Login
Childcare centre operator acquired
Two firms advised on the acquisition of Affinity Education Group by private equity firm Anchorage.
Lara Bullock
Firms: Minter Ellison (Anchorage Capital Partners), Corrs Chambers Westgarth (Affinity Education Group)
To continue reading the rest of this article, please log in.
Create free account to get unlimited news articles and more!
Deal: Anchorage acquired Affinity Education
Value: $258 million
Area: M&A
Key players: The Minter Ellison team was led by partner Ricky Casali (pictured), and included partners Costas Condoleon, John Mosley, Stewart Robertson, David Crane and Jakob Paartalu.
Deal significance:
Private equity firm Anchorage Capital Partners acquired ASX-listed childcare centre operator Affinity Education Group by scheme of arrangement.
Queensland-based Affinity owns and operates a portfolio of 165 early childhood learning centres across Australia, holding around 12,000 places for children and employing around 3,600 staff.
Affinity had been a target of both an on-market cash bid and an off-market scrip bid by rival childcare provider G8 Education Limited earlier this year after a sharemarket raid in which G8 built a 19.9 per cent stake, according to a release from Minter Ellison.
G8 subsequently abandoned its pursuit of Affinity following a successful application to the Takeovers Panel by Affinity and a declaration of unacceptable circumstances.
Anchorage then pursued a scheme of arrangement, which was approved by 99.91 per cent of Affinity's shareholders.
Minter Ellison lead partner Ricky Casali said: “This transaction demonstrates how private equity fund buyers can execute complex public market transactions in circumstances where an aggressive competing suitor holds a blocking stake.”
