Buyers are lining up for Germany-based packaging group Mauser with final bids due to be submitted on Monday, banking sources said on Friday.
The sale of Mauser by Dubai International Capital (DIC) could fetch around 1.25 billion euros ($1.73 billion), one of the banking sources said. At this price, the sale would be one of the largest asset disposals by the emirate since its debt crisis in 2009.
Mauser’s sale has attracted interest from a number of parties, with private equity firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice seen as a frontrunner. Buyout firm Ardian is also due to submit a joint bid with industry rival Technoplast, three of the sources said.
Other parties due to submit bids include Pamplona, the three sources said. One of the sources added Pamplona could submit a joint bid with alternative investment management and advisory company Citic, also adding that Platinum Equity was expected to bid.
Mauser, Ardian, CD&R, Citic, Pamplona and Technoplast were not immediately available to comment. Platinum declined to comment.
Banks are lining up debt financing packages to back a sale of Mauser totaling around 1 billion euros or 6.25 times Mauser’s approximate 154 million euro earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA).
The debt is expected to be a mix of dollars and euros, split between first and second lien leveraged loans. The debt financing is likely to be covenant-lite, a common feature in the US loan market but something which has traditionally been shunned by European institutional investors as they offer fewer protections.
Covenant lite loans have been more accepted in Europe recently with the emergence of a greater number of cross-border transactions and euro carve-outs of large dollar financings on deals.
DIC bought Mauser from JPMorgan’s buyout unit in 2007 in a deal which valued the firm at 850 million euros. Founded in 1896 in a small town in southern Germany, the company makes packaging equipment such as cans and drums for transporting medical waste and other hazardous chemicals.-Reuters
