AMERICAS
Yageo, a manufacturer of resistors and related equipment, completed the acquisition of KEMET, a manufacturer of solid tantalum and multilayer ceramic capacitors, for $1.6bn.
"The closing of this transaction is the culmination of an extensive process by the KEMET board in an effort to enhance value for KEMET's stockholders. KEMET as part of the Yageo family will be well positioned to continue as a leading global provider of passive electronic components," William M. Lowe, KEMET CEO.
KEMET was advised by Goldman Sachs, Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, LCS & Partners Law Firm and Joele Frank. Yageo was advised by Citigroup, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Tsar & Tsai. Goldman Sachs was advised by Sullivan & Cromwell.
Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners, an infrastructure-focused private equity firm, completed the acquisition of Xplornet Communications, a Canadian rural internet service provider and mobile network operator, from Sandler Capital, an alternative asset management firm, for $2bn.
"This deal will enable Xplornet to expand coverage, increase investment, and accelerate improvements to our broadband network. Rural Canadians deserve access to the same quality of broadband as in urban Canada. It is time to go faster," Allison Lenehan, Xplornet President and CEO.
Stonepeak was advised by Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. Xplornet was advised by Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg. Sandler Capital was advised by Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison.
Community Bank System, a commercial bank serving customers in Upstate New York, completed the acquisition of Steuben Trust, a commercial bank serving consumers and businesses through offices located in Steuben and Allegany counties, for $98m.
"We are pleased to welcome the shareholders, customers and employees of Steuben Trust to Community Bank. Over the past 118 years, Steuben Trust has developed a culture dedicated to exceptional customer service and meeting the banking needs of its communities. Community Bank shares these same values and looks forward to the opportunity to continue to serve Steuben's customers," Mark E. Tryniski, Community Bank System President and CEO.
Steuben Trust was advised by PNC Financial Services and Pillar Aught. Community Bank was advised by D.A. Davidson & Co and Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft.
Private equity firm RedBird Capital Partners completed the acquisition of a 24% stake in Main Event Entertainment, which operates family entertainment centres, from Ardent Leisure, an Australian-based leisure company, for $80m.
"We are very pleased to announce this partnership with Ardent and the exceptional management team at Main Event. Through our own operations in Dallas, Texas, we have witnessed firsthand Main Event's growth as a leading brand in a resilient and fast-growing family entertainment market. RedBird's focus on building high-growth companies in sports and entertainment and expertise in delivering premier content to consumers will be highly complementary to the Main Event platform as it looks to expand throughout the country," Gerry Cardinale, RedBird Managing Partner.
Main Event Entertainment and Ardent Leisure were advised by Goldman Sachs and Weil Gotshal and Manges. RedBird was advised by Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson.
Sazerac Company, a privately held American alcoholic beverage company, agreed to acquire the Early Times, Canadian Mist, and Collingwood brands, and the Canadian Mist production assets from Brown-Forman, one of the largest American-owned companies in the spirits and wine business. Financial terms were not disclosed.
"We are delighted to acquire such iconic brands as well as the Canadian Mist Distillery. Brown-Forman has done an excellent job building these brands over the years and we expect to invest in the brands and grow their sales in the coming years," Mark Brown, Sazerac President and CEO.
Sazerac is advised by Cooley. Brown-Forman is advised by Gibson Dunn & Crutcher.
The Bulldog-Ancora Group, an entity formed by Bulldog Investors and Ancora Advisors amended its modified Dutch auction tender offer to acquire up to $70m worth of shares of Adams Natural Resources Fund in order to set a fixed price of 88% of net asset value per share at the close of the regular trading session of the New York Stock Exchange on the expiration date and to eliminate any processing fee.
"We are amending the offer to assure shareholders that the net price they will receive for shares purchased in the offer will be at a 12% discount from NAV compared to PEO's average discount of 15.8% over the past two years and far below its widest discount of 27.6%," Phillip Goldstein, Bulldog Managing Member.
The Bulldog-Ancora Group is advised by InvestorCom.
Mitsui, one of the largest general trading companies in Japan, in partnership with Yamasa, a machine industry company, completed the acquisition of Spaceflight, a satellite rideshare launch provider, from Spaceflight Industries, an American private aerospace company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Mitsui and Yamasa now have 50/50 joint venture ownership in Spaceflight, but the launch service provider will continue to operate as a privately held, independent US-based company.
"Joining the high-growth Mitsui & Co portfolio positions Spaceflight to deliver and expand on the comprehensive launch services we offer. We're exploring the development of new standardized deployment systems, new digital initiatives, and other programs that further help our customers reliably and affordably access space, in the most flexible way possible. Our biggest priority, as always, is ensuring all our customers are fully supported through this transition and we're taking the necessary steps to establish infrastructure to meet their needs," Curt Blake, Spaceflight CEO and President.
Spaceflight was advised by Communique PR.
Energy New England, a wholesale risk management and energy trading organization, completed the acquisition of Utility Services, an international services organization assisting energy companies with electric regulatory, reliability, and security standard obligations. Financial terms were not disclosed.
"By joining together, ENE and USI can offer our customers a full, coordinated spectrum of energy services and capabilities with the superior customer service and intense attention to detail both of our companies are known for. USI's formally joining the ENE family allows us to become a one-stop provider of an even broader set of expert solutions for both public power utilities and private-sector energy," John G. Tzimorangas, ENE President and CEO.
ENE was advised by Denterlein.
HOF Village, a multi-use sports, entertainment and media company, agreed to acquire The Crown League, a development stage fantasy football league. Financial terms were not disclosed.
"We believe that combining The Crown League's innovative platform and engaged user base with the branding power of HOFV's intellectual property presents a thrilling opportunity to launch our fantasy sports offering. Our unique ability to incorporate never-before-seen content is expected to enable our platform to meaningfully enhance the fantasy football experience, and we hope to continue to expand our fantasy football offering with other gaming platforms in the future. This acquisition will position HOFV to continue to capitalize on the immense popularity of professional football by providing an exciting and innovative fantasy sports and gaming experience to fans around the world," Michael Crawford, HOFV CEO.
HOF Village is advised by ICR.
TFI International, a Canadian transport and logistics company based in Montreal, agreed to acquire Gusgo Transport, a container transport and storage company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
"Operationally, we see numerous synergies across our combined real estate footprint, as well as for our equipment sales, purchases, and overall utilization. In addition, by joining the TFI group of companies, Gusgo will be able to leverage our growing resources across North America to enhance its own growth and profitability. This exciting transaction is another important step in the ongoing expansion of our Specialized Truckload operations, and we look forward to watching Gusgo's continued growth under the TFI International umbrella," Alain Bédard, TFI Chairman, President and CEO.
Relay Trade, the company behind RelayX, a Bitcoin powered superwallet, completed the acquisition of Streamanity, a video streaming platform. Financial terms were not disclosed.
"Streamanity is a pioneering video platform that is a significant brand within the BSV ecosystem and when the opportunity came to become stewards of the platform, we jumped on it. We thank the co-founders Sumanth and Shravan for their vision, dedication, and entrusting us with its future. We hope to make meaningful improvements to Streamanity for the betterment of its amazing class of content creators and viewers both current and future," Jack C. Liu, RelayX.io Founder.
Vans and Timberland backer looks for acquisitions.
VF, the Vans and Timberland backer, is exploring acquisition options despite the market slump caused by the coronavirus. The worldwide apparel and footwear company believes it is a good time to invest in clothing, footwear and accessories brands.
The company eyes smaller competitors in particular. The potential targets could be Canada Goose, a producer of extreme weather outerwear, Athleta, a producer of technical and performance clothing for women, and Columbia Sportwear, a manufacturer and distributor of diversified sportswear.
76ers owners acquire a stake in Steelers.
Bloomberg reported that Josh Harris and David Blitzer, owners of the Philadelphia 76ers, acquired a stake of less than 5% in the Pittsburgh Steelers earlier this year. While no details on price were available, the pair of financiers may have paid as much as $140m, based on the $2.8bn value Forbes estimated for the NFL franchise last September.
In addition to the 76ers and Devils, Josh Harris and David Blitzer own Newark's Prudential Center and the Crystal Palace soccer club of the English Premier League. Most recently, they've been exploring a possible bid for the New York Mets.
AbbVie recommends refusing a mini-tender offer from TRC Capital. (FS)
TRC Capital, a private firm, made a bid for 1.5m shares of American biopharmaceutical company AbbVie, for $88 per share on June 1. The price represents a 5% decrease from May 29 closing.
Abbvie does not recommend to accept the offer. Expiration of the tender offer is scheduled at 12:01 June 30. Shareholders who have tendered have to bring a formal notice before expiration.
Palantir Technologies to fill IPO in two weeks.
Palantir Technologies, the secretive big-data firm, will pushe for an IPO in coming weeks and start trading in early fall, Bloomberg reported. The valuation of the company is uncertain.
The company is getting ready to register an S-1 filing confidentially with the SEC. Palantir involved banks that will arrange a tender offer for private investors to polish the capital structure before going public and is also working with a consultant about IPO readiness.
The decision to go for flotation comes from a plan to generate $1bn in revenues to reach a break-even point after 16 years of operation. Palantir Technologies was valued at $20bn in 2015 by private investors.
EMEA
BPER, an Italy-based banking group, agreed to acquire more branches and assets of rival Intesa Sanpaolo to resolve antitrust concerns with the latter's acquisition of UBI Banca.
In the statement, Intesa and BPER declared that upon successful completion of UBI and Intesa deal, BPER will acquire 532 branches from the merged group. Previously, the number of branches to be bought was around 400-500.
Intesa is advised by Mediobanca, UBS, Equita Sim, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan and Pedestroli Studio Legale.
Ancala Partners, an independent infrastructure investment manager, agreed to acquire Hector Rail Group, the largest private rail freight operator in Scandinavia, from EQT Partners. Financial terms were not disclosed.
"Hector Rail delivers an essential service for its customers and the European economy. We look forward to working with the management team to help Hector's customers grow and for Hector to provide a high level of service to customers, employees and all other stakeholders," Spence Clunie, Ancala Managing Partner.
Ancala is advised by DC Advisory and White & Case. EQT Partners is advised by Deutsche Bank and Vinge.
The Federal Republic of Germany agreed to invest $337m in CureVac, a biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Tübingen, that develops therapies based on messenger RNA. Under the agreement, the state will hold a stake of around 23% in CureVac.
"We are very excited that, with the Federal Republic of Germany and dievini, we have such strong and reliable partners at our side. This strong financial commitment provides us further cash reach and stability for the accelerated development of our mRNA platform, the development and production of our current and additional mRNA vaccine and drug candidates, as well as the strategic expansion of our organization. At the same time we will retain full operational and strategic independence," Franz-Werner Haas, CureVac Acting CEO and COO.
CureVac is advised by MC Services.
The Blackstone Group agreed to invest $337m in Medtronic, a medical device company. The investment is aimed at advancing new, innovative products especially designed to reduce the burden of diabetes management.
"This collaboration, our first investment in the medical devices space, demonstrates how Blackstone Life Sciences is using its capital and expertise to help bring vital technologies, with the potential to save lives, to patients who need them. We look forward to partnering with Medtronic, the leader in this space, to advance their next generation of innovative medical devices for diabetes patients," Nicholas Galakatos, Blackstone Life Sciences Global Head.
Xenon-backed Impresoft, an Italian software company, completed the acquisition of Progel, a digital transformation provider. Financial terms were not disclosed.
"In Progel we immediately found the ideal interlocutor both for the common vision and for a similar path over the years, and because it will allow us to bring the solutions and skills necessary to enable the transformation of our customers' value on the market," Rossano Ziveri, Impresoft Group CEO.
Metro Bank in talks to acquire RateSetter. (FS)
Metro Bank, a London-based bank, announced it could potentially acquire Retail Money Market, the owner of RaceSetter, a peer-to-peer lending platform.
The company offers relatively higher interest rates and uses the money to lend to small businesses. RaceSetter reports that $2.9bn were invested through the platform in total.
Telecom deals expected to be back on the table after the court verdict.
Europe's largest telecom companies expect the recovery of the deals that were barred after General Court reversed the decision to block the $13bn takeover of O2, the UK's largest mobile platform, by Three, a smaller competitor.
The new verdict could give rise to new deals in the telecom, but could also affect industries including steel where the deals faced hurdles as well.
"The ruling will have knocked the commission's confidence and it has called into question how aggressive they can be when blocking mergers," Sara Ashall, Shearman & Sterling Antitrust Counsel.
Amlak prepares for Riyadh IPO. (FS)
Amlak, Saudi Arabian real estate financing firm, announced it would sell 30% of the company in its Riyadh IPO, the first since Covid-19 hit the economy, Reuters reported.
"Being a publicly listed company will give us more visibility among our clients, will help us build our business and will also help reduce our cost of capital and boost profitability considerably," Abdullah Al Sudairy, Amlak CEO.
Amlak is advised by NCB Capital.
Abraaj ex-CEO's theft totals $385m, according to liquidators. (FS)
According to a Bloomberg report, liquidators overseeing Abraaj Group's insolvency estimate CEO Arif Naqvi's alleged theft to have cost the firm $385m, an amount significantly more than what prosecutors claimed.
Naqvi is one of six former Abraaj executives who face charges stemming from the private equity's firm's 2018 collapse. In court papers last year, US prosecutors said Naqvi stole more than $250m. But in a new filing on Friday, the liquidators put the losses much higher, claiming Naqvi stole $385m from 2009 to 2018 as he moved money for his own use in more than 3.7k transactions.
Neuberger Berman closes $300m NB Euro Crossroads fund. (FS)
NB Euro Crossroads fund, launched by the investment management firm Neuberger Berman, closed at a $300m mark. The fund targets small, mid and large-cap buyout, growth & venture capital, and exceptional circumstances.
Among investors are pension funds, insurance companies and family offices from Europe and the Nordic countries.
Former Chair of FRC joins Carlyle. (FS, People)
Former chair of accounting regulator Financial Reporting Council, Simon Dingemans, left to become a managing director at The Carlyle Group. Mr. Dingemans will be in charge of the UK's buyout fund and European healthcare projects.
He left FRC in May just after a short tenure of less than nine months. The decision to leave stemmed from the mismatch of his desired roles and responsibilities.
APAC
Warburg Pincus, General Atlantic and Ocean Link Partners, three private equity firms, and Jinbo Yao, 58com Chairman and CEO, agreed to acquire all outstanding shares of 58com, an online classifieds marketplace, for $8.7bn.
The agreement to purchase 58com, known as China’s answer to Craigslist, follows more than two months of negotiations after the company said it received a buyout proposal. The potential deal had drawn objections from some minority investors, including Coronation Fund Managers, Aberdeen Standard Investments and Carmignac Gestion, which said the proposed bid significantly undervalues the business.
58com is advised by Houlihan Lokey, Conyers Dill & Pearman, Fenwick & West, Han Kun Law Offices, Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom and Christiansen IR. The consortium is advised by Fangda Partners, Kirkland & Ellis, Maples & Calder, Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison, Weil Gotshal and Manges and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.
Sinch, a global provider of cloud communications for mobile customer engagement, agreed to acquire ACL Mobile, a provider of cloud communications services in India and Southeast Asia, for $70m.
"With ACL we gain critical scale in the world's second-largest mobile market. We gain customers, expertise and technology and we further strengthen our global messaging product for discerning businesses with global needs," Oscar Werner, Sinch CEO.
Sinch is advised by Handelsbanken Capital Markets and Trilegal. ACL Mobile is advised by Ernst & Young.
Centuria Capital, a specialist investment manager, offered to acquire Augusta Capital, a property management platform, for $83m. The deal comes after the termination of the initial $118m offer.
"Now, there is an opportunity to fully come together and optimise operations throughout New Zealand. With our capital backing and the Augusta team's expertise, we'll be well-placed to take advantage of opportunities as Сovid-19 unwinds," John McBain and Jason Huljich, Centuria Co-CEOs.
Macquarie Infrastructure to launch a $3bn Asia fund. (FS)
Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets, an alternative asset manager, is seeking to secure up to $3bn for investments in Asia, Bloomberg reported.
The talks with potential investors have begun, and some commitments have already been received. The fund is expected to close in the third quarter of 2020. The investments will include transportation, communications, utilities, power, energy and waste management assets across Asia Pacific.
Jetstar to exit Jetstar Pacific joint venture in Vietnam.
Qantas Airways-backed low-cost arm Jetstar announced the ambition to exit the shareholding in Jetstar Pacific joint venture with Vietnam Airlines, the flag carrier.
Jetstar and Vietnam Airlines own 30% and 70% of the joint venture, respectively.
The talks began as Jetstar faced the damages caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Jetstar Pacific will again become Pacific Airlines following regulatory approvals.
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