RE: Pi share declarations22 Apr 2023 16:42
Private equity’s appetite for corporate Britain is back, as groups seek to revive a takeover frenzy that has seen nearly £80bn spent taking UK public companies private over the past five years.
The deal-doing flurry seemed to have fizzled out in 2022, as geopolitics and rising interest rates muted takeover plans. But in the past week, investment giants from Apollo to CVC Capital Partners have kicked off a series of multibillion-pound talks with publicly listed UK businesses, including Matthew Moulding’s THG, veterinary medicine maker Dechra and credit card processor Network International Holdings. Energy services group Sureserve is also subject to a £214mn takeover offer from Cap10 Partners, the company announced on Friday.
The approaches signal a resurgence in appetite for dealmaking as debt financing markets improve, and as the UK enjoys a period of relative calm following the turmoil caused by then prime minister Liz Truss’s “mini” Budget last September. Overseas investors are once again hunting for bargains.
“There is something in the UK around political stability and the fact we are beginning to put the mini-budget behind us,” said a senior executive at one large global buyout group.
“We are seeing increased interest from private equity firms to acquire public companies due to lower valuations in public markets and increased pressure from investors to deploy capital,” said Miguel Hernández, chief executive of investment banking at Alantra Partners.
Among the deals being discussed at present include EQT’s £4.6bn take private of Dechra, Apollo’s planned deals for Wood Group and THG, a potential bidding war between a CVC-led consortium and Canadian investment group Brookfield for payments provider Network International, and Providence Equity’s takeover of exhibition company Hyve.
“The reason why the UK public markets are the ‘beneficiary’ of this is because price/earnings multiples across a number of sectors remain depressed, and that, coupled with the continued weakness of the pound compared to the dollar, makes a number of public companies good value,” said Paul Dolman, a partner at Latham & Watkins, a law firm.
The typically low valuations of UK companies relative to their US peers have also prompted several to consider a New York listing, adding to soul-searching about the future of UK plc.
The planned take-privates of Network International, Dechra, THG and engineering services company Wood are all being led by groups investing dollar or euro-denominated funds based either in Europe or North America.
There are still obstacles to the deals getting done. Convincing shareholders they are getting paid a fair price, as well as securing debt financing, are among the most pressing challenges.