Transactions: Featured Interviews 76 The Restructuring of Metalcorp’s €140 Million Bond 80 Questel Acquires Equinox 84 Ailleron’s Agreement with ING Bank Slaski and National Cloud Operator 86 Casa & Vídeo Brasil’s Merger with Lojas Le Biscuit 88 ClearCourse Acquires Sellerdeck 90 World Bank, the Government of Singapore and IETA’s Establishment of the Climate 92 Novelis’ ABL Credit Agreement Action Data Trust We round up the past year and move into the new, with planned deals reassessed and in some cases abandoned. On the back of the new year, a wealth of analyses have emerged to show the full picture of M&A gains through 2022. As we have observed in previous entries and a review by Mondaq has now confirmed1, the past year lagged far behind 2021 in terms of global M&A, with a palpable downturn of 38.8% in deal volume from that record level. However, the slowdown does not represent a catastrophe so much as a return to form, being only 9.3% lower than 2015-2019 averages. Osborne Clarke has predicted2 a slow recovery for M&A markets in Europe, with technology, media and communications leading the way. In a major cancellation, Rupert Murdoch has called off plans to reunite his media empire through a merger of Fox and News Corp – a reversal that large investors have welcomed.3 The move was deemed “not optimal for shareholders” after internal evaluation by Fox, ending the 91-year-old billionaire’s ambitions of reunifying his media titles after being forced to split them in the wake of a phone-hacking scandal more than a decade ago. Another major deal is headed for the courtroom as billionaire Jaime Gilinski continues his battle with Colombia’s largest business alliance, with $20 billion worth of corporate assets at stake. Should Gilinski’s bid prove successful, he may create a network of crossshareholdings allowing him control over assets worth more than half the wealth of Colombia’s stock market.4 Another significant hostile takeover is developing in the US, as Emerson Electric Co has revealed a $7 billion cash offer for National Instruments Corp5 following months of unsuccessful merger negotiations. In the wake of a soundly disappointing year for IPOs, projections6 for stock market debuts in 2023 give some grounds for hope. This year may finally see the flotation of $74 billion Stripe, as well as SoftBank’s $60 billion subsidiary ARM Ltd and, and – should it overcome its regulatory struggles – TikTok may make an enormous wave in the social media landscape with a listing, with its own estimated market cap of $50 billion. Dates for each of these potential IPOs have yet to be determined, however, and whether new listings and M&A deal volumes continue to slump on a fresh wave of recession fears is yet to be seen. 1https://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/shareholders/1274926/ma-in2022-and-trends-for-20232https://www.osborneclarke.com/insights/2023-predictions-whatshorizon-us-businesses-operating-europe 3https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/news-corp-investorscheer-murdochs-decision-scrap-tie-up-with-fox-2023-01-25/ 4https://www.ft.com/content/d55cd7be-7b0b-4032-874e-b52f5837d411 5https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/emerson-makes-76-bln-bid-nicorp-2023-01-17/ 6https://www.forex.com/en/market-analysis/latest-research/upcomingipos-2023/ Mergers & Acquisitions 94 The Sale of Skillion Business Centre 95 Rubicon Partners’ Acquisition of CMD from Ideal Industries 97 Rainbow Agro’s Purchase of Exclusivas Sarabia
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