Hostile and Friendly Takeovers on the Rise Again in a Reinvigorated M&A Market - Seite 2

For many months, shares of Petroteq on the Canadian Exchange have ceased trading. However, in the USA, investors can continue to trade shares under the OTC symbol PQEFF, in a form of merger arbitrage trading.

Now with less than a week to go before the April 14, 2022 deadline, shares of PQEFF continue to trading at ~US$0.39 as of April 11, 2022. This means there's still a near 50% premium left available for those who follow through offering their shares to the buyer through the official takeover offer website PetroTeqoffer.com.

The leveraged buyout market is soaring again, as evidenced by the $6.9-billion takeover of cyber security group SailPoint Technologies Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:SAIL) by Thoma Bravo. As per the deal, the US private equity group is buying the cyber security company at a price of $65.25 per share, which is a 31.5% premium to SailPoint's closing share price on the preceding Friday, and a premium of 48% to its 90-day volume-weighted average price (VWAP).

"This transaction delivers significant immediate cash value to our stockholders and maximizes the value of their shares," said Mark McClain, CEO and Founder, SailPoint. "The transaction will also allow us to pursue our long-term growth trajectory with greater flexibility and effectiveness to support our customers, expand our markets, and accelerate innovation in identity security with the backing of a strong financial partner with deep sector expertise."

Shares of the Texas-based SailPoint surged to nearly close the gap, rising to more than $64 from $49.59 upon the first day of trading after the announcement was made official.

The M&A market could further explode, in what could become the year's biggest deal, the Benetton family with Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) are nearing a takeover offer for Italian infrastructure giant Atlantia SpA. According to data compiled by Bloomberg, Atlantia has a value of almost 65 billion euros ($71 billion) including debt. This means any takeover would be the biggest of the year so far, and would also rank as one of the biggest infrastructure deals of all time. 

The Benettons already currently own approximately one third of Atlantia's shares. Atlantia's minority shareholders, Singapore sovereign fund GIC Pte. and Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Torino, are expected to invest in a new company that the suitors plan to set up for the deal.