GTCR Outbids Advent for Worldpay, TPG Acquires Cybersecurity Business, Ardian Sells D&B Audio Group
Private equity news for the week of July 10th, 2023.
Insights
Chart of the Week: Technology is the most-active sector in private equity at the moment, accounting for 39% of all buyouts and 29% of all exits in Q1 2023. But on a dollar-basis, healthcare exits have been 3.5x larger than technology exits recently.
Private equity firms exited 26 healthcare companies globally in Q1 amounting to $28.4 billion. The next largest sectors were energy and technology, with $8.5 billion and $8.1 billion worth of exits, respectively. In fact, healthcare accounted for 47% of all portfolio dollars exited by private equity in Q1. (Read More)
Don't Miss:
The State of Private Equity Exits (Read)
The State of Private Equity Buyouts (Read)
Deal News
GTCR has agreed to acquire a majority stake in fintech company Worldpay at an $18.5 billion valuation. It’s the largest leveraged buyout of 2023, and with over half the deal financed, it’s a sign that banks are warming up to backing larger deals after an 18-month lull period. Advent was also in the final round of bidding, but FIS (which owns Worldpay) preferred GTCR’s offer. As part of the deal, FIS will keep a minority stake in the company, GTCR will finance an additional $1.25 billion for acquisitions, and former Worldpay executive chairman Charles Drucker will return as CEO. Worldpay had $4.8 billion of revenue in 2022 and $2.3 billion of adjusted EBITDA. The company has struggled to gain market share after FIS acquired it for $43 billion in 2019. (Source)
TPG has agreed to acquire Forcepoint’s government cybersecurity business for $2.5 billion. It’s more than 2x what Francisco Partners paid to acquire the entire Forcepoint company in 2021. Francisco Partners will continue to operate Forcepoint’s commercial cybersecurity business, whereas TPG will now operate the company’s business serving government and federal agencies (with Francisco Partners maintaining a small stake in that business). Forcepoint is originally a carve-out from Raytheon Technologies. (Source)
Providence Equity will acquire German audio technology manufacturer D&B Group from Ardian. Financials have not yet been disclosed, but Ardian acquired D&B in 2016, and since then the company has reportedly experienced double-digit compound annual growth. (Source)
Bain Capital has agreed to acquire pharmaceuticals manufacturer Fabbrica Italiana Sintetici at a valuation of $1.4 billion. The company is being sold by Nine Trees Group, the Ferrari family office. Fabbrica Italiana Sintetici reported annual revenues of $769 million in 2022 (Source)
Blackstone and Veritas Capital Fund Management are reportedly bidding to acquire the aerospace business of manufacturing company Ball Corporation. Major defense companies are also interested in the business, including BAE Systems, General Dynamics, and Textron. The aerospace business unit, which accounted for 13% of Ball’s revenue in 2022, is valued at approximately $5 billion. With the sale, Ball is looking to focus on its core packaging business. (Source)
Industry News
Private equity firms are accounting for a higher percentage of follow-on share sales — the process of selling shares in a company after its IPO. PE-backed companies represented 17% of all follow-on shares sold in Q2 2023, up from 6% last year. Investors are feeling pressured to show returns amid a difficult fundraising environment. (Bloomberg)
The US Department of Justice is reportedly weighing a decision to block Thomas Bravo’s $2.3 billion acquisition of cybersecurity firm ForgeRock. The Justice Department will argue that the firm is too close a competitor to Ping, which the PE firm also acquired last year. (Politico)
China is imposing new regulations on its $2.9 trillion private investment fund sector. The government introduced a new section of bylaws recognizing foreign venture capital investment, but requiring them to be more transparent about fund managers, limited partners, and supervision of funds. (Reuters)
Audax Private Equity raised $7.8 billion for two new funds. Both funds were oversubscribed and will deploy capital into middle market companies in North America. (Press Release)
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