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EU approves Sony’s acquisition of part of EMI

“BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s competition regulator approved on Thursday a deal by Sony/ATV and other investors to buy part of the famous British music company EMI Group Ltd.

Sony/ATV, a joint venture between Sony Corp. and the Michael Jackson estate, and several investment funds including United Arab Emirates-based Mubadala Development Co. jointly offered $2.2 billion in November for EMI Music’s publishing businesses.

EMI’s publishing arm manages the rights to songs of popular artists such as Amy Winehouse, Regina Spektor and Rihanna.

Universal Music Group has a pending deal to buy the rest of EMI, which became famous for recording The Beatles and is also home to Coldplay and Katy Perry. EMI was put up for sale by Citigroup last summer, after the bank foreclosed on private-equity firm Terra Firma, which bought the music company in 2007.

To get approval for the deal from the European Commission, the Sony-led investor group promised to sell the publishing rights to several music catalogues as well as the works of 12 artists, including Ozzy Osbourne, Robbie Williams, and Ben Harper….”

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As Copper Remains Cheap, Takeover Fever Rises on Freeport McMoRan; $FCX

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX) is offering the best deal in copper for mining companies willing to bet big on the metal.

Freeport, the world’s largest publicly traded copper miner, is valued at 3.3 times its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization in 2013, according to analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. That’s cheaper than any other base metals producer with more than $10 billion in market value and about a third less than the median, the data show.

While Freeport faces the first back-to-back slump in annual earnings after workers at its Indonesian mine went on a three- month strike and copper prices fell from a record on concern over a slowdown in China, analysts say its Ebitda next year will rebound to an all-time high as demand recovers. Freeport could now attract Rio Tinto Group (RIO), its partner inIndonesia, according to Adrian Day Asset Management. A deal would also give BHP Billiton Ltd. or Anglo American Plc (AAL) a company that produces 10 percent of the world’s copper, Oracle Investment Research said.

“Freeport has probably the most attractive assets in the world with its copper mine in Indonesia,” Jean-Francois Comte, co-founder of Lutetia Capital, a Paris-based hedge fund that bets on mergers and acquisitions, said in a telephone interview. “Anybody who believes that would probably look at it.”

Eric Kinneberg, a spokesman for Freeport, declined to comment on whether it would consider a sale or has been approached about an acquisition. The Phoenix-based company had a market capitalization of $35 billion yesterday….”

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Infosys, $INFO, Has a Half a Billion to Slosh Around on European Acquisitions

Infosys Ltd. (INFO), which sits on the largest cash pile among India’s computer-services providers, is prepared to spend as much as $500 million on a single acquisition in a European market.

Infosys may make another attempt to acquire a company of that size after it walked away from a plan to buy U.K.-based Axon Group Plc for 407 million pounds ($644 million) in 2008, Chandrashekar Kakal, the company’s global head of business IT services, said in a telephone interview.

“We do have cash, but we are looking for a company which adds to our capability and becomes complementary to our growth rather than becoming a laggard,” he said.

Infosys’s war chest of about $4 billion is more than twice the size that of Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. (TCS) Indian software companies, after a decade of growth fuelled by the outsourcing of jobs from the U.S., are turning to acquisitions to expand into Europe, now the second-largest source of theirrevenues. Making purchases in Europe may help Bangalore-based Infosys achieve a target of getting 40 percent of its sales from the region, up from about 22 percent….”

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Lucky Find: British businessman buys $2M Warhol for just $5

“LAS VEGAS — A British businessman picked up an original Andy Warhol drawing worth $2 million (£1.3 million) at a humble garage sale in Las Vegas.

The 1930s sketch, never previously seen in public, was hidden among a handful that art buff Andy Fields bought for $5.

The signed work, on tattered paper, is thought to have been etched by art world legend Warhol when he was either 10 or 11. Experts have hailed it the earliest known example of the late American’s Pop Art — for which he became famous decades later.

And dad-of-one Fields was told it might be worth 10 times its formal valuation….”

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Express Scripts and Medco Complete Their Merger

“The $29.1 billion merger between Express Scripts Inc. (NASDAQ: ESRX) and Medco Health Solutions Inc. has been cleared by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the companies have announced that the completion of the merger. The merger was allowed on a 3-1 vote of the FTC.

It appears that the FTC bought the argument from Express Scripts and Medco that the combined company would have more clout with pharmacies and drug makers to reduce prices to consumers. Critics argued that allowing the merger would reduce competition and drive up costs to consumers….”

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KKR to Buy Natural-Gas Fields From WPX Energy

KKR KKR +0.47% & Co. has agreed to buy natural-gas fields in Texas and Oklahoma for $306 million as the private-equity firm continues an energy patch spending spree that has seen it commit billions of dollars to oil and gas producing properties.

KKR said Monday that it is acquiring 93,000 gas-producing fields from WPX Energy Inc.WPX -0.83% About a third of the properties are in the Barnett Shale beneath Fort Worth, Texas while the rest is in the Arkoma Basin, which underlies swaths of Oklahoma and Arkansas.

KKR has been among the most aggressive buyers in a surge of private-equity investment in U.S. energy production. In November it led a $7.2-billion acquisition of closely held Tulsa, Okla., explorer Samson Investment Co. And last month it struck a $250-million pact with Chesapeake Energy Inc. CHK -0.17% to invest in oil and gas properties….”

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Cody Bids $10 Billion for Avon Products

Source

"(Reuters) - Beauty company Coty Inc said on Monday it had offered to buy cosmetics direct seller Avon Products Inc for $10 billion.
Coty, known for fragrances for such celebrities as Beyonce and Lady Gaga, said it has been "unsuccessful" in getting Avon to talk about its offer, but said it had no plans to make a hostile bid.
Coty was offering $23.25 per Avon share, or a 20 percent premium over Friday's closing price of $19.36 on the New York Stock Exchange."

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Magic Johnson Group to Buy L.A. Dodgers for $2 Billion

“Basketball Hall of Fame member Magic Johnson and a group of investors that includes Guggenheim Partners Chief Executive Officer Mark Walter won the auction for the bankrupt Los Angeles Dodgers with a $2 billion bid.

The group was chosen yesterday by Dodgers owner Frank McCourt over billionaire Steve Cohen, who runs hedge fund manager SAC Capital Advisors LP, and Stan Kroenke, who owns the National Football League’s St. Louis Rams and Arsenal of English soccer’s Premier League. The sale set a record for the price of a U.S. professional sports team….”

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Tyco Will Merge Flow Division With Pentair to

Pentair Inc. (PNR) agreed to combine with the Tyco International Ltd. (TYC) division that makes valves and other flow-control instruments in a deal that values Tyco Flow at $4.53 billion as the Swiss manufacturer breaks itself up.

Tyco will spin off its flow unit to shareholders and the business will immediately merge with the operations of Minneapolis-based Pentair, the two companies said in a joint statement today. Shareholders of Schaffhausen, Switzerland-based Tyco will own 52.5 percent of the combined company, with Pentair investors owning the remainder….”

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Comverge Agrees to Be Taken Private

Source

“Comverge Inc. (NASDAQ: COMV), a maker of intelligent control systems for electricity utilities and their customers, has agreed to be taken private by an affiliate of private equity firm H.I.G. Capital LLC for a price of about $49 million, or $1.75/share. Shares closed Friday at $1.88.

The company didn’t have any choice:

The transaction addresses the risks associated with the Company’s liquidity position, provides for our financial viability going forward and allows Comverge to continue to execute on its business plan with the financial backing of H.I.G. Capital.

Shareholders won’t be happy with these deal, and the shareholder law firms are already lining up. But Comverge may have had no choice — the company’s auditors released a “going concern” letter about 10 days ago and the company said it had received default notices from some lenders.

Shares are down about -7.5% at $1.74.”

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