Top deals of the day - bids, mergers and acquisitions

By Editor

Nov 25, 2013 05:02 PM EST

The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported on Monday including Greece banking, Fiat, BOFA, Mechel, Saputo, RBS, Lohmann, Carlyle Group, Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Kuwait Airways, Dubai Holding, SunEdison, Blackstone, Greece National Bank, IMG Worldwide, KKR, Babcock, AMR, Orrick, BAC and Fisker Automotive.

Carlyle Group LP said on Monday it has finished raising money for its latest U.S. private equity fund, surpassing its initial $10 billion fundraising target by $3 billion. 

Chinalco, the largest aluminium producer in China, has dropped out of the race for Glencore Xstrata's $5.9 billion Las Bambas copper mine in Peru, leaving Minmetals as the front-runner, sources familiar with the matter said. 

The buyout firms bidding for talent agency IMG Worldwide Inc have all secured partnerships with other companies in the sector after KKR & Co LP exited an auction seen fetching more than $2 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. 

The planned stock market listing of Fiat's U.S. unit Chrysler will not take place this year, the Italian carmaker said on Monday, prolonging the uncertainty over its chances of buying out the rest of the company. The initial public offer, which Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne had previously said could take place in 2013, was expected to shed light on the U.S. carmaker's value and help settle a long-running spat between Fiat and a healthcare trust which owns 41.5 percent of Chrysler. 

The bidding for German skin patch maker LTS Lohmann has turned into a two-way race between buyout firms Wendel and Nordic Capital, valuing the target at about 1.2 billion euros ($1.6 billion), two people familiar with the matter said. 

The private equity arm of Dubai Holding, owned by the emirate's ruler, is weighing the sale of German packaging group Mauser, three sources aware of the matter said, in a deal seen fetching between 1 billion euros ($1.4 billion) and 1.5 billion. 

Debt-laden Russian miner Mechel has been granted a waiver on the terms of a $1 billion syndicated loan until the end of 2014, bringing relief in talks with its creditors that have unsettled investors. The coal-to-steel group, with debts of $9.6 billion, has been seeking a waiver of loan terms and delays to repayments. 

Vattenfall has mandated Morgan Stanley to organise the sale of a British wind park as the Swedish utility scales back outside its home market, two people familiar with the matter said. 

Spain's Banco Popular Espanol SA said it would sell its property management unit to two U.S. investment firms in a deal that one source said was likely to be worth around 800 million euros ($1.1 billion). 

Diageo PLC has offered to sell most of its Whyte & Mackay whisky assets to address competition concerns arising from its July acquisition of a controlling interest in India's United Spirits Ltd. 

Kuwait has suspended the chairman of state-owned Kuwait Airways in a dispute over his plans to buy five used aircraft from India's Jet Airways, which the company has since abandoned. 

Defense equipment maker Chemring Group Plc said it would divest some of its non-core business units. Chemring, whose products include flares, explosive device detection equipment and ejection seat mechanisms, said it had identified a number of business units within the group that do not form part of its longer-term strategy and would divest some of them. 

Dubai retail firm Majid Al Futtaim (MAF) said talks to buy Egypt's largest supermarket chain from family-owned Mansour Group have collapsed, MAF said. MAF, the sole franchisee of French hypermarket chain Carrefour SA in the Middle East, was in advanced negotiations to buy Mansour Group's Metro chain and discount grocery store Kheir Zaman, Reuters had reported in April, citing sources familiar with the matter. 

French drugmaker Sanofi SA plans to spend 1-2 billion euros ($1.4-2.7 billion) each year on acquisitions, Chief Executive Chris Viehbacher told Le Figaro newspaper. 

Austrian airport operator Flughafen Wien is seeking a buyer for its 25 percent stake in German airport Friedrichshafen after a decision to halt and start to unwind foreign investments, a management board member told paper Der Standard. 

Swatch Group raised its stake in Dubai-based retail group Rivoli Investments LLC to 58 percent, taking full control of its network of outlets in the fast-growing Middle Eastern market. 

Kenyan financial services firm British American Investments will purchase a 99 percent stake in another local firm, Real Insurance, to expand into new areas, it said. 

The parent company of American Airlines, AMR Corp, on Monday asked a bankruptcy court to approve a settlement with U.S. regulators that would allow it to merge with rival US Airways Group and create the world's largest airline. 

Apple Inc has bought Israel-based PrimeSense Ltd, a developer of chips that enable three-dimensional machine vision, the companies said on Monday.An Apple spokesman confirmed the purchase but declined to say how much it spent. Israeli media said it was about $350 million. 

One of the biggest proposed law firm mergers of the year has been called off, the leaders of the two firms told Reuters Monday. The potential merger between the California-based Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe and Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman in New York would have created the ninth-largest firm in the country. 

Tornos Holding's largest shareholder, Walter Fust, will launch a public takeover offer for all publicly held registered shares of Tornos at a price of 4.70 Swiss francs per share, the company said on Monday. 

Dubai Holding, a conglomerate owned by the emirate's ruler, and Kuwait's Al Fajer Re plan to launch a firm with $500 million of authorised capital in January to tap unserved demand in retakaful, or Islamic reinsurance. There are only 19 retakaful firms globally, so Islamic insurers are often forced to transfer some of their risk to conventional re-insurers, according to a Dubai government study. 

National Bank of Greece, the country's largest lender, said on Monday it has agreed to sell a majority stake in its real estate arm Pangaia to private equity firm Invel Real Estate in a 653 million-euro ($882 million) deal. 

Canada's Saputo Inc declared its A$505 million ($463 million) bid for Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory Co unconditional on Monday and said it would hike its offer if it won control of Australia's oldest dairy maker. 

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has bought a small package of loans from Spain's so-called 'bad bank' Sareb, helping the vehicle to surpass year-end sales targets, two sources familiar with the situation said on Monday. The U.S. bank bought two loans to troubled property company Metrovacesa, the sources said, adding that the loans were on Sareb's books at about 80 million euros ($108 million). 

Blackstone Group LP is eyeing an IPO for La Quinta Inns & Suites rather than a sale of the hotel chain, according to a source familiar with the process. 

Taiwan's finance ministry has asked state-run Mega Financial to evaluate the possibility of merging with rival Chang Hwa Bank in what could be the biggest merger in the banking sector in more than a decade, local newspapers reported on Monday. 

Cairn India Ltd, the oil and gas unit of London-listed Vedanta Resources, is set to spend about $1 billion to buy back shares, Bloomberg reported on Sunday citing two people familiar with the matter. The share purchase will include buying back Cairn Energy Plc's 10.3 percent stake in the company, Bloomberg said, citing one of the sources. 

Australian real estate trust Commonwealth Property Office Fund has terminated a deal with Dexus Property Group and a Canadian pension fund, after receiving a higher takeover offer from property investor The GPT Group. 

Global trading firm Trafigura said it sold a $500 million stake in its African unit Puma to Angolan companies rather than to opt for an earlier plan raise cash through a share sale. 

France's largest telecom operator Orange SA is close to reaching an agreement with Altice on the sale of its Dominican Republic business, Bloomberg reported on Sunday citing three people familiar with the matter. 

Tomkins Plc is exploring a sale that could value the private equity-owned global manufacturer of auto parts and building products at as much as $7 billion, several people familiar with the matter said on Friday. Onex Corp and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, which acquired Tomkins in 2010 for $5 billion, including the assumption of debt, are interviewing investment banks to advise them on a sale of the company, the people said. 

Engineering services group Babcock is in exclusive discussions to take a stake in helicopter transport services company Avincis, a source close to the situation said on Sunday. 

SunEdison Inc could raise up to $300 million to fund new projects by spinning off some solar power plants into a new publicly listed company in the United States next year, the company's chief financial officer told Reuters. 

Britain's Lloyds Banking Group will probably sell 30-50 percent of its stake in the 631 bank branches being rebranded as TSB when the new entity floats on the stock market in 2014, a newspaper reported. 

German carmaker Daimler AG would welcome a Chinese investor after taking a stake in Beijing Automotive Group, though it has had no sign that this will happen, Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche said. 

Abu Dhabi-listed Finance House said on Sunday it had acquired CAPM Investment, a firm providing investment banking, asset management and financial advisory services in the emirate. 

Etisalat has told Pakistan it will not the pay the $800 million it owes the government from buying a stake in the country's state telecom operator until a property dispute is entirely resolved, two senior finance ministry sources said. 

Pfizer Ltd, the Indian unit of U.S. drug maker Pfizer Inc, is to take over local affiliate Wyeth Ltd, they said on Saturday after their boards approved the deal. 

Apache Corp is in talks with Argentina's state-controlled energy company YPF about a possible sale of its assets in the South American country, sources told Reuters on Friday. 

The Maschhoffs LLC, the U.S.'s largest family-owned pork producer, agreed to buy U.S. chicken company GNP Company for an undisclosed amount, the two companies announced on Friday. 

The bankruptcy of Fisker Automotive could end up costing the U.S. government much more than the $168 million it loaned to the maker of the Karma plug-in hybrid sports car. According to its bankruptcy filing on Friday, Fisker owns tax breaks worth $320 million. 

The parent company of TGI Fridays Restaurants said on Friday it is considering a potential sale of the casual bar-dining chain as part of a review of strategic alternatives. 

Time Warner Inc moved another step closer to spinning off its magazine assets as Time Inc, the publisher of People, Fortune and the eponymous newsweekly Time, filed with regulators on Friday to list itself as a standalone company. 

Private equity firm Sycamore Partners LLC is in advanced talks to acquire apparel retailer Jones Group Inc and is working toward a deal in the next few weeks, according to sources familiar with the process.  

Some of Greece's biggest banks and their advisors are starting to press the country's banking rescue fund to look at ways to speed up their return to wider private ownership, banking sources say. Armed with 50 billion euros ($68 billion) from the country's 240 billion-euro EU/IMF bailout, the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund (HFSF) was set up to recapitalise the top four banks and cover the cost of winding down others deemed non-viable.  

Abu Dhabi state-owned investment fund Mubadala has signed a $5 billion agreement with Guinea to develop a bauxite mine and alumina refinery in the West African country to secure raw material for United Arab Emirates' aluminium plants. 

Italian lender Monte dei Paschi di Siena is set to approve a capital increase of up to 3 billion euros ($4.1 billion) on Tuesday, and aims to launch the rights issue as early as January, four sources close to the matter said. 

Chinese online game developer Giant Interactive Group Inc received a go-private offer from Chairman Yuzhu Shi and an affiliate of Baring Private Equity Asia, valuing the company at about $2.8 billion.  

© 2024 VCPOST, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.

Join the Conversation

Real Time Analytics