Private equity firm 3i offers to buy out ferry line co-owner
PRIVATE equity investor 3i has offered to buy the shares in Scandlines it does not already own, after an attempt to find a buyer for the ferry group failed earlier this summer, it said in a statement yesterday.
3i’s bid for the 50 per cent stake held by co-owner Allianz Capital Partners (ACP) values Scandlines at more than the €1.3bn (£1.09bn) that buyout group TPG offered for the whole company, a source familiar with the transaction said.
Separately, 3i and ACP said that they were jointly working on a refinancing of the existing debt facilities, confirming what several people familiar with the process had said earlier this week.
Sources had said the private equity owners are set to strike a deal with banks in coming weeks to refinance around €1bn in loans.
Private equity firms 3i and Allianz Capital Partners (ACP) bought Scandlines for €1.5bn at the peak of the buyout boom in 2007, backed with €1.28bn of debt, according to Thomson Reuters data.
Another minority investor in the deal was bought out in 2010.
Shares in 3i, which is listed on the FTSE 250 and led by chief executive Simon Borrows, fell 0.5 per cent in London yesterday to close at 367.7p.