Factbox: Dealmaking hits the rocks due to stormy markets

Franchise

01/07/2022 15:33

July 1 (Reuters) - Efforts by companies to strike merger
agreements with buyout firms are floundering in stormy markets,
with private equity struggling to raise financing for bids big
enough to satisfy shareholders and their boards.
    These are firms that have withdrawn, postponed or changed
plans of their M&A deals in recent days:   
    
    KOHL'S CORP  KSS.N 
    The U.S. department store chain called off its sale to
Vitamin Shoppe-owner Franchise Group  FRG.O  on July 1, blaming
a downturn in market conditions.
    Kohl's had entered exclusive talks with Franchise Group in
June, valuing it at nearly $8 billion. Kohl's had rejected bids
it received since January for undervaluing the company.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2YI0RF
    
    NOVARTIS  NOVN.S 
    The Swiss drugmaker is considering a spin-off of its generic
drug unit Sandoz rather than selling it to private equity firms,
Bloomberg reported on June 30, citing unnamed sources amid a
challenging macro environment.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2YH3D4
    
    JUST EAT TAKEAWAY  TKWY.AS 
    Doubts on whether Europe's largest online food deliverer
will successfully sell its U.S. Grubhub operation dragged shares
to an all-time low at the end of June, although the company said
it had not changed its strategy and funding was not in doubt.
  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2YG0P1  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nS8N2WB02C
    
    WALGREENS BOOTS ALLIANCE  WBA.O 
    The British pharma company on June 28 scrapped plans to sell
its UK pharmacy chain Boots, saying no third party was able to
make an adequate offer for the company, which had been valued at
as much as 8 billion pounds ($10 billion).
    Several sources told Reuters that lender wariness had made
raising the funds difficult for private equity bidders Apollo
Global  APO.N  and TDR. 
  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2YF2AM
    
    RECKITT BENCKISSER GROUP  RKT.L 
    The British consumer goods company might shelve a planned $7
billion sale of its infant nutrition unit due to a worsening
financing market, including lack of available funding, Bloomberg
News reported on June 29.
  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2YF2O1
    
($1 = 0.8318 pounds)

 (Compiled by Mateusz Rabiega, Patrycja Zaras, Sarah Morland and
David O'Sullivan in Gdansk; Editing by Susan Fenton)