Delaware judge slams BarCap
A Delaware judge yesterday slammed the dual role of Barclays Capital in the takeover of Del Monte Foods by a private equity consortium led by KKR. The judge, which delayed the shareholder vote on the takeover by 20 days, criticised Barcap, saying the bank wanted to gain fees on both the sell side and buy side of the deal. “Barclays secretly and selfishly manipulated the sale process to engineer a transaction that would permit Barclays to obtain lucrative buy-side financing fees,” the judge wrote. Barclays said it “strongly disagrees with characterisations that are based on an incomplete factual record.” The bank said it contacted 53 potential buyers “in an extensive, robust, and public sale that yielded no higher price.”