Transactions: Featured Interviews 84 LATAM Airlines Leaves Chapter 11 88 MTN Nigeria Communications PIc’s €100 Million Financing Round 92 The Herd Group Moves to Employee Ownership 96 Beta Group Acquires Helvi 98 Enact Acquires SEA Transport 100 Gap Personnel Group Acquires a 60% Stake in Absolute Solutions Group 102 Warsteiner Acquires a Stake in Hye February pulled noticeably ahead of January in M&A, seeing multiple billion-dollar acquisitions announced, completed or receiving regulatory nods – particularly in the healthcare sector. In one of the most significant February moves, pharmaceutical giant CVS Health announced its intent to buy primary care provider Oak Street Health for $39 per share1, totalling around $10.6 billion in purchased share capital. The deal, which remains subject to regulatory approval, is expected to close this year. 22 February also saw Amazon’s announcement that its $3.9 billion takeover of One Medical has been completed2, marking the eCommerce staple’s biggest move into the healthcare sector to date. The news broke one week after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it would not oppose the purchase. Australia-based start-up Recharge Industries has bought defunct battery maker Britishvolt out of insolvency3 after outbidding its rivals. Britishvolt’s £3.8 billion project to build a battery ‘gigafactory’ in Northumberland, which ultimately sunk the company when it ran out of money, has been revived by the buyer. Plans have also been made to establish a similar Australian plant in the gown of Geelong, near Melbourne. The FTC announced that it was ending4 its effort to prevent Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc from acquiring virtual reality content maker Within Unlimited for around $400 million. Meanwhile, a blow was dealt to crypto firm Binance as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and New York’s top financial regulator opposed the exchange platform’s $1 billion purchase of bankrupt crypto lender Voyager.5 The move, which cited potential violations of laws concerning the offer and sale of securities, comes as the latest in a string of regulatory moves against crypto firms. Finally, the IPO market continued to drag its heels throughout the month, with only 23 IPOs appearing on the US stock market in February – representing a downturn of 65.15% year-on-year when compared to February 2022’s 66 IPOs.6 There was, however, a noted week-on-week increase in IPO volumes, with the week beginning 13 February featuring the likes of Nextracker Inc’s $638 million offering among others that contributed to a total volume of around $1.17 billion.7 Whether this represents an anomaly or returning hope for the IPO market remains to be seen. 1https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/cvs-buys-primary-care-provideroak-street-for-10-6-billion 2https://www.forbes.com/sites/qai/2023/02/23/amazon-completes-39bnone-medical-acquisition-after-ftcs-antitrust-challenge-times-out/ 3https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64754879 4https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-formally-ends-fight-against-metaspurchase-vr-content-maker-2023-02-24/ 5https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/23/23612342/binance-voyager-secnydfs-crypto-securities-law 6https://stockanalysis.com/ipos/2023/ 7https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/us-ipo-pick-up-offers-hopemarket-re-open-2023-02-17/ Mergers & Acquisitions 104 Croeso Pubs Acquires The Dock 105 Seasons Leisure Division’s Sale of Rights in the ‘Kfar Hayam’ Hotel 106 The Sale of Pallacanestro Trieste to CSG 107 Xynergy Groupe SAS’ Acquisition of a Majority Interest in Jane Plan 108 Palletforce Acquires Dobbs Logistics 109 The Establishment of IDA – Italian Datacenter Association 110 Salini Immobilier’s First LBO Funds & Investments 111 ITM Communications Secures Investment from Aliter Capital
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