Buyout group pays €2.1bn for PAI’s Spie
A GROUP led by Clayton Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) has agreed to buy French engineering group Spie in a deal valuing it at €2.1bn (£1.8bn), in the biggest French leveraged buyout (LBO) since the 2008 financial crisis.
French private equity group PAI Partners, which said in March it was considering a possible sale of the electrical and mechanical engineering firm, confirmed a deal to sell it to a group also including a unit of French insurer AXA and Canada’s Caisse des Depots du Quebec.
More than half the deal’s value, or €1.3bn, was financed by debt, sources said. CD&R provided about €400m of equity.
The deal is the biggest of a recent string of private equity investments in France and is the latest in a series of European LBOs bolstered by the recovery of financing markets after the 2008 financial crisis.
Other recent deals include CVC Partners’ purchase of a majority stake in French rail equipment Delachaux and the purchase of upscale shoemaker Jimmy Choo by luxury goods group Labelux.
Spie said in a statement the CD&R deal was one of several indications of interest it received and would be positive for the company’s prospects, because of an employee share ownership scheme that would link pay to performance.
The new owners plan to take the company public in about three years after planned bolt-on acquisitions in northern Europe, said a person familiar with the matter.
Spie chief executive Gauthier Louette (pictured) said in March he favoured an IPO for the company in the long run.