EUROPE - European Buyout Review shows 2006 record year for private equity

Sarah
23 January 2007

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2006 was a record year for European buyouts with the total value of deals topping over EUR 160bn for the first time ever, according to the latest European Buyout Review due to be published in March 2007 by Incisive Media in association with Bridgepoint. The record value of buyouts has been driven by an increase in the number of EUR 1bn plus deals with over half the European buyout market by value resulting from these transactions. The overall value of EUR 1bn plus deals more than doubled from EUR 48.8bn in 2005 to over EUR 99.9bn in 2006 and the volume rose by 28% to 36 deals.

The most popular sources of buyout transactions in Europe remain acquisitions from family or private vendors. Buyouts from other institutional investors were the second most frequent but have become increasingly popular with a 46% increase by value and 27% increase by volume compared to 2005.

Although the number of public-to-private transactions across Europe was unchanged, the deal size for these transactions increased by 47% in 2006 reflecting large scale ‘take private’ deals such as the EUR 10.1bn buyout of TDC in Denmark, the EUR 8.7bn buyout of VNU in the Netherlands and the EUR 3.6bn buyout of Eircom in Ireland. In the UK market, sizeable public-to-privates included the EUR 1.6bn buyout of McCarthy & Stone and the EUR 1.3bn buyout of Gondola Holdings.