Transactions: Featured Interviews 86 Metropolitan College and IEK AKMI’s Majority Stake Sale to BC Partners 90 Adesgo’s Sale of the Seamless Business to Tefron Europe 94 Croatia’s €1.85 Billion Retail Bond Issuance 98 Lakeland Laboratories’ MBO 102 National Paints’ Raising Bid for Pachin 104 NorthEdge Backs the Management Buyout of Cezanne HR 106 Vall Companys’ Agreement to Purchase up to a 32.7% Stake in Master Agroindustrial Some of the higher-profile M&A matters of the year continue to develop, with further multi-billion-dollar deals fighting to get off the ground. The ongoing saga of Microsoft’s merger with Activision Blizzard has seen further developments following its blocking by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) last month. The tech giant has announced that it is retaining famed UK barrister Lord Pannick KC1 to represent its appeal against the CMA, and on 25 May set out its grounds for a formal challenge.2 Whether this key stumbling block to the biggest M&A deal in the video game industry is overcome (along with further legal challenges in the US and internationally) remains to be seen. Meanwhile, television station operator Tegna has announced that it is terminating its merger agreement with hedge fund Standard General.3 The transaction, which would have seen Tegna taken private in an $8.6 billion deal, hit a series of roadblocks as members of Congress spoke out against the plans and the Federal Communications Commission elected to hold a hearing on Standard General’s bid. Tegna is now planning a $300 million accelerated share repurchase program in its place.4 There may be yet more bad news on the way for mega-deals, as the FTC has sued to halt Amgen’s planned $28.3 billion deal to acquire Horizon Therapeutics, warning of “rampant consolidation in the pharmaceutical industry”5 as a growing anticonsumer threat. It is not all doom and gloom for big pharma, however, as more deals continue to emerge – including Pfizer’s head-turning announcement of its $43 billion acquisition of Seagan6, aimed at expanding the former’s presence in the cancer medication space. In IPO matters, new data has emerged to show that China’s IPO market has raised more than five times as much money as the US in 2023.7 More evidence of this was soon forthcoming, as agricultural giant Syngenta has finally progressed with its long-awaited $9 billion Chinese market listing, withdrawing from STAR Market IPO application and filing instead for a listing on the main board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange.8 Further IPO developments in the latter half of the year will be watched closely. 1https://www.lawyer-monthly.com/2023/05/activision-blizzard-hires-lordpannick-kc-in-fight-for-69-billion-microsoft-deal/ 2https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/microsoft-sets-out-activisionappeal-against-uk-regulator-2023-05-26/ 3https://www.tvtechnology.com/news/tegna-merger-agreement-withstandard-general-is-terminated 4https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230522005713/en/ TEGNA-Inc.-Announces-300-Million-Accelerated-Share-RepurchaseAgreement-and-Increases-Regular-Quarterly-Dividend-by-20-FollowingTermination-of-Merger-Agreement-with-Standard-General 5https://www.ft.com/content/bbe06477-22e6-4d46-a4c2-03964a2f8f78 6https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-detail/pfizerinvests-43-billion-battle-cancer 7https://www.ft.com/content/e5a43d1d-b62c-4428-b16f-c1fe6b4fb9d9 8https://www.syngentagroup.com/en/media/syngenta-news/year/2023/ syngenta-group-moves-forward-its-ipo-plans Mergers & Acquisitions 108 Barrett Steel Acquires the Majority of Aartee Bright Bar 109 Jakala’s Acquisition of FFW 110 The Capital Increase of the Ci Sta Pizzerias 111 The Purchase of Hunsrück Airport Hahn Funds & Investments 113 Bocel’s Investment in Grupo Solufi
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