Private Equity

Capital Calls: Telecom Italia takes KKR’s call

14 Mar 2022

Concise views on global finance: The Italian telco’s board decides to start formal talks with the buyout firm, four months after it first proposed a 10.8 bln euro takeover.

Buyout barons’ M&A freeze will soon thaw

9 Mar 2022

After hitting $469 bln in 2021, private equity acquisitions of public companies have slowed. Volatile markets due to the Ukraine war and rising rates make deals harder to fund. Yet depressed stock markets mean beaten-up technology and healthcare firms are now juicier targets.

Capital Calls: Snowflake’s no snowflake

3 Mar 2022

Concise views on global finance: The data warehouse firm doubled revenue, but the stock was whacked. Snowflake’s solid finances mean missteps are valuation conundrums, not existential threats.

Capital Calls: McDonald’s, Porsche

22 Feb 2022

Concise views on global finance: With a miniscule stake, activist Carl Icahn is asking for board seats at the $190 bln fast food giant over treatment of pigs; the luxury marque could be worth perhaps 85 billion euros, but may retain a complex shareholder structure.

Capital Calls: Worldline and Apollo’s buyout fix

21 Feb 2022

Concise views on global finance: The payments group’s sale of its terminal business to Apollo for up to 2.6 billion euros relies on preference shares to bridge the gap between buyer and seller.

Zendesk’s best M&A strategy starts with failure

14 Feb 2022

The software firm’s unpopular $4 bln bid for SurveyMonkey’s parent has pushed down its stock, irked activists and provoked a $16 bln opportunistic private equity bid. Zendesk’s shareholders can still vote down its deal. Doing so might secure a higher price for their own shares.

Brookfield tries to keep up with the Schwarzmans

10 Feb 2022

The Canadian firm thinks it can close a $70 billion value gap with Blackstone by breaking itself in two. It will, if CEO Bruce Flatt can get investors to prize his asset management business like Steve Schwarzman’s. But Brookfield would swap one complex structure for another.

Capital Calls: Playtech breakup

3 Feb 2022

Concise views on global finance: After investors rejected a 3.2 bln euro buyout offer from rival Aristocrat, a breakup of the gambling software maker looks the best way to maximise value.

Swiss generics buyout requires flawless treatment

3 Feb 2022

Blackstone and Carlyle are eyeing Novartis’ Sandoz unit, worth perhaps $25 bln. The reported valuation looks punchy given the misfiring off-patent pill producer’s limited scope to grow. The slightest hiccup could leave private equity buyers swallowing a meagre return.

Elliott double dips with pandemic fallen angel

31 Jan 2022

The activist is buying Citrix for $16.5 bln after shaking it up starting in 2015. Management turmoil, an ugly transformation, and missed pandemic opportunities left the software firm vulnerable. Plans to merge it with a similar enterprise company give Elliott a solid second chance.

Capital Calls: Blackstone, German chips, Guy Hands

27 Jan 2022

Concise views on global finance: The $140 bln group braces for falling asset values and rising interest rates; Berlin sends the wrong signal by ignoring a 4.4 bln euro offer for wafer maker Siltronic; Britain seeks to reverse the financier’s lucrative 1996 housing deal.

Review: Venture capital is a victim of own success

21 Jan 2022

Sebastian Mallaby’s “The Power Law” traces the $1.8 trln industry’s history back to the 1950s. Early investors’ triumphs invited imitators, making capital into a commodity and empowering cocksure startup founders. The lesson is that VCs’ influence over companies may have peaked.

Capital Calls: Activist investors, P&G, Rivian

19 Jan 2022

Concise views on global finance: Underperforming UK stocks lure cage-rattling shareholders to London; sickness and germaphobia boost the $380 bln company’s earnings: And Ford Motors and Amazon.com book big gains on investments in the electric carmaker as its stock tumbles.

Capital Calls: UK bid gets hedge funds off hook

17 Jan 2022

Concise views on global finance: Private equity group Triton sweetens its offer for pharma group Clinigen to 1.3 bln pounds, raising the chances of hedge funds accepting the deal.

TPG listing caps 30 years of easy money

13 Jan 2022

The $9 bln stock-market debutant has benefited from an interest-rate slide that began before its founding in 1992. David Bonderman’s private equity firm, still focused on LBOs, is exposed to debt costs rising. Others have used public shares to finance reinvention; so should TPG.

Boots buyout 2.0 requires growth shot in the arm

12 Jan 2022

Private equity firms CVC and Bain may be eyeing a bid for Walgreens’ UK pharmacy chain for a mooted $8 bln, some 15 years after KKR’s acquisition. This time round, new owners could juice up its online sales and health business. The threat from Amazon makes it a riskier bet too.

Cerberus hellish German bank bet reaches early end

11 Jan 2022

The U.S. investor sold nearly half of its Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank stakes at a 20% loss. Its investment suffered from bad timing, and the difficulty of forcing change with a small holding. Fund constraints mean the group is now selling in the middle of the banks’ recovery.

Capital Calls: Crocs knows how to pandemic

11 Jan 2022

Concise views on global finance: The rubber-clogs maker’s sales are going gangbusters, and it has used lockdown success smartly to expand with a trendy acquisition.

Capital Calls: SEC, UK housing, Marijuana

10 Jan 2022

Concise views on global finance: The U.S. watchdog wants more private company transparency; The UK government’s decision to hit housebuilders with a four billion pound repair bill has lessons; and cannabis producer Tilray gives a glimpse of its life after its merger with Aphria.

Reheated French grocer deal is still unappetising

6 Jan 2022

Auchan may launch a second bid for $16 bln Carrefour. Roping in private equity would allow it to pay in cash, a more palatable dish for its rival’s shareholders than last year’s offer. Job losses and shaky strategic logic mean the French state will be hard to convince.