EQT and others in the data room have wrapped up site trips and management meetings, and are starting to squeeze lending groups and ready offers for their respective investment committees.
Ixom, owned by Singapore’s Keppel, is understood to have made one final effort to get bidders to bump their offers, talking up the group’s recent earnings.
Having already been told Ixom was on track for an above plan EBITDA result for FY22 (the year ended September 30) of about $180 million, they’ve now been told to think about EBITDA worth $190 million-plus in FY23.
Analysts reckon similar businesses have traded for 12 to 13-times EBITDA in the past. Anything close to that multiple would see a $2 billion-plus result at Ixom.
CBA and JPMorgan offered a staple debt package to EQT and other bidders earlier in the process, said to be worth in excess of $1 billion. While Keppel knows bidders are likely to supply their own debt, they’ll have the staple in front of banks as something to beat.
Should Ixom go to EQT or another financial buyer, it would be the third sale to such an investor in the past decade. Ixom was formerly owned by Orica before it was sold to Blackstone and then Keppel.
