The tussle between Bain Capital and Triton Partners for control of Finnish construction company Caverion took another step towards going in Triton’s favour, after Bain’s tender offer failed to hit its required threshold.
On the confirmed deals front, GHO Capital and Partners Group made an investment in a pharma firm, while a Teleo Capital Management portfolio company in the contact centre business in the US acquired an Irish company.
We then end today’s newsletter with the latest in sports investing by private equity firms.
Offer over
Bain Capital’s pursuit of publicly listed Finnish construction company Caverion is over – for now at least – after the firm said that it had only reached 29.1 percent of the company’s outstanding shares, short of its threshold of at least 50 percent.
That leaves Triton Partners – to which the Caverion board switched its support from Bain in April – the only bidder.
Bain’s statement to the stock exchange added that the ending of the tender offer did not limit its right to make a new offer in the future, although no decisions had been made on that front yet.
Pharma play
GHO Capital Partners and Partners Group have made an investment in Sterling Pharma Solutions, a global contract development and manufacturing organisation.
Sterling is based in Northumberland, England.
GHO first invested in Sterling in 2019. This new investment from GHO is supported by a consortium of investors, led by funds managed by AlpInvest Partners, a subsidiary of global investment firm Carlyle, and Pantheon.
Partners Group has acquired a “significant” minority stake, and GHO will remain Sterling’s majority shareholder.
“We believe that strategic partners to innovative pharmaceutical companies will benefit from further outsourcing as well as production reshoring trends,” said Pascal Noth, head of private equity health and life Europe, at Partners. “Sterling’s focus on complex APIs means it is well positioned to capitalise on rising demand for next-generation small molecule medicines.”
Sterling’s current management team will continue to lead the company.
Sterling has, since GHO’s investment, tripled its revenues and quadrupled its earnings following M&A focused on capacity expansion, capability development, and geographical footprint, according to a release.
The new investment will support Sterling as it accelerates its growth plans via the expansion of production capacity across the UK, Europe, and the US, the release added.
Messaging
SharpenCX, backed by Teleo Capital Management, has acquired Webtext Holdings, a communications platform as a service company providing turnkey enterprise messaging for contact centres.
Webtext is based in Galway, Ireland.
Teleo invested in SharpenCX in 2022.
“Webtext’s robust messaging capabilities combined with SharpenCX’s agent-first solutions and advanced analytics backbone will continue to enhance and revolutionise the omnichannel contact centre experience for both customers and agents,” stated Teleo Capital.
SharpenCX is a unified contact centre platform. The company is based in Indianapolis in the US.
Sports betting
There’s been a flurry of activity in the sports sector for private equity firms.
Serie A – Italy’s top-flight football league – has hired Lazard to advise it on approaches from private equity firms and banks interested in buying its media business, according to sources spoken to by Reuters.
Club representatives met in Rome yesterday for talks, the report added. The main business of the media arm is broadcasting matches.
Serie A already has private equity ownership at the club level. Check out my look at RedBird’s purchase of AC Milan for more on that.
While Serie A is discussing private equity interest, over in Germany the idea has been voted down.
Clubs in the Deutsche Fussball Liga, which represents the top two leagues, took a vote on selling a stake in its media and commercial media rights to private equity firms. While a majority voted in favour, the total was four short of the two-thirds majority that the executive committee wanted.
Private equity firms Advent International, Blackstone and CVC Capital Partners had been interested in buying a stake, people familiar with the matter told the Financial Times.
Rounding out the sports news, our teammates over at Private Equity International have learned that Arctos Partners, the sports-focused firm that raised the largest first-time private equity fund in 2021, is opening its first office outside of North America.
The Dallas-headquartered firm is opening an office in London with managing director Alastair Seaman set to relocate to lead the outpost, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The UK office will help Arctos provide insight, identify opportunities and advise its franchises on global expansion, it is understood.
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