October
Deals List

Deal activity in Europe remains strong as we enter the fourth quarter of 2021, following on from a record summer that saw deals worth $1.52tn in the three months to end-September according to Refinitiv data¹. There is a high level of confidence in the market as the path to recovery becomes clearer and people begin to look beyond the pandemic. We continue to see private equity focus on the technology/software business, food and ingredients companies and the industrial subsectors. Demand was driven initially by the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and continues to soar as we close out the year². Although expected tax reforms by U.S. President Joe Biden were anticipated dampen deal flow, there are no signs of a slowdown in activity as yet.

Following a four-month process, in which the UK’s Takeover Panel stepped in to organise a formal auction, UK grocer Morrisons was sold to U.S. private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice at a valuation of £9.97 billion. The CD&R winning bid of 287p per share was just 2p a share above CD&R’s existing offer, and just one penny more than the 286p offered by a consortium led by SoftBank-owned Fortress Investment. The deal represents a 61% premium to the Morrisons’ share price before the process began. Among the attractions of the deal for private equity is Morrisons’ large real estate portfolio of owned stores and manufacturing sites.

Polestar, a Sweden-based manufacturer of high-performance electric vehicles owned by Geely and Volvo, has agreed a deal to go public on the NASDAQ via a Gores Guggenheim SPAC, at an estimated value of $20bn. The deal includes a private investment in public equity, or PIPE, of about $250mn, which will be added to the roughly $800mn in cash currently held by the SPAC. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2022.

Listed French media group Vivendi SA has agreed to acquire a 17.93% stake in Lagardere SCA, a French publishing and travel retail company, from Amber Capital. Vivendi already owns 26.7% of Lagardere SCA and has now offered €24.10 per share for the 25,305,448 shares held by Amber Capital, equating to around €609.86mn. Should the deal gain the required regulatory approvals and complete by 15 December, it would trigger a mandatory offer for the remaining 54.9% stake in Lagardere. A full buyout would create one of Europe’s biggest media companies, spanning television, gaming and publishing, and value the whole Lagardere takeover at €6.22bn.

Sievi Capital, a Finland-based private equity firm, and Boreo, a Finnish investment holding company, announced that they have signed an all-paper merger agreement to combine the two companies. The new company will become one of the leading growth platforms on the Nasdaq Helsinki Stock Exchange for small and medium-sized companies. Illustrative combined net sales for 2020 were €474mn, with adjusted EBITDA of approximately €59mn. Upon completion, Sievi Capital's shareholders will receive 0.4492 new shares in Boreo for each share they held in Sievi Capital. This implies that the shareholders of Sievi Capital would then hold approximately 40% and the shareholders of Boreo approximately 60% of the combined group.

Vista Equity Partners Management, LLC, the U.S. based private equity firm, has agreed to acquire Blue Prism Group PLC, a UK-based company supplying a virtual workforce powered by software robots trained to automate routine back-office clerical tasks. The consideration is £1,098.67mn and is based on offer price of £11.25 per share, a 35% premium to the company’s last closing price of £8.32. The transaction values Blue Prism at £972.17mn including debt. The transaction is subject to customary conditions, including approval by Blue Prism shareholders. Following completion of the acquisition, Vista has said that it intends to indirectly transfer Blue Prism to portfolio company TIBCO, which is an enterprise data firm.