Good morning Eurohubsters, Craig McGlashan here with the Dealflow.
We open up today with a listicle looking at recent deals in the food sector, before we touch on some fresh deals in healthcare by Apax Partners sas and intellectual property by Gulf Capital. Elsewhere, Suma Capital opens a new office, Liverpool Football Club’s owner cools speculation of a sale and we have the winning entries of our very own Eurovision Song Contest.
On the menu. If you’re still deciding what to have for breakfast, then PE Hub Europe’s Irien Joseph has just the thing.
Irien’s first ever listicle focuses on recent deals in the food sector, including five in the last couple of months alone.
Firms including PAI Partners, Advent International and Apax Partners are among those cooking up deals.
Check out the full article here.
Preclinic. Apax Partners sas has acquired a majority stake in Porsolt, a global preclinical contract research organisation. No financial details of the transaction were disclosed.
Porsolt is based in Le Genest-Saint-Isle, France.
“We look forward to supporting the team and contributing our expertise where needed, in order to help Porsolt move to the next level in particular through bolt-on acquisitions in Europe and in the US, and become a key industry leader,” said Stanislas Panhard, partner at Apax Development.
Read more about Apax’s plans for Porsolt here.
Intellectual property. CWB Group, backed by Gulf Capital, has merged with PETOŠEVIĆ Group, an East-European intellectual property (IP) services provider.
PETOŠEVIĆ is headquartered in Luxembourg and offers services across Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
This merger is aimed at creating a super-regional IP leader operating across the Middle East, North Africa, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia, according to a release.
Find out more about Gulf Capital’s strategy for CWB here.
Expansion. Investment manager Suma Capital is adding a Paris office to join its Barcelona and Madrid offerings, in a move to grow outside Spain.
The firm, which focuses on energy transition, launched its third sustainable infrastructure fund, Climate Impact Fund III, last year.
The firm has appointed Jérôme Petitjean as partner and he will head the new Paris office.
Read more about the firm and Petitjean here.
Out of play. The owner of Liverpool Football Club has dampened expectations that the club could be up for sale, having sparked speculation in November that it was open to offers.
John W Henry told the Boston Sports Journal on Monday: “I know there has been a lot of conversation and quotes about LFC, but I keep to the facts: we merely formalised an ongoing process. Will we be in England forever? No. Are we selling LFC? No. Are talking with investors about LFC? Yes. Will something happen there? I believe so, but it won’t be a sale.”
Read our roundup last summer of some of the private equity interest in European football teams here.
Single-player. We’ve written a lot lately about competition controls, particularly through the prism of Bain Capital and Triton Partners’ tussle to take Finnish construction firm Caverion private.
While not involving private equity, we’ll be keeping an eye on one of the biggest test cases in that arena, Microsoft’s $69 billion bid for computer game maker Activision Blizzard.
Microsoft president Brad Smith will attempt to ease EU antitrust regulators’ concerns about the deal during a closed hearing today, according to a European Commission document seen by Reuters.
The winner takes it all. And finally, in honour of DUBAG buying Eurovision Services from the European Broadcasting Union, we’d asked for your best private equity/Eurovision Song Contest crossover headlines.
Regular contributor Jonathan Simnett of Hampleton Partners hit the high notes once again with a series of crackers, including my favourites:
EBU meets its Waterloo
And
Did DU diligence BAG Eurovision?
That’s all from me – I’ll be back with you tomorrow.
Cheers,
Craig
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