Good morning, Hubsters. MK Flynn here with today’s Wire.
There’s a lot going on this morning, including an electric vehicle deal in Silicon Valley, an ad tech deal in Europe and a new fund for a Chicago lender.
One deal that looks increasingly unlikely to cross the finish line is the $14.5 billion cash-and-stock offer of Australia's Ramsay Health Care from a consortium led by KKR. There have been a lot of turns of the wheel on this one, and it sounds like the road has been pretty bumpy.
Earlier today, Ramsay said that the hospital operator received word from the consortium yesterday saying it would not improve the bid:
To get the KKR side of the story, I reached out to one of the firm’s PR reps based in the Asia-Pacific region. “We are not commenting on this matter,” she emailed.
In the meantime, let’s move onto deals are moving forward.
Charging ahead. Vision Ridge Partners is teaming up with other firms to invest $1 billion of institutional capital in TeraWatt Infrastructure, a San Francisco-based developer of electric vehicle (EV) charging systems, PE Hub’s Obey Martin Manayiti reported this morning. Vision Ridge, based in Colorado and New York, joins current investors, Keyframe Capital and Cyrus Capital.
Private equity’s interest the sector is growing, as the anticipated adoption of electric vehicles gets supercharged by federal and state funding as well as technological developments.
“The future of electrified transport is at a critical inflection point, whereby solutions for large-scale EV charging infrastructure must be established to meet the increasing demand for electrification of all fleets,” said Paul Luce, Vision Ridge managing director, in a statement.
For more, read the story.
Earlier today, PE Hub Europe’s David Wansboro reported that Bridgepoint has purchased a stake in data-driven marketing service provider MiQ from ECI Partners. The deal is reportedly valued at $900 million. Bridgepoint is taking a majority stake in the company, a source familiar with the deal told PE Hub Europe. ECI invested initially in the target in 2017 and has realised a 6.1x return on the exit, according to the press release. All three companies are based in London.
Click here for more on the deal.
Special opportunities. Europe looks increasingly attractive to US private equity firms. Thoma Bravo recently opened up an office in London, and now Ares Management said today that James Kim has joined its private equity group as a partner and head of European special opportunities. Kim, who was formerly a partner and the European co-head of hybrid value at Apollo, will be based in London and will lead Ares’ special opportunities activities in Europe. The appointment bolsters Ares’ growing private equity presence in Europe, the firm said.
Private debt. In a sign that private debt may prove resilient amid rising interest rates, Antares Capital, a high-profile lender to private equity-backed mid-market companies, is seeking $4 billion to $5 billion for its second major third-party offering, Buyouts’ Kirk Falconer reported yesterday.
The target range for Antares Senior Loan Fund II was disclosed in materials prepared for Plymouth County Retirement Association. The vehicle is expected to hold a final closing later this year or in early 2023. Antares declined to comment.
As of the end of June, Antares, which is headquartered in Chicago and majority owned by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, had completed more than 136 deals. Recent examples include unitranche credit facilities for the $1.8 billion acquisition of NSM Insurance by Carlyle and the 123Dentist-Altima Dental merger backed by KKR and Peloton Capital Management.
For more, read the story.
That’s all for now. Buyouts’ Chris Witkowsky writes the Wire on Wednesdays. I’ll be back with more on Thursday.
Happy dealmaking,
MK
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