Data Analyst Katrin Kostadinova highlights the most significant financial and corporate legal deals announced or closed in the last week.
Americas
Latin America has seen several notable sovereign bond issues recently with the Dominican Republic issuing $500 million 5.95% bonds and the Republic of Ecuador issuing $2 billion in 8.75% and 9.625% bonds. This followed Argentina’s recent offer of $2.75 billion in 100-year bonds.
In Brazil, Odebrecht has advanced with its R$15 billion debt restructuring, a process that has been running since 2015. An offshore oil subsidiary of the conglomerate has successfully entered into agreements with its creditors.
In Canada, a year after the announcement of the deal, CIBC, one of Canada’s biggest banks, has finally closed the acquisition of PrivateBancorp for $5 billion. After the acquisition the clients of Atlantic Trust, acquired from CIBC in 2014, will benefit from commercial and private banking services.
In the United States private equity firm Sycamore Partners acquired Staples for $6.9 billion only a year after Staples tried merging with Office Depot. The company has been looking for solutions for falling sales and spoke with a number of private equity buyers before accepting the offer from Sycamore.
Another significant M&A matter saw Royal Philips acquire Spectranetics for $1.7 billion. Spectranetics is a producer of medical devices to tackle heart disease.
Finally in US M&A news Martin Marietta Materials acquired Bluegrass Materials, the largest privately held pure-play aggregates company in the United States, for $1.625 billion. The deal comes two months after Martin Marietta issued $600 million in floating rate and 3.45% notes.
Asia-Pacific
In Australia Yancoal Australia acquired Rio Tinto Australia’s coal assets for $2.69 billion, beating a rival bid from commodities trader Glencore. The assets consist of a number of coal mines across New South Wales.
In China Sinovac Biotech, a leading provider of biopharmaceutical products, has announced it is going private with its parent company acquiring it for $402 million.
In the real estate sector Alpha Asia Macro Trends Fund, Keppel Land and a third unnamed investor are acquiring Hongkou Soho, a Shanghai commercial real estate development for $525 million from Soho China. Alpha Asia will own 40% with Keppel Capital taking 30%.
In India Tata Sons took over 3% of Tata Motors for Re38 billion. This was the target’s entire stake in the company. After the acquisition Tata Sons’ holding in Tata Motors will increase to 31.06% from the current 28.2%.
Finally in Japan, Key Safety Systems acquired assets from Takata for $1.6 billion. The deal follows Takata’s filing for bankruptcy protection in Japan and the US following a costly product recall linked to defects in its car airbags.
Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA)
In Germany, Deutsche Telekom has offered for sale 10 million shares of Scout24, priced at 32.2€ per share. Scout 24 is an online advertising company.
EQT has acquired 20% of Otto Bock HealthCare. The German producer of medical devices for mobility is valued at €3.15 billion. The acquisition will be made through EQT’s seventh buyout fund.
Elsewhere two German lithium-ion battery businesses, Gaia Akkumulatorenwerke and EAS Germany, have been acquired by Bulgarian MonBat, a battery manufacturer. This marks a new entry in the lithium ion business. MonBat is planning to invest over €5 million in the next two years in new machinery.
In the Middle East Qatar Reinsurance Company has undertaken its debut hybrid Tier 2 bond issue offering $450 million in 4.95% bonds. This is the first US dollar denominated capital market issue from an insurance company in the MENA region.
In the United Kingdom L1 Retail has acquired Holland & Barrett for £1.8 billion. The deal is a latest in a string of retail acquisitions in the UK, with the most recent example being Natura Cosmetics’ acquisition of The Body Shop from L’Oreal earlier this month.
Finally Co-op Bank has agreed a £700 million restructuring program with creditors. The Co-operative Group will be left with only a 1% stake in the Co-op Bank following the deal, which will see hedge funds and other investors put in new capital. The bank had been put up for sale in February.