MBK scraps plan to buy Japan’s Accordia Golf: Reuters

Seoul-based private equity firm MBK Partners has scrapped a plan to buy Japanese golf course operator Accordia Golf Co after the value of the company surged in recent weeks, sources with direct knowledge of the matter have told Thomson Reuters LPC.

Shares in Accordia tumbled 12 percent in early Monday trade, giving up gains made since news of deal first emerged last month.
In a potential deal that valued Accordia at up to 160 billion yen ($1.6 billion), MBK was working with about 20 financial institutions to obtain 75 billion yen in seven year senior loans for the acquisition, Thomson Reuters LPC reported previously.

The buyout firm was planning to gain an additional 35 billion yen in mezzanine financing and was expected to invest 50 billion yen in equity, sources had previously said.

Sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media about the plan.

Representatives for Accordia and MBK declined to comment when contacted by Thomson Reuters LPC.

Accordia was set up by Goldman Sachs Group after it bought golf course businesses in Japan that went bankrupt after the country’s sharp economic downturn in the early 1990s.

Goldman took the company public in 2006, selling its last holding in Accordia in 2011.