UK public-to-privates buck European trend

According to SJ Berwin European public to privates have been getting easier recently, and 2003 was a record year. The private equity industry has been able to take advantage of more attractive valuations. But although last year saw more de-listings across Europe than ever before, the trend in the UK was not so positive. There were 35 deals completed last year, which is a few more than the previous year but a lot less than the 53 seen in 1999. Deals are getting more difficult to do in the UK than in the past. And if the UK's rule maker has its way, they could soon get even harder. In 2003 the UK's Listing Authority, which is responsible for setting the rules of the London market, issued a consultation paper on proposed changes to the rulebook. One of those proposals was for a change which would require a 75% vote of shareholders before a company could cancel its listing. At the moment, no shareholder vote is needed, so this would be an entirely new requirement. A recent study from Travers Smith Braithwaite and Kinmont has estimated that around 80% of attempted take-privates are aborted at some point during the transaction. KMPG statistics show that there were 35 deals with a combined value of £8.9bn, while there were just eight take-privates with a value of £539m during the first half of 2003. In 2003 the volume of public-to-private deals has dropped to a mere 6% of total dealflow, largely as a result of stock market uncertainty.

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• UK / Ireland