The Deals Pipeline

UK

The English Football League (EFL) has been approached for a stake in its commercial rights subsidiary by TPG Capital, Sky News reported on 25 October. TPG is proposing to pay £300m for a 20% stake. Former BBC executive Dominic Coles has been lined up to front the deal and has been in talks with TPG for several months on the matter. The proposed £300m investment would in large part be distributed to teams hard hit by the Covid-19 crisis. Several other investors from the private equity sector are also considering deals for the EFL, although some offer debt funding instead of an equity investment.

UK-based insurance firm Specialist Risk Group (SRG) is on the block, priced at about 15x EBITDA or £300m, Insurance Insider reported on 19 October. Vendor Pollen Street Capital has mandated Macquarie to coordinate the sale. SRG is the parent company of broker Miles Smith, wholesale motor specialist Lloyd Latchford, international property and industrial risk insurer The Underwriting Exchange, and professional risk insurer and commercial broker Square Mile.

France

Skill & You investor Andera Partners has hired Transactions & Cie to sell its majority stake in the French distance learning company, Mergermarket reported on 23 October. The owners had intended to refinance the company, but opted for a sale given investor appetite. Interested parties have begun signing non-disclosure agreements, though the sell side has yet to set a deadline for indicative offers. Skill & You, which provides training courses in various sectors such as cooking, childcare, mechanics and aesthetics, is targeting EBITDA of €25m this year and turnover of €110m.

The three contenders vying to acquire LaCentrale – a French publisher of classified portals for used cars – are ICG, Providence Equity Partners and German online automobile marketplace AutoScout24 (backed by Hellman & Friedman), Capital Finance reported on 21 October. LaCentrale was put on the block by Axel Springer, the German media group backed by KKR, with Lazard advising. LaCentrale could be valued at €400m.

DACH

SK Capital, Ardian, Cinven, HIG Capital, Arsenal Capital Partners and Pamplona are among suitors assessing a bid for Clariant's Pigments unit, Mergermarket reported on 23 October. Preparations by the Swiss speciality chemicals maker to offload the division, which makes dyes for the automotive and construction industries, are advancing ahead of the submission of non-binding offers in the first half of November. Sell-side banker Deutsche Bank is expected to field offers in the region of 7-8x EBITDA for Pigments to account for any coronavirus performance slump. The unit has an EBITDA of approximately CHF 140m (€129.6m) and was worth up to CHF 900m (€834m) prior to the virus outbreak.

EQT and PAI Partners are among bidders in the second round of Synlab's carve-out of its analytics and services segment, Synlab Environment, Mergermarket reported on 22 October. Final bids for the Cinven-backed asset are due at the end of November. Goldman Sachs is advising on the sale. Astorg Partners and Partners Group were among other PE firms working on bids earlier, but are no longer in the process. The division could fetch an enterprise value of around €500m. As Cinven is looking to list Synlab Group in 2021, it needs to make divestments to focus on its core business.

Italy

Aksia Group has recently launched the sale process of Italian call-centre operator Covisian, Mergermarket reported on 23 October. Baird retains the sell-side mandate. Covisian should generate an adjusted EBITDA of €35m on €345m revenues, with management forecasting both revenues and profitability to be in excess of its pre-pandemic expectations.

Final offers for Hippocrates Holding, the Italian pharmacy group, are expected in mid-November, Il Sole 24 Ore reported on 22 October. PAI Partners, Eurazeo, Pamplona and Antin have been picked from a number of contenders. EQT, Permira and Investindustrial were among the bidders to have placed a first proposal, but are no longer in the race. Valuations are being pitched in the €600m region. Hippocrates is being advised by Mediobanca and Deutsche Bank. In the 12 months ending in June 2020, Hippocrates posted a €45m EBITDA on €200m in revenues.

Benelux

Nuts Groep, a Dutch energy supplier backed by Waterland Private Equity Investments, is undergoing a strategic review with ING advising, Mergermarket reported on 22 October. De Brauw has been appointed as legal adviser. Options under consideration include a sale, which could kick off in Q1 2021. The sell side is marketing the company based on €100m in EBITDA for the company. Nuts Groep had sales of €800m in 2019. Waterland acquired a 50% stake in Nuts Groep for an undisclosed sum in 2017.

Nordic

Terra Firma has mandated Deutsche Bank to guide its exit from Parmaco, a Finnish modular buildings provider, Mergermarket reported on 22 October. The process is at an early stage and likely to start sometime next year. The owner had already circulated pre-marketing material to some parties in the spring to test initial buyer interest. The sell side is pitching the valuation at close to €1bn. Parmaco is marketed based on EBITDA in the region of €55m. The asset is likely to draw interest from private equity investors, particularly those with an infrastructure focus.

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• Topics
• Buyouts
• Exits
• Deals Pipeline
• TPG
• Andera Partners
• Intermediate Capital Group
• Ardian (formerly Axa PE)
• Cinven
• HIG Capital
• PAI Partners
• EQT
• Aksia Group
• Eurazeo
• Waterland Private Equity
• Terra Firma