Top-5 M&A Deals This Week (May 18)
Top-5 deals this week by size (<$50 million, $50-$100 million, $100-$500 million, $500 million - $1 billion and >$1 billion)
Dealmaking never stops. Last week was no exception. I’m always scanning the M&A landscape to find the deals that interest me. Here are the top-5 from the previous week. One deal per size category: >$1 billion, $0.5-1.0 billion, $100-$500 million, $50-$100 million and <$50 million.
Deal size >$1 billion
It was a relatively quiet week for deals this big. Only 3 that I could identify. The biggest was unsurprisingly in the Canadian energy sector. Whitecap Resources closed its acquisition of Veren for $10.7 billion. With volatility in global oil and gas markets usually comes M&A in this sector. This was an all-stock deal designed to scale up both businesses. Veren shareholders received 1.05 shares of Whitecap for every Veren share they owned. The Post-Merger Integration (PMI) team has its work cut out for it, as they are expected to >$200 million in synergies and cost savings. With this acquisition, Whitecap now becomes the 7th largest oil and gas producer (and 5th largest natural gas producer) in Canada. It also becomes the 2nd largest oil producer in Canada’s province of Saskatchewan. Management expects the company to be better positioned to ride out market volatility due to its greater scale.
"I truly believe the combined company, with an enhanced excess cash flow profile, strong financial position and compelling return on capital is perfectly positioned to be more competitive and create further shareholder value." - Craig Bryksa, CEO of Veren
Deal size $500 million to $1 billion
Only 4 deals closed this week between $500 million and $1 billion. All were domestic transactions (no cross-border deals). For the most interesting deal, we go to Vietnam where Eastern Ha Noi Real Estate has acquired 100% of Saigon Glory from Bitexco Group for $617 million. Saigon Glory is the developer of the Luxury One Central HCM twin towers in central Ho Chi Minh. This is one of the more visible and ambitious real estate developments in the city. Interestingly, this deal was that it was triggered by the corporate bond market. Apparently, “irregularities” with Saigon Glory’s financial disclosures were uncovered after a prominent businesswoman was arrested for fraud. Since then, Bitexco Group has been struggling to make bond payments, and the sale of Saigon Glory was expressly to raise funds to ensure bondholders get paid. Eastern Ha Noi Real Estate was able to acquire a prized development project as a result. Since 2022, a national anti-corruption campaign has intensified and put stress on the country’s real-estate developers. For real-estate developers looking to enter Vietnam (a growing and vibrant economy in South East Asia), there may well be some bargains to be found as the corporate bond market triggers more asset sales. I’ll be keeping my eyes out.
Deal size $100 million to $500 million
There was more action in this deal size range than for the previous two, with 11 deals closed in total. The most interesting was Euronext’s acquisition of Norway’s Admincontrol for $445 million. Euronext is a Europe-wide stock exchange (like NYSE or NASDAQ for Europe). As part of their Innovate for Growth 2027 strategy, they are aiming to increase their share of SaaS subscription revenues. Admincontrol is a leading provider of corporate governance and secure collaboration software with an extensive presence in the Nordics and UK that complements Euronext’s strategy. This acquisition will strengthen Euronext’s Corporate Solutions business and more than doubles the size of their corporate governance software offerings and capabilities. There are high expectations with this deal. Admincontrol has grown at double digit rates for the last 5 years. Despite this, the deal is expected to be accretive to ROCE only after 3-5 years.
“The acquisition of Admincontrol is a major milestone in the delivery of Euronext’s “Innovate for Growth 2027” ambition to scale up our SaaS business. This transaction will improve our share of subscription-based revenue. The acquisition of Admincontrol positions Euronext Corporate Solutions as a leader in the governance SaaS space and expands our access to new markets in the Nordics where we have already expanded our presence over the years with promising growth prospects. Euronext has all the tools and the relevant network to accelerate the growth of Admincontrol’s state-of-the-art governance solutions. Euronext looks forward to welcoming Admincontrol’s talented teams to further accelerate the deployment of its strategy in Europe.” - Stephane Boujnah, CEO of Euronext
Deal size $50 million to $100 million
For this deal range we return once more to the energy sector - only this time with solar. Nextracker, a solar tracker company (the technology that allows solar panels to follow the sun) has acquired Bentek for $78 million. Bentek provides engineered, pre-assembled electrical balance of systems (eBOS) solutions for the solar market (think all the electrical components needed to build and coordinate a solar farm). The deal significantly expands Nextracker’s offerings in the solar space, and positions them to integrate their top-line solar tracker products with Bentek’s eBOS offerings. This creates much more of a “one stop shop” for solar installations.
“It is fantastic to join forces with Bentek, expanding the Nextracker platform with exceptional eBOS products and expertise…Together, we can offer fully engineered, integrated solutions that can help accelerate procurement and construction timelines and reduce installed cost, all backed by the trusted Nextracker brand. We believe that an integrated design approach can unlock synergies between the mechanical and electrical subsystems, driving enhanced customer value and creating a new and powerful solar power plant platform business model.” - Howard Wenger, President of Nextracker
Deal size <$50 million
Deals don’t have to be huge to be interesting. There is often a lot that happens in this small to mid-cap world that flies under the radar. This week’s deal of interest is Universal Digital’s acquisition of Geometric Galaxy for $9.6 million. Universal Digital has a curious background. It is formerly Minas Metals, a Canadian junior mining exploration company searching for battery metals in Brazil. I’m guessing the mining exploration turned up nothing of interest, as the company changed to Universal Digital. This new entity will invest in digital assets, businesses and private and publicly listed entities focused on blockchain, cryptocurrencies and cryptocurrency technologies. As part of this, Universal Digital has now acquired Geometric Galaxy, a British Virgin Islands company that owns and operates BullWave which is a SaaS analytics platform for crypto traders. Universal digital had acquired 19% of Geometric Galaxy as part of its business change from Minas Metals. This more recent deal sees them acquire the remaining 81% share. The deal highlights Universal Digital’s complete transformation away from being a Mining business to now being a strategic investor in the world of blockchain and crypto.