It’s a day for firsts, as we cover the debut deal by Px3 Partners, a firm launched a couple of years ago by ex-Rhône Group senior executives. We also look at the first international add-on by Atar Capital.
Next, we have some deadline info on take-private deals involving Apollo Global Management, EQT, CVC and Francisco Partners, before we round things out with an infrastructure deal by CapMan.
Carve-out
Px3 Partners has agreed to acquire Filtration, a manufacturer of industrial filtration systems, in the London-headquartered private equity firm’s debut investment.
Filtration is based in Ireland but operates globally. It is a division of North Carolina, US-based Celeros Flow Technology.
“The acquisition perfectly aligns with our investment strategy, our situational differentiation, and our commitment to invest in high-quality businesses, with passionate teams and significant transformational growth potential,” said the Px3 managing partners in a statement.
Former Rhône Group senior executives Petter Johnsson, Gianpiero Lenza and Sébastien Mazella di Bosco founded Px3 in 2021. The firm targets companies in business services, consumer and leisure, and industrials.
Internationalising
In another first, Keypoint Intelligence, a portfolio company of Atar Capital, has acquired ProPrintPerformance, a provider of intelligence platforms and training services to sales and marketing professionals in the digital production print industry.
ProPrintPerformance is based in Stockholm, Sweden, and is Atar’s first international add-on for a portfolio company. Keypoint is a market research and advisory company for the imaging, document, production print and digital media industries. It is based in Fairfield, New Jersey.
“Helping Keypoint Intelligence broaden its reach into global markets is exciting as it provides the opportunity to further grow the company’s footprint in digital production print,” said Cyrus Nikou, founder and managing partner of Atar Capital.
Atar Capital acquired Keypoint Intelligence in October 2019.
Deadlines
We’ve been following several take-private offers of European companies over the last few months and have a few updates on that front for you today.
John Wood Group, a Scottish engineering company subject to a take-private bid by Apollo Global Management, reported group revenues today of $1.45 billion in the first quarter, a rise on the same quarter last year “reflecting good momentum across all business units and higher pass-through revenue”, according to a statement.
Apollo must make a firm intention to make an offer for the company by 17 May. The Wood board had rebuffed several offers from the US private equity firm, before agreeing to enter discussions once the offer reached 240p per share, valuing the total outstanding equity at £1.66 billion ($2.1 billion; €1.9 billion).
Vet pharma
Some other private equity firms have won a bit more time to make their take-private moves.
EQT’s deadline to make a firm offer for UK veterinary pharmaceuticals company Dechra was today, but the parties have agreed to extend the deadline to 2 June, after EQT had made “substantial progress” towards completing due diligence and finalising documentations.
If a firm offer is made, the parties expect the private equity investment division of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority to be a co-investor.
EQT made its £40.70 per share offer in mid-April. The Dechra board said at the time that were a firm offer to arrive, it was prepared to recommend it.
Double bid
Network International, a Dubai-headquartered but London-listed payments company, is subject to a bid from CVC Advisers and Francisco Partners Management. The deadline to make a firm intention was also today, but it has been extended to 1 June. Brookfield Asset Management has a rival bid for the firm, and its deadline for a firm intention announcement is 19 May.
For a full-round up of the take-private deals in the market, as well as the financing approaches being taken, check out my feature here.
Data
CapMan Infra has invested in Serverius, a Dutch IT infrastructure provider, with plans to build a northern European data centre platform.
Serverius is headquartered in Gelderland. The company has three operating data centres in the Netherlands.
Serverius is the third investment via CapMan Nordic Infrastructure II fund, following investments in Skarta Energy and Napier.
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