A Dubai-based investor group led by Emaar Properties PJSC chairman Mohamed Alabbar failed in its attempt to buy a 69 percent stake in Middle Eastern fast-food operator Kuwait Food Co, the latest twist in an on-off sale process stretching back at least two years.
“A final agreement has not been reached between Al Khair and the buyer, Adeptio LLC, for all of Al Khair’s shares in Americana,” Al Khair National for Stocks and Real Estate LLC said in an e-mailed statement on Sunday. “Therefore, the two sides have agreed to end negotiations.”
An Adeptio spokesman confirmed that the talks had ended, but neither side gave a reason for the breakdown.
Adeptio signed an initial accord in February to buy the stake in Americana, as Kuwait Food is known, and had planned to start a mandatory takeover offer under local stock exchange rules.
The deal had culminated a sale process in which Kuwait’s al-Kharafi family had tested investor interest in the company without concluding a deal.
Singapore’s Temasek Holdings Pte and Saudi Arabia’s Savola Group teamed up to bid last year, while KKR & Co and CVC Capital Partners Ltd made an offer in 2014, people with knowledge of the matter said at the time.
BRF SA, the Brazilian food maker, had also held talks with the company, its chairman said in an interview in 2014.
A 69 percent stake in Americana is worth about 649 million Kuwaiti dinars (US$2.1 billion) at current market prices, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Americana shares have risen 17 percent since the beginning of the year, giving the company a market capitalization of about US$3.1 billion.
The stake was worth US$1.8 billion when the bid was made public in February.
Kuwait’s stock exchange was closed when Al Khair said the talks had ended and shares had been suspended on Sunday morning pending an announcement.
Banks, including Standard Chartered PLC, Credit Suisse Group AG and National Bank of Abu Dhabi PJSC, had committed US$1.5 billion to Adeptio to fund the Americana purchase, bankers with knowledge of the deal said in March.
Citigroup Inc dropped out of the group of banks financing the deal, two people familiar with the matter said in April.
Americana is the franchise operator of restaurants such as KFC, TGI Friday’s and Pizza Hut in the Middle East and North Africa.
It also produces California Garden beans and Farm Frites frozen vegetables.
NEW MARKET: The partnership opens up India to the Dutch company, which already has a strong hold in the semiconductor market of South Korea, Taiwan and China ASML Holding NV entered into a partnership agreement with Tata Electronics Pvt Ltd aimed at ramping up India’s goal to develop domestic chip-manufacturing capabilities. The Dutch company’s technology would help power Tata Electronics’ planned 300 millimeter (mm) semiconductor foundry in Gujarat, according to a joint statement from the two companies on Saturday. The signing of a memorandum of understanding coincides with a visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Netherlands, which is looking to deepen bilateral relations with New Delhi. ASML, whose top customers include Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co, makes lithography machines that can print
Tokyo Electron's Taiwan unit today said in a written response that it respects the judicial process, takes the court ruling seriously and would not appeal in the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) trade secrets case. Last month, a court fined the Taiwan unit of Japan's Tokyo Electron NT$150 million (US$4.74 million) in a case involving trade secrets related to TSMC's sensitive chip technology.
ROUGH RECORDS: Bonds in Japan, as well is in New Zealand, Australia and the US, are seeing the effects of a nervy market as stock exchanges across Asia edge down A deepening slump in Japanese government bonds added fuel to the selloff in global debt markets as rising oil prices stoked inflation fears and pushed yields to multi-decade highs. Japan’s 30-year yield yesterday surged as much as 20 basis points to the highest level since the tenor’s debut in 1999, before paring some of the move. Shorter-maturity Japanese debt was also under pressure, underscored by weak demand at a sale of five-year notes that offered a record-high coupon of 2 percent. Concerns over inflation and government spending rippling through markets including the US, Australia and New Zealand are being amplified in Japan,
Wall Street is licking its chops over an unprecedented slate of massive initial public offerings (IPOs) set to arrive in the coming months, beginning with Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) next month. That is expected to be followed by artificial intelligence (AI) rivals OpenAI and Anthropic PBC. The trio of mega listings, each eyeing valuations around US$1 trillion or more, constitutes a heady period of elevated risk and reward. SpaceX is targeting an IPO that would raise up to US$80 billion — about double the funds generated from all IPOs last year. OpenAI and Anthropic are eyeing IPOs raising US$60 billion. “We’re
RSS