Candover attracts bid approach from Alberta Investment
PRIVATE equity firm Candover Investments said yesterday – after the stock market closed – that it had received an initial approach from a third party to acquire the company, after its fall from grace earlier this year.
Candover said any offer was expected to be at a price no higher than its last reported net asset value of 1,038p per share. That would value the group at around £170m.
Shares in Candover Investments closed down 4.5p yesterday at 73p.
It emerged yesterday that the approach was from the Canadian pension fund Alberta Investment Management Company (Aimco).
Candover said in March it would consider new business structures after being forced to call a halt to all new deals and letting investors withdraw their money from its flagship 2008 fund.
It said yesterday there could be no certainty as to the outcome of any bid talks, adding a further announcement would be made as appropriate.
The woes of the embattled buyout house, once seen as one of the leading lights in the European private equity industry, have been held up as an example of how the industry’s fortunes have turned down for the worse in the downturn.
Aimco is being advised by HSBC. Candover is being advised by Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Lexicon Partners, the specialist financial services boutique bank.
Candover made its first private equity investment in 1980.