Which private equity deals have been the largest so far through 2013? When were the largest deals announced? Here is a review of private equity deals through the first week of October by deal size, target firm, and across time.
As a start, the following figure shows the lumpiness of private equity deal activity by day through October 4th. Do you know what the two big jumps are around the first of February and the first of June?
The first big jump of the year is Michael Dell’s recently successful attempt to take Dell private. The battle involved a rival takeover attempt from Carl Icahn. When all is said and done, Michael Dell will own about 75 percent of his namesake company which he started while in college in 1984.
The second big jump of the year thus far is the move by Warren Buffet, of Berkshire Hathaway, and Jorge Lemann, of the Brazilian investment house 3G Capital, to take the H.J. Heinz company private. The final, total purchase came in at about $28 billion, or about $5 billion more than originally reported.
Three More Deals In Excess of $6 Billion
The first of the three is Hilders Anders Holding AG, out of Sweden, at almost $7 billion. Interestingly, Arie Capital has been unable to unload of Hilders Anders, as price offers came in lower than expected. The second is BMC Software Inc. in the United States at about $6.9 billion. The deal involved five well-known investor groups, including Bain Capital, Golden Gate Capital, Insight Venture Partners, GIC Special Investments Pte Ltd, and Elliot Management Corporation. The final of the three is Neiman Marcus Group Inc. in the United States at $6 billion. The owners of the luxury retailer, TPG and Warburg Pincus, sold the department store chain to Canadian private equity firm, Ares Management, and Canada Pension Plan Investment Group, after deciding against an IPO of what was rumored to have been around $100 million.
All Deals Year-to-Date
A full list of the Thomson One accounting of this year’s private equity deal flow through the first business week of October is given in the following figure for every deal with an amount greater than $1 billion.
Although the list isn’t a glamorous, or as big, as it has been in the past, the private equity industry keeps moving forward, with many more deals likely before the end of the calendar year. Overall, private equity activity continues to be a place of profit realization, with total dollar deal flow through the first nine months of 2013 at about $226 billion. The largest two deals of the year have been Dell Computers and H.J. Heinz. Ketchup and computers, is there a better combination?
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