Tycoons line up to take their unloved companies private

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[LONDON] Move over, private equity: There are some new buyers in town, and they know their targets better than anyone. Read more at The Business Times.

Mr Son, the chairman of SoftBank Group, is revisiting the idea of a management buyout of the Japanese conglomerate, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The deliberations reflect continued frustration at the gap between the company's US$126 billion market capitalisation and the value of its sprawling investment portfolio. On Friday, Mr Drahi offered 2.5 billion euros to buy the shares he doesn't already own in telecommunications provider Altice Europe.

The activity comes less than two weeks after German startup factory Rocket Internet announced plans to withdraw its shares from the Frankfurt and Luxembourg bourses. The company, backed by the billionaire Samwer brothers, said a stock-market listing is no longer the best way to raise money and it can rely on private funding for future expansion.

Wealthy individuals are pursuing these deals at a time when overall dealmaking activity remains in the doldrums, with the value of mergers and acquisitions down 33 per cent in 2020, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Private equity firms, the traditional buyers for out-of-favour assets, have largely stayed on the sidelines: Investments have fallen 15 per cent this year despite record amounts of dry powder.

In recent months, Hong Kong property magnate Peter Woo completed a privatisation of Wheelock & Co, one of the city's largest developers, after offering investors a 52 per cent premium. The century-old Li & Fung, the world's biggest consumer-goods supplier, was also delisted following a buyout bid from its founding family.

"It makes financial sense now to look at going private if your stock prices are trading lower," UBS's Ms Toledano-Koutsouris said."Staying private gives you more flexibility in executing your plans, and more runway to do it."For daily updates on weekdays and specially selected content for the weekend. Subscribe to

 

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