Public to Private Transactions

With the growth in the importance of private equity as a source of finance in the mid-market, the ‘public-to-private’ (or P2P) – typically a takeover of a quoted company led by a private equity group – has become common.

As well as the regulatory issues that are part of a normal takeover, these transactions often have two additional levels of complexity: reliance on debt within the capital structure of the offeror, which often results in complex financing issues, and the involvement of directors and senior management of the target company with the offeror vehicle.

Where directors of the target company are involved in the takeover, there are particular commercial and regulatory considerations resulting from the inherent conflict of interest in achieving the highest price for shareholders on the one hand and paying the lowest price to acquire the company on the other.

Altium’s huge experience of both the buy-side and the sell-side of public-to-privates comes from having acted on more of these transactions than possibly any other investment bank in the mid-market. Since 1998 we have acted on more than 30 completed P2Ps.

This exceptional success rate results from the combination of first class corporate finance and M&A expertise with the insight into shareholder aspirations and expectations that comes from our close relationships with investors.