The European University, the Babel technology group either the waste giant Urbaser. A good part of the Spanish companies that have enjoyed years of growth have attracted the attention of international private capital managers and sovereign funds of Arab countries, according to data compiled from closed and ongoing transactions by elEconomista.es.
The information reveals a particular appetite of these investors for certain sectors. Education is undoubtedly part of this, with the takeover of the European University by the Swedish fund EQT. The transaction, signed for 2.2 billion euros and at record valuations, opened the door to consideration of other large funds with similar stakes and encouraged further deals. So, months later Swiss fund Jacobs acquires professional training platform Ilerna for almost 400 million, while the Wendel fund took half of the Globeducate school platform, valuing the project at around 2 billion (it allocated 615 million in capital).
The energy sector also received much of the attention during the almost ten months of the course, in this case with large sovereign wealth funds bidding harder on energy companies’ portfolios of renewable projects. Masdar, the UAE’s investment arm, has taken a giant step into Spain with two significant transactions in just three months: purchasing 49% of a 2 GW solar portfolio from Endesa as part of the project said Ra1, for a period of one year. on the one hand, and the purchase of Saeta Yield from Brookfield for 1.2 billion euros, on the other hand. The Chinese giant CTG, which also made an offer for these assets, is about to finalize the purchase of Mula, the solar “megapark” located in Murcia and It belongs to the Northleaf fund.
The third favorite sector is technology, which recorded what constitutes the largest private equity transaction of the year so far: the purchase of Idealista. The real estate portal changes hands and becomes the property of Cinven for 2.9 billion euros. Other transactions are still in progress, such as that of the Babel group, in which Mubadalaa sovereign fund known in Spain for being one of the owners of Cepsa, made a strong offer and beat the others funds such as Stirling, Towerbrook or PAI Partners.
The last of the privileged sectors is that of health. Although none of these operations have materialized, the pharmaceutical industry is awaiting two major operations. The main one is the possible takeover bid that the Canadian giant Brookfield is studying for Grifols. in cooperation with the owning family.
The operation, as it appears, could amount to 9 billion euros. Another listed company that has attracted the attention of private equity funds is Rovi, but in this case only for one of its divisions, third party manufacturing (CDMO).. This “carve-out”, like the sale of business divisions that are separated to be transferred because they are not considered strategic, is known, It could be signed for 3 billion euros and has CVC as the main candidate, after leaving behind another fund like Permira..
Sum of forces
The battery of operations by international funds has given way this year to alliances and struggles for certain assets. The main one was carried out by the certification company Applus, through which a consortium of funds, Amber (I Squared and TDR), beat another, Apollo, by the minimum in an acquisition war with some new features to date. The operation was signed for around 1.8 billion euros. Another consortium could be formed to buy Urbaser. The waste giant hits the market in the coming weeks for between 5 and 6 billion and it is under the radar of some of the aforementioned investors, besides Ardian or Blackstone. The value to which its owner, Platinum, aspires (5 billion euros), suggests an alliance between some of the interested parties to finance the operation.
