We mentioned last week Apollo’s $1.8 billion financing for New Media Investment Group’s acquisition of Gannett & Co. It seemed like one of the largest non-bank buy-out deals ever. A banker friend of
The Lead Left
agreed:
“You remember Ares’
Qlik
deal in 2016.” she said. “That was a shock to the market when it happened. While there have been a number of larger buyouts led by the non-banks, the $1 billion-plus transactions have been fewer than some expected.”
Can you point to others? “Earlier this year there was a UK deal for the
Daisy Group
, also led by Ares,” she told us. “That was £1 billion, buying out a minority partner.” Daisy Group is in the telecom services space.
Refinitiv’s Leela Parker nicely summarized the issue in a note last week [
link
]:
“Direct lenders with deep pockets and increasing scale are stepping up to provide billion dollar-plus commitments to fund large sized mergers and acquisitions,”...
From the Editor: The Lead Left will be on its annual August break and will return the week of Sept 2. Enjoy the rest of your summer!
