‘Bidders for Landis+Gyr narrows to 2’
LONDON/FRANKFURT: The field of prospective bidders for Japanese conglomerate Toshiba Corp’s Swiss-based smart meter group Landis+Gyr has narrowed to two, said three banking sources on Monday.
The two — Goldman Sachs Group Inc’s private equity arm and Canada’s Onex Corp — were undertaking due diligence checks, said the sources.
A consortium of buyout firm CVC Capital Partners and Hitachi Ltd had withdrawn its offer, said the sources.
A first round of bids for Landis+Gyr, for which bankers are preparing debt packages of around US$1 billion (RM4.29 billion) or five to six times its US$200 million earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, closed in May and binding offers are expected next month.
Toshiba is preparing for an initial public offering of Landis if final bids fall short of its expectations, as the Japanese firm scrambles to raise funds to cover massive losses at United States nuclear unit Westinghouse.