Andrea Bonomi‘s private equity fund Investindustrial prepares a counter-bid on Club Mediterrranée teaming up with US private equity giant Kkr, the French press wrote during last weekend.
A counter-bid might be launched by November 13th as the French law admits counter-offers till 5 working days before the end of the 22 euro per share current bid. The latter iis the one that Chinese conglomerate Fosun International launched last October together with French privat equity fund Ardian and touristic operatos U-tour (Chinese) e Docas Investimenos (Brasilian)  through Gallion Invest II investment veichle, together with Portuguese insurance company  Fidelidade, which is controlled by Fosun (see a previous post by BeBeez). Fosun’s bid started last October 17th and is due to end next November 20th.
The latter was in turn a counter-bid on a previous 21 euro per share takeover bid by Investindustrial through Global Resorts investment veichle (see a previous post by BeBeez). And that in turn was a counter-bid on a previous 17.50 euro per share offer launched by Fosun and Ardian through Gallion Invest veichle last Spring (see a previous post by BeBeez).
Kkr and Investindustrial know each other very well as the two private equity teams have been working together for a long time on two deals. The two funds invested together in the helicopter emergency transport services company Avincis (50.1% Investindustrial and 49,9% Kkr) and then sold it last March to the British engineering group Babcock International (see a previous post by BeBeez). Moreover the two funds are still partners in the shareholders’ capital of  Spanish PortAventura, the third biggest theme park in Europe (in December 2013 Investindustrial sold a 49.9% stake in PortAventura’s capital to Kkr, download here the press release).
And PortAventura’s management was partecipating the previous counter-bid by Investindsutrial together with other partners reaching a total of 10% in Global Resorts’ capital (the Southafrican  Sol Kerzner and the Brasilian Gp Investments).
The market bets on a counter-bid which might price Club Med til 23.75 euro per share, which was a maximum price the stock touched yesterday morning at the Paris Stock Exchange. Club Med’s stock then closed at 23.30 euro per share, gaining 3.6% from last Friday November 7th.
Fosun’s 22 euro per share bid evaluate Club Med’s equity 839 million euros. Previous bid by Investiundustrial was for a 790 million euros equity value at 22 euro per share.
