On February 07, 2007, the global Private Equity (PE) market observed the biggest ever deal as Blackstone, a (PE) firm, took over the control of Equity Office properties trust, US largest Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) for $38.9 bn, beating the Vornado Realty Trust. The deal has overshadowed the earlier record of the $33 bn buyout of HCA by an association of Bain and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) last November. The number of such high profile deals are ever-rising, thus, adding to the industry's prestige, thanks to the growing competition from outsiders as well as within the industry itself, for corporate buyouts.
According to the Thomson Financial, PE firms carried out more than $664 bn of corporate buyouts in 2006, which accounted for 18% of the global M&A volume; nearly twice as much as in 2005. The 2006 also saw multiple bids with 29% of the PE buyouts moving from a mere 4% in 2005. And during the current year till date, almost 70% of the PE buyouts had multiple bids. In fact, the data shows that the PE market has become competitive in the past two years supported by the fueling funds. "There are many more competitive bids right now, and that is because so much more money is going around," stated Robert Profusek, co-head of M&A practice at the global law firm Jones Day, in an interview to the BusinessWeek. |
