Every month, we spotlight M&A transactions to help us decipher sector trends. Here are the transactions we have selected for April:
- SES, the Luxembourg-based space giant, announces the acquisition of US competitor Intelsat for €2.8 billion. This acquisition consolidates SES’s position in the satellite market, taking its portfolio to 126 satellites in various orbits. The new entity targets an adjusted EBITDA of €1.8 billion by December 2024.
- Batisanté acquires a significant stake in CForClean, a Luxembourg-based cleaning specialist with over 330 employees. This transaction enables Batisanté, a French specialist in the protection of buildings and their occupants, to strengthen its presence in the Luxembourg cleaning market.
- Hootsuite, the Canadian leader in social media intelligence with sales of $300 million, announces the acquisition of Talkwalker, a Luxembourg-based company specializing in social network monitoring. Founded in 2009, Talkwalker had sales of €35.5 million by 2021, the date of its last filed financial statements.
- Dutch bus manufacturerVDL(sales €5.8 billion) and German trailer manufacturer Schmitz Cargobull(sales €2.6 billion) each take over a division of Van Hool. VDL takes over the bus division, while Schmitz Cargobull takes over the commercial vehicle division. The bankruptcy of Belgian bus manufacturer Van Hool on April 8 threatened 1,500 jobs.
- bpost, the Belgian postal services operator, acquires Staci, a French logistics group with sales of €770 million. The acquisition values Staci at €1.3 billion, representing a multiple of 12x EBITDA. This acquisition is part of bpost’s transformation strategy initiated in 2017 with the acquisition of US-based Radial. Private equity fund Ardian, Staci’s outgoing majority shareholder, has managed to double the company’s valuation since taking a stake in 2019.
- CVC Capital Partners, one of the world’s largest private equity funds, has successfully completed its IPO. By listing on the Amsterdam stock exchange on April 26, the company achieved the largest IPO in the history of European private equity, with a market capitalization of over €17 billion.
Sources: S&P Capital IQ Pro, Capital Finance, Paperjam, L’Echo, Les Echos
#M&A #Mergers & Acquisitions #Market trends #Corporate strategy #Luxembourg #Belgium #France
