Advertisement
UK markets closed
  • FTSE 100

    7,952.62
    +20.64 (+0.26%)
     
  • FTSE 250

    19,884.73
    +74.07 (+0.37%)
     
  • AIM

    743.26
    +1.15 (+0.15%)
     
  • GBP/EUR

    1.1716
    +0.0022 (+0.19%)
     
  • GBP/USD

    1.2626
    +0.0004 (+0.03%)
     
  • Bitcoin GBP

    55,430.80
    -571.72 (-1.02%)
     
  • CMC Crypto 200

    885.54
    0.00 (0.00%)
     
  • S&P 500

    5,254.35
    +5.86 (+0.11%)
     
  • DOW

    39,807.37
    +47.29 (+0.12%)
     
  • CRUDE OIL

    83.11
    -0.06 (-0.07%)
     
  • GOLD FUTURES

    2,254.80
    +16.40 (+0.73%)
     
  • NIKKEI 225

    40,369.44
    +201.37 (+0.50%)
     
  • HANG SENG

    16,541.42
    +148.58 (+0.91%)
     
  • DAX

    18,492.49
    +15.40 (+0.08%)
     
  • CAC 40

    8,205.81
    +1.00 (+0.01%)
     

EQT to enter final talks on bandage maker BSN Medical - sources

FRANKFURT, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Private equity (IOB: 0QLS.IL - news) firm BC Partners (IOB: 0QOQ.IL - news) as well as Sweden's SCA (Swiss: SCAB.SW - news) handed in final offers for German bandage maker BSN Medical, several people close to the deal said, easing pressure on owner EQT to seek listing for the company.

Final bids for the asset were due on Wednesday and came in at roughly the buyout group's expectations of 3 billion euros ($3.2 billion), these people said.

The initial public offering remains a possibility in case no deal is struck, one of the people said.

The two offers came in at about 13 times BSN's expected 2017 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of 235 million.

ADVERTISEMENT

That is roughly line with the valuation of recently listed peer Convatec, which trades at more than 13 times its expected 2017 core earnings.

EQT and BC Partners declined to comment. SCA declined to comment.

EQT had launched a so-called dual track process with a view of either selling BSN to a peer or another investor or to list it on the Frankfurt stock exchange at the beginning of the second quarter of 2017.

It had also attracted other suitors such as Germany's Freudenberg, which dropped out of the running earlier, and a Chinese group, which remains interested.

BSN, which employs about 6,000 people worldwide, was set up in 2001 as a joint venture between Germany's Beiersdorf (Amsterdam: BD6.AS - news) and Britain's Smith & Nephew (Frankfurt: 502816 - news) when the two decided to combine their wound care, fracture management, physiotherapy and compression therapy businesses.

EQT bought BSN medical, whose brands include Leukoplast plasters, in 2012 in a 1.8 billion euro deal and has expanded the business through acquisitions as part of a buy-and-build strategy to boost BSN's operations in markets including France, Brazil, South Africa and New Zealand. ($1 = 0.9454 euros) (Reporting by Arno Schuetze, Pamela Barbaglia; Editing by Edward Taylor)