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Bidders Beware

By Brad B. Erens and Mark G. Douglas
August 29, 2007

The aggregate value of private equity acquisitions worldwide in 2006 exceeded $660 billion. If this number seems mind-boggling, consider that this record-breaking volume of transactions appears well on the way to being eclipsed in 2007. Even with corporate financing for leveraged buyouts harder to come by as a consequence of the sub-prime mortgage fallout, there is, by some estimates, $300 billion sitting globally in private-equity funds.

Already on tap or completed in 2007: a $32 billion takeover of energy company TXU Corp. by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (soon to go public) and Texas Pacific Group; Blackstone Real Estate Advisors' acquisition of Equity Office Property Trust, a national network of office buildings, in a transaction valued at up to $38.7 billion (the largest private equity buyout of all time); the $7.4 billion acquisition announced on May 14, 2007 of an 80.1% stake in Daimler Chrysler and its related financial services business by Cerberus Capital Management; the acquisition announced on June 30, 2007 of Bell Canada by Ontario Teachers Pension Plan, Providence Equity Partners and Madison Dearborn Partners LLC for $48.8 billion in the largest leveraged buyout ever; and most recently, newly public Blackstone Group's $26 billion dollar offer for Hilton Hotels. More deals are on the way.

Private Equity Transactions

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