www.buyoutsnews.com April 2, 2018 | BUYOUTS | 35 1ST QUARTER DEALS the quality of business.” can potentially weather the storm of a While it’s too early to say whether Besides leveraging your platform for downturn. a function of tax-policy change, there add-ons, flexibility in terms of how you “A lot more deals are getting done appears to be a pickup in corporate dives- invest also resonates well, El-Nazer said. outside the bank market,” he said. “In titure opportunities in Q1, Simpson said. About one-third of TA’s deals are minor - a downturn, I think you want to make His team is tracking a dozen or so of ity investments. sure that the people you are putting in these situations across industries: “That’s Deal structure aside, El-Nazer added financing syndicates with are more bank- double what we were seeing a year ago.” that the best companies are those that like and have ridden through [economic] Greenip says PE will continue to out- offer phenomenal visibility into rev - cycles,” he said. perform public equity but the amount enues. In fact, across the various indus - In terms of deal type, Simpson said of work that sponsors are putting into tries in which TA invests, about 80 the market could see the return of con - their portfolio companies to get there is percent of the firm’s 2017 transactions sortium bids for $10 billion- or $20 bil - the greatest he’s ever seen. were in companies that have recurring lion-plus take-private LBOs. The bar is higher once a deal is struck, revenue, he said. Sponsors looking to large strategics Pearson said: “We feel like we have to While software companies generating for investment opportunities is a theme work a lot harder today between the day recurring revenue today are commonly already playing out in other ways. Four we sign a deal and the day we sell.” valued at a multiple of Ebitda upward of of the 10 largest announced deals in Q1 El-Nazer agreed: “We’re probably 20x, there’s a lot to be said for having were carveout transactions, according to working twice as hard to do the same that “sleep-at-night quality of revenues” PitchBook. amount of work we did 10 years ago.” in a period of time fraught with uncer - tainty, El-Nazer said. Q1 2018 deals by industry What to watch in 2018 and beyond Consumer Products/Services 184 From a debt perspective, Greenip said Industrials 112 that while most people tend to focus on High Technology 100 leverage multiples, they should also be Healthcare 70 focusing on the fixed-charge coverage Financials 48 ratio — an important indicator of a com - Retail 24 pany’s ability to pay back its financing Energy & Power 14 expenses. Media & Entertainment 13 Libor rates are also consequential, Materials 9 Simpson said. Average borrowing rates have ticked up over 100 basis points, Real Estate 7 squeezing net income, he said. Telecommunications 5 CIT’s Hudak added that investors Consumer Staples 1 should increasingly think about the best 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 syndicate structure through which they Source: PitchBook, Buyouts January 1 to March 20, 2018 10 largest announced and pending deals by U.S. Sponsors, Q1 2018 Sponsor Target Value ($Mil) Date Industry BDT Capital Partners (Byron Trott), JAB Holding Company (Olivier Dr Pepper Snapple Group (DPS) 23,000.000 01/29/18 Consumer Products/Services Goudet), Keurig Green Mountain (Robert Gamgort), Mondelez International (Dirk Van de Put) Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, GIC Private (Choo Cheen), Thomson Reuters (Financial and Risk 17,000.000 01/30/18 High Technology The Blackstone Group (Martin Brand) business) Brookfield Business Partners (Cyrus Madon), The Baupost Group Westinghouse Electric Company 4,800.000 01/04/18 Energy & Power P2 Capital Partners (Alexander Silver), Silver Lake Management Blackhawk Network Holdings (HAWK) 3,500.000 01/16/18 Consumer Products/Services (Michael Bingle) Stone Point Capital (James Carey Esq.) AmTrust Financial Services (AFSI) 2,700.000 03/01/18 Financials Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (John Krenicki) Ply Gem Industries (PGEM) 2,400.000 01/31/18 Industrials Euro Garages (Mohsin Issa), TDR Capital Kroger (convenience store business) 2,150.000 02/05/18 Retail Platinum Equity (Jacob Kotzubei) Lifescan 2,100.000 03/16/18 Healthcare Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division (Scott Lebovitz), Lucid Energy Group (Delaware Basin 1,600.000 01/08/18 Energy & Power Riverstone Holdings (Baran Tekkora) Subsidiary) Global Infrastructure Partners (Adebayo Ogunlesi) NRG Energy (renewable energy) 1,380.000 02/07/18 Consumer Products/Services Source: PitchBook, Buyouts January 1 to March 20, 2018.