(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These are firms that have withdrawn, postponed or changed plans of their M&A deals in recent days: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
The U.S. department store chain called off its sale to Vitamin Shoppe-owner Franchise Group 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.
NOVARTIS
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.
JUST EAT TAKEAWAY
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.
WALGREENS BOOTS ALLIANCE
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 and TDR.
RECKITT BENCKISSER GROUP
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.
($1 = 0.8318 pounds)
(Compiled by Mateusz Rabiega, Patrycja Zaras, Sarah Morland and David O’Sullivan in Gdansk; Editing by Susan Fenton)
