Category Archives: Deals

· SLE – PE group led by Apollo submits offer for SLE according to Reuters but an expected offer by JBS has yet to be made.  Details of the Apollo bid weren’t available – Reuters

· TUI AG may soon purchase more shares in TUI Travel; There are plans to float (TUI AG’s) Hapag-Lloyd within the next three months, and TUI is likely to buy TUI Travel shares within another 3-4 months after that – Reuters

· ITT – the stock may have another 20% upside – Barron’s

· SRX – Serco, the services company in the UK, has made a $2B offer for SRA Int’l (SRX); an initial offer was rebuffed by SRX but Serco is believed to be working on a new better proposal.  London Telegraph.

· China’s ICBC moves into the US – ICBC struck a deal to buy a majority stake in Bank of East Asia’s US subsidiary; the deal would for the first time give a Beijing-controlled institution a US retail presence.  Bank of East Asia has about 13 total branches in the US.  The deal is said to be worth $100MM.  US regulators still need to bless the transaction.  WSJ

· Facebook – the co announced after the close Fri that it had raised $1B from investors and another $500MM from Goldman and Digital Sky; the $1.5B fund raising valued the company at $50B; the demand was there for the company to raise up to $5B; Facebook said it would release financial information by Apr ’12.  WSJ

· Facebook – why the company is a bargain at $50B; the co is a natural monopoly similar to GOOG – WSJ

· Prada – the company may decide to proceed w/an IPO by the end of the month – Independent

· Lone Star is in talks with other lenders to take control of Japan’s Tokyo Star Bank for the second time – WSJ

· E.ON – Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing is poised to make a GBP3.5B bid for E.ON’s electricity distribution network in the UK – Reuters

· CDEL – Citadel Broadcasting is discussed in the NYT in an article which alleges that mgmt may not have had the shareholder’s best interests in mind when it turned down a takeout offer from Cumulus – NYT

· WMG –the co decided to bring in Goldman and explore strategic options after one of its largest shareholders, Thomas H. Lee Partners, announced plans to sell its stake in the company.  WMG may look to sell its Warner/Chappell publishing business in order to raise cash and retire debt on the recorded music side, a move that would help pave the way for an EMI bid – NY Post.

· China Unicom/Telefonica announced strengthened strategic ties; Telefonia to buy $500MM worth of Unicom shares and Unicom will buy same amount of TEF stock at EU17.16/shr – Reuters

· Riversdale – Indian state-run companies may decide next week to counter Rio Tinto’s A$3.9B bid for Riversdale – Bloomberg