesperson.
Asian tycoons are seeking bargain deals.
Asian tycoons are looking to snap up assets pummeled by the deadly coronavirus at bargain prices, but they are also facing hurdles as more governments seek to deter foreign takeovers of local firms.
Over the past three months, top executives of companies based in mainland China, Hong Kong and Singapore told investors that they are looking for acquisitions. They include Victor Li, who took over Hong Kong’s CK group from his father Li Ka-shing two years ago, and billionaire Guo Guangchang, the founder of the acquisitive Chinese conglomerate, Fosun Group.
Major stock indexes in the US, Europe and the Asia Pacific all plunged about 20% in the first quarter in their worst rout since the 2008 financial crisis, making retail chains to hotels and property developers attractive to suitors. Cash-rich conglomerates like Li’s CK group are in a position to invest when others struggle as they are built to defend against the bad times.
Future Group hires UBS to sell insurance JV stake.
Future Group picked UBS to lead the sale of its stake in an insurance JV with Italy’s Assicurazioni Generali, Bloomberg reported. Future Group is working with the Swiss bank on the plans to dispose of its share of the Future Generali life and general insurance businesses. The Indian group held initial discussions with potential buyers.
Future Group, which is backed by the Biyani family, is seeking to raise about $330m for its stake in the general insurance JV. The firm will only start selling its holdings in the life insurance joint venture after it completes the general insurance unit divestment.
Qiming Venture Partners raised $1.1bn Fund VII. (FS)
Qiming Venture Partners closed Qiming Venture Partners Fund VII, a new $1.1bn fund focused on early-stage Healthcare and TMT investments. Qiming secured support from its long-term LP base in Fund VII as well as attracting several new LPs. As in prior funds, the vast majority of Qiming's capital comes from a group of endowments, foundations, family offices, and private pensions.
Milltrust and WWF Hong Kong launch The Climate Impact Asia Fund. (FS)
Milltrust International Group launched The Climate Impact Asia Fund in collaboration with Environmental Investment Services Asia and WWF Hong Kong. The fund, targeting a size of $500m, will invest in Asian-listed companies making a positive impact with regards to climate change.
“Time is running out for urgent climate action. It is imperative to mobilise the investment world to take action to solve our climate emergency,” Alexander Kalis, Milltrust and Investment Advisor Managing Partner.
Direct Capital closes the sixth flagship fund at $250m. (FS)
Direct Capital Private Equity, founded by Ross George, a former director and shareholder of BKW Group, closed the fundraising for its sixth vehicle at $250m. The committed capital fell short of the firm’s target of $270m.
Direct Capital’s most recent portfolio companies include fiduciary services group Perpetual Guardian, apparel firm AS Coloủr, retirement villages operator Qestral, diagnostic imaging services Exact Radiology and engineering and management consultancy firm Beca, among others.
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