A tussle is breaking out over
Aeroflex Inc. The
aerospace components maker, which in March agreed to be purchased by private
equity firms
General
Atlantic LLC and
Francisco
Partners for
$1
billion in cash, said Thursday afternoon that
Veritas
Capital has entered a rival
bid
for the company. Under that offer, Aeroflex shareholders would get a cash
dividend of $14 per share and retain 21.2% of the company’s common equity.
Once upon a time, about 15 minutes ago, liquidity-fattened PE players took
targets out at will, while mostly staying out of each other’s way in notching
up one megadeal after another. No more. As it gets harder to generate fat
returns on these transactions, competition is flaring among buyout players
over the best acquisitions. PE skirmishes are breaking out like hives,
including recent clashes over
Alliance
Boots plc,
EGL
Inc.,
Genesis
Healthcare Corp.
and
J Sainsbury plc. —Alain Sherter
See
Aeroflex press release
See
story on Aeroflex from TheDeal.com
See
story on EGL from TheDeal.com
See
story on Genesis Healthcare from TheDeal.com
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