The dispute over US
debt reverberated around Wall Street this week; with the fearful
atmosphere fostering only two major deals. The first of these came on
Monday, when the ING Group sold Insurance Latam, its Latin American
unit, to investment firm Grupo de Inversiones Suramericana for $3.9
billion. This sale came as part of the bid by the financial services
giant to separate its insurance and banking components; a condition
of its bailout from the Dutch government. The seller was down 2%. The
following day, New Mountain Financial acquired a controlling stake
in SNL Financial for an undisclosed fee. The buyer, a midmarket
private equity firm, was down 0.6%.
Friday, 29 July 2011
Friday, 22 July 2011
Mergers & Acquisitions - Week Ending 22/07/11
The weekend brought the
news that Hertz Global Holdings would purchase the Donlen
Corporation, a vehicle and equipment leasing company, for $250
million in cash. Despite this acquisition adding long term leasing to
Hertz’s existing car rental business, they were down 0.7% on
Monday; possibly due to them assuming $680 million of Donlen’s
debt. The next major deal came in the midweek when Nalco, a water
treatment company, was purchased by Ecolab for $5.4 billion. The
largest takeover ever by the disinfectant maker was met by negative
sentiment from its shareholders; it was down 7.4%. Nalco was up over
24%, reflecting the large premium that they had commanded. OPTI
Canada, an oil sands producer which had filed for bankruptcy, sold
itself to China National Offshore Oil Corporation for $2.1 billion.
The buyer was down 4.4%. Later on Wednesday, Randstad Holdings
purchased the SFN Group for $710 million; doubling its HR presence
in the US. The buyer was boosted 3.8% on this news, while SFN rose
53%, mirroring the premium offered.
Thursday saw Express
Scripts buy Medco Health Solutions for $29.1 billion, making the
buyer the largest pharmacy benefits manager in the country. There has
been increased consolidation in the health sector as of late due to
the US government’s health insurance reform. Express’ stock
gained 5.3% and Medco increased by 14.4%. Fridge was purchased by Google for an undisclosed fee as part of its social networking
project, Google+. The world’s most popular search engine was up
almost 2%. On Friday, News Corporation sold its Russian billboard
company News Outdoor Russia to a consortium led by a
Kremlin-controlled bank. This is not believed to have any connection
with the scandal in which the media giant is currently involved. The
sellers finished the week down 0.4%.
Friday, 15 July 2011
Mergers & Acquisitions - Week Ending 15/07/11
Over the weekend, the
news broke that Precision Castparts would buy aerospace
manufacturer Primus International for $900 million. On Monday, the
buyer, which engages in metal casting, was down 0.6%. Nestle
purchased a 60% stake in Hsu Fu Chi, a Chinese confectioner, for $1.7
billion. Despite this deal dramatically increasing its presence in
the Asian market, the Swiss food giant fell 1.1%. In pharmaceuticals, Arch Chemicals was bought for $1.2 billion by The Lonza Group. Arch
was up 12.3% by the bell, exceeding the premium offered. Also that
day, NCR acquired Radiant Systems, a retail and hospitality
manufacturer, for $1.2 billion in an all-cash deal. This announcement
was met with negative sentiment on the markets. The buyer, which
produces self-service technologies, was down almost 1.9% while
Radiant dropped 2.3%.
Tuesday saw Gaz Metro
take over Central Vermont Public Service Corporation for $472
million, bringing Vermont’s two largest public utilities companies
together. Central Vermont’s price fell by 2.6%, while Valener
Inc., which has a significant stake in Gaz Metro, was up almost 1%.
Also that day, it was announced that Electronic Arts would buy
PopCap Games for $750 million in order to strengthen its position in
the mobile gaming market. The buyer was down by almost 1%. The
midweek saw Apollo Global Management purchase the Philadelphia
76ers basketball team for around $280 million. The private equity
firm closed down 1.5%. The week’s final major deal came on Thursday
in the energy sector. BHP Billiton bought Petrohawk for $12.1
billion in an all-cash deal as BHP look to increase their natural gas
assets. The prices of both firms dropped by around 1.8%.
Friday, 8 July 2011
Mergers & Acquisitions - Week Ending 08/07/11
Tuesday saw the markets
back in full swing following the 4th of July weekend. TPG
Capital purchased Immucor, a company which manufactures products
related to blood transfusions, for $1.97 billion. This announcement
boosted Immucor’s share price by 30.2%. Also that day, money
transfer giant Western Union bought Travelex’s Global Payments
unit for $976 million. The buyers fell by 4.45%. After a quiet
midweek, Thursday brought the remainder of the week’s deals. eBay
purchased mobile payments company Zong for $240 million in an all
cash deal. It is believed that this will help PayPal utilise cell
phone billing in online transactions. The world’s largest online
auctioneer was up 1.25%. Later that day, Apollo Global Management
bought Gulf Stream Asset Management for an undisclosed fee. The buyer
was largely unaffected by this news.
Friday, 1 July 2011
Mergers & Acquisitions - Week Ending 01/07/11
Last week got off to an
extremely sluggish start deal-wise, with no major announcements until
Wednesday. BJ’s Wholesale Club sold itself to two private equity
firms; Leonard Green & Partners and CVC Capital for $2.8 billion
in an all-cash deal. This news, which adds to the recent trend of
retailer buyouts, was well received by the markets; BJs was up by
4.6%. Troubled social networking site MySpace was sold by News
Corporation to Specific Media for $35 million. The once lucrative
website was originally purchased by the media giant for $580 million
before being overtaken in popularity by Facebook. It had become
increasingly unprofitable, and the sellers, who had been looking to
dispose of it, were up 1.25%.
On Friday, Nortel
Networks, the bankrupt telecommunications manufacturer, sold $4.5
billion worth of patent assets to a group of technology companies
which included Microsoft, Apple, Research in Motion, EMC and Sony
Ericsson. The alliance fought off competition from rivals like Google
and Intel. The seller was up 42%, while the buyers’ biggest gainers
included Apple which was boosted 2.3% and EMC up 1%. Providence
Equity Partners purchased Blackboard Inc for $1.64 billion. The
firm, which makes university coursework software, was up 1.8% by the
bell. Internet domain registration giant Go Daddy sold itself to KKR and Silver Lake for $2.25 billion. KKR ended the week up 1.5%.
Also that day, the New York Times Company sold a stake in the
Boston Red Sox worth $117 million in order to generate cash to help
them in the current financial slump. The seller’s share price was
relatively unaffected by this news.
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