Europe’s top five summer buyouts

Despite the usual summer slowdown of deals, a handful of large-cap deals have been announced in Q3 so far, including the two largest buyouts of the year.

From June to August, unquote" data logged three deals worth in excess of €1bn and a further five in the €500m-1bn range. Italy and France are tied in terms of the number of €500m+ deals announced, with Switzerland, Germany, Portugal, the Netherlands and Germany also registering a large-cap deal in the period.

5. Carlyle's €660m buyout of Logoplaste
At the beginning of June, the Carlyle Group announced its acquisition of a minority stake in Portuguese plastic packaging producer Logoplaste.

According to local media reports, the GP acquired a 30-50% stake in the company, with Logoplaste's founders retaining majority ownership. The deal supposedly valued the company around €660m, 8.5x projected EBITDA for the year.

The Logoplaste investment is not just the largest Portuguese transaction of 2016, but also the only deal in Portugal to break the €500m EV mark since the financial crisis in 2008, according to unquote" data.

4. Apax Partners and NB Renaissance buy Engineering Ingegneria Informatica for €700m
In a take-private valued in excess of €700m, NB Renaissance and Apax Partners joined forces in a bid for Italian software developer Engineering Ingegneria Informatica (EII).

The two GPs began their approach of EII in February 2016 by buying a 37.1% stake in the FTSE Italia-listed company and launching a tender offer. Having subsequently increased their stake to 44.3% by April and adding a further 29.1% share block acquired from One Equity, the two GPs bought the remaining 24% in July for €66 per share. With control of more than 95% of EII's shares, NB and Apax could forcibly buy any outstanding shares, taking full control of the business prior to its intended de-listing.

3. CVC in €1bn buyout of Sisal
Global buyout firm CVC takes third place on the list with its SBO of Italian gaming and payments operator Sisal from Apax Partners, Clessidra and Permira.

Sisal logged an EV of €1bn in the buyout, which saw CVC wholly acquire the company from its three private equity owners. Before the buyout, Apax and Clessidra reportedly each held a 36.5% stake, with Permira owning 20% and management holding the balance.

According to press reports, CVC saw off Blackstone, Carlyle, PAI Partners, Apollo and Bain Capital in the bidding process for Sisal.

2. EQT acquires Bilfinger's real estate services for €1.4bn
The second largest deal of the year took place in June, when EQT carved out the real estate services division of German engineering group Bilfinger.

EQT's buyout was inked at an enterprise value of €1.4bn and featured a part-cash payment in conjunction with a deferred fixed-interest debt facility. Former parent Bilfinger can also look forward to dividends if the real estate services division performs well under its new owner, as the deal featured an earn-out clause.

1. Bridgepoint and Eurazeo sell Foncia to Partners Group for €1.8bn
In the largest deal of the summer and 2016 so far, Bridgepoint and Eurazeo completed the exit of French real estate group Foncia to Partners Group in a €1.8bn EV deal.

The sale was reported to have brought 2.4x money for the exiting GPs, which relinquished control of the company five years after acquiring it from banking group BPCE for €1.02bn.

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• Top 5
• Unquote Data