After reports emerged last week of an approaching deal, Apollo Global Management has made it official: The firm has announced its acquisition of West (NASDAQ: WSTC), a provider of communication and network infrastructure services, for $23.50 per share, equating to an enterprise value of about $5.1 billion.
That price tag seemingly represents a discount, as West’s stock was still trading above $26 on May 1 and hasn’t closed any day below the $23.50 mark since early February. By Wednesday’s close, though, the company’s shares had dropped to $23.11 apiece.
Apollo’s takeover is set to be one of the largest take-private buyouts of the year to date in the US, trailing in size only the $6.1 billion acquisition of TeamHealth completed by Blackstone in February. Overall, the frequency of public-to-private transactions may be on the wane in the US, with deal count dropping from 20 during 3Q 2016 to just seven last quarter, according to the PitchBook Platform. So far just one such deal—the purchase of Air Methods by American Securities—has been finalized during 2Q.
Article by PitchBook
