A record-setting bond issuance, the largest IPO in decades, and across-border health care takeover highlight 2018’s top deals.
March 16, 2018 was a tense day on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange when Siemens’ initial public offering (IPO) of 15% of its health care subsidiary, Healthineers, was set to trade. It was to be the largest IPO in Germany since 2000 and is Global Finance’s Equity Deal of the Year.
However, a glitch in the bourse’s electronic trading platform delayed trading by more than an hour. When trading did resume, the stock price, at €29.10 ($35.81) per share, came in almost at the dead center of Siemens’ initial guidance range, raising $5.2 billion. “I think it is a very good and fair price to go to marketplace,” Siemens CEO Joe Kaeser, attending the World Economic Forum on Latin America, told the Financial Times that same day. “I will be a very satisfied 85% shareholder.”
The IPO was designed to help Siemens Healthineers fund future acquisitions and investments. It was also a component of Vision 2020+, a plan the company unveiled last summer, to streamline management, refocusing Siemens on industrial digital technology and automation as well as health care.
Debt Deal of the Year is Saudi Arabia’s triple-tranche bond issuance. At $11 billion, the April 2018 dollar bond offering ranked as the largest issuance by a sovereign and the largest emerging-markets bond transaction of 2018—until Qatar topped it with a $12 billion issuance two days later. Saudi Arabia started selling dollar bonds after the plunge in oil prices less than two years ago, and has become one of the biggest emerging-markets issuers, raising $21.5 billion in 2017, according to Bloomberg. Locked in a regional dispute with Qatar at the time, the kingdom moved quickly—no roadshow—to get to market ahead of its rival.
M&A Deal of the Year goes to IHH Healthcare’s July purchase of a controlling stake in Fortis Healthcare. The dramatic takeover of Fortis, an Indian hospital network, by Malaysia’s IHH—after false starts and a high-profile bidding war—was the largest ever M&A transaction in India’s health care services sector. Cash-strapped Fortis operates 34 hospitals across India and overseas markets. In fiscal 2018, the hospital provided service to more than 2.5 million patients. “The intention of the Fortis acquisition is to expand the footprint of IHH in India, as it is the key market after Malaysia, Turkey and Singapore for us,” Tan See Leng, managing director and CEO of IHH, said at the time of the purchase.
The Commonwealth of Australia’s purchase of Snowy Hydro from the provinces of New South Wales and Victoria for $4.5 billion wins Infrastructure Deal of the Year. In buying Snowy Hydro, an electricity generation and retail business, the federal government became sole owner, paving the way for planned expansion of capacity and improved storage. The agreement requires the provinces to spend their proceeds on “productive infrastructure,” especially road and rail projects such as the Melbourne Metro.
Then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull noted that the deal builds on prior energy-sector reforms “to ensure reliable and affordable energy for businesses and households.”
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DEALS OF THE YEAR 2019 |
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Equity Deal of the Year
Siemens Healthineers IPO
Financial Advisers: Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs served as joint global coordinators. Joint bookrunners also include BNP Paribas, BofA Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and UBS Investment Bank. Berenberg, Commerzbank, HSBC, Jefferies, Nordea, RBC and UniCredit have been appointed as Co-Lead Managers.
M&A Deal of the Year
IHH Healthcare’s Purchase of a Controlling Stake In Fortis Healthcare
Financial Advisers: Standard Chartered Bank and Arpwood Capital advised Fortis. Indian law firm Khaitan & Co. and Citi advised IHH.
Infrastructure Deal of the Year
The Commonwealth of Australia’s Purchase of Snowy Hydro From the Provinces of New South Wales and Victoria for A$6.2 billion (US$4.5 billion)
Financial Advisers: Herbert Smith Freehills and UBS for New South Wales; Lazard and King Wood Mallesons for the Commonwealth; Deutsche Bank and Ashurst for Victoria.
Debt Deal of the year
Saudi Arabia’s Triple Tranche Dollar Bond
Financial Advisers: Citi, GIB Capital, Goldman Sachs International, HSBC and Morgan Stanley were global coordinators. Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group worked as joint lead managers.
