Public-To-Private Takeovers — Aligning The Planets

The private equity phenomenon has received an enormous amount of attention in the past six months in Australia. It seems that hardly a day goes by when there is not media speculation of a privaty equity-driven transaction affecting a well-known Australian business. The public’s imagination has been captured by a handful of very significant public equity proposals including the KKR lead consortium proposal for Coles Myer and the recent announcement made by Qantas about a proposal by a Macquarie lead consortium.

However, when the actual transactions are considered, private equity takeovers remain a rarity in Australia. As this article attempts to demonstrate, in order for a public equity proposal to lead to a successful takeover transaction, various significant factors need to be aligned.