3i offers to buy remaining stake of Scandlines – Reuters

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, writes Reuters. 3i’s bid for the 50 percent stake held by co-owner Allianz Capital Partners (ACP) values Scandlines at more than the 1.3 billion euros ($1.7 billion) that buyout group TPG offered for the whole company, writes Reuters.

Reuters – 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 on Thursday.

3i’s bid for the 50 percent stake held by co-owner Allianz Capital Partners (ACP) values Scandlines at more than the 1.3 billion euros ($1.7 billion) 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 told Reuters earlier this week.

Sources had said the private equity owners are set to strike a deal with banks in coming weeks to refinance around 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) in loans.

Private equity firms 3i and Allianz Capital Partners (ACP) bought Scandlines for 1.5 billion euros at the peak of the buyout boom in 2007, backed with 1.28 billion euros of debt, according to Thomson Reuters LPC data.

Another minority investor in the deal was bought out in 2010.