Data Analyst Katrin Kostadinova highlights the most significant financial and corporate legal deals announced or closed in the last week.
Americas
In the United States, starting with M&A, Berkshire Hathaway has acquired Oncor Electric Delivery, the parent of Texas power, for $9 billion. Oncor delivers power to more than 3.4 million homes and is 80% owned by Energy Future Holdings.
Halcon Resources has sold its oil assets to Bruin E&P Partners for $1.4 billion. This will concentrate Halcon’s assets in a specific region. The proceeds from the sale will be used by Halcon for a note buyback.
ABM Industries has acquired GCA Services Group for $1.25 billion from Thomas H Lee Partners and the private equity arm of Goldman Sachs. GCA is a facilities management company focused on schools and colleges.
The golf club operator ClubCorp Holdings has been acquired by Apollo Global Management for $1.1 billion.
Another private equity deal saw EQT Partners acquire Certara, a leading provider of drug development solutions, for $850 million. This is EQT’s second major US healthcare acquisition.
In the fast food sector Jimmy John has undertaken an $850 million whole business securitisation, the latest in a series of similar deals in the sector.
Finally SiriusXM has issued $750 million 3.875% senior notes due 2022 and $1.25 billion 5.0% notes due 2027. The proceeds will be used to redeem the outstanding 4.25% notes due 2020 and 5.75% notes due 2021 and to repay credit facilities.
Asia-Pacific
Two major IPOs have been undertaken in Asia-Pacific this week. China Literature raised $800 million in its IPO on the HKSE. Tencent has a 62% stake in China Literature, 12.2% are owned by The Carlyle Group and 6% are held by Shujun Li.
Elsewhere Lotte Chemical Titan raised $878 million from its IPO on the Bursa Malaysia. This is the biggest stock market flotation in Malaysia since 2012.
Going back to the PRC, COSCO Shipping has offered $6.3 billion to acquire Hong Kong rival Orient Overseas International. The deal, if completed, will make the Chinese group the third largest container shipping line in the world.
In Malaysia SP Setia has acquired I&P Group for $800 million – a deal which will create one of the biggest real estate firms in the country. Permodalan Nasional owns 63.5% of SP Setia and 100% of I&P Group and the deal is part of its restructuring programme.
In Australia, this week saw the announcement of an interesting project in the energy sector. Neoen, a renewable energy company in Paris, has started developing a project with Tesla to create the world largest lithium ion battery with a capacity of 100MW. The project, located in South Australia, is expected to be complete by the beginning of December 2017.
Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA)
In the United Kingdom Terra Firma has undertaken a £4 billion refinancing of portfolio company The Annington Group, a UK real estate manager. This updates Annington’s capital structure from securitisation-reliant to investment grade.
One of the largest M&A deals this week in EMEA saw Bertelsmann acquire a 22% stake in Penguin Random House for £776 million from joint venture partner Pearson. The deal comes after Pearson issued a number of profit warnings from its education division.
Shell is set to exit the upstream oil and gas business in Ireland. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) subsidiary, CPP Investment Board Europe, has signed a deal to acquire Shell E&P Ireland for €830 million. If completed, the deal will see Shell’s 45% stake in Ireland’s off-shore gas field, Corrib, transferred to the Canadian pension fund. The gas field accounts for 95% of all natural gas produced by Ireland and provides 60% of the country’s total gas consumption.
In Italy – Gruppo Carige has undertaken a €938 million securatisation. The deal will enable the junior and mezzanine licenses to be transferred to selected third party investors.
In Slovenia Sberbank has acquired 18.53% of Mercator from the Netherlands-based Agrokor Investments, a financial holding company of the Croatian business. Agrokor was put under state control in April 2017 and is now undergoing a restructuring. Sberbank is one of its largest creditors.
Finally in Lithuania, the first green corporate bond from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), valued at €300 million, has been issued by Lietuvos Energija. The bonds were issued under the company’s €1 billion EMTN Programme.