Brad Meikle
Today’s deal highlights inlclude Advent International bidding on perfume retailer Douglas, Apax selling its stake in Banca Farmafactoring, and family-owned department store Belk exploring a sale.
Read the digital version of the latest Buyouts and access our archive of past issues, which dates back to March 2012.
California’s state treasurer sent a stern letter to the state’s teachers’ pension fund on Wednesday, asking that the fund’s managing partner, Cerberus Capital Management, fully divest from the assault weapon manufacturer, Freedom Group, Reuters reported.
The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by Reuters as of 2000 GMT on Wednesday, April 1, 2015.
Web hosting company GoDaddy Inc has priced its initial public offering at $20 per share, above its previously indicated $17 to $19 per share range, valuing it at around $4.5 billion, including debt, underwriting sources told Reuters.
Asia-focused bank Standard Chartered Plc said senior executive Viswanathan Shankar has resigned as chief executive of Europe, Middle East, Africa and Americas, and will now look at setting up a private equity firm, Reuters reported.
KKR’s decision to finance its acquisition of British rail ticket website thetrainline.com with a 275 million pound ($409.48 million) loan provided by a club of 12 lenders shows the changes afoot in European middle-market lending as multiplying loan providers reduces the traditional need to syndicate loans widely, Thomson Reuters Loan Pricing Corp reported.
Bayer, Germany’s largest drugmaker, said it was considering strategic options for the consumer products part of its Environmental Science business, which makes about 220 million euros ($236 million) in sales from pesticides, pest control products and fertilisers, Reuters reported.
In today’s deal news, private equity is circling enterprise software maker Informatica in what could be this year’s largest leveraged buyout, RadioShack reportedly has one buyout offer to survive bankruptcy, and Bayer is exploring strategic options for the consumer products part of its Environmental Science business.
Some 1.4 billion euros ($1.52 billion) of add-on loans backing bolt-on acquisitions have sold successfully in Europe’s leveraged loan market, attracting investors with the opportunity to invest new money amid a lack of large scale buyout activity, Reuters reported.