Marsh & McLennan working on GBP 800m takeover bid for Towergate, Goldman Sachs advising
Marsh & McLennan, a listed New York City-based insurance group, is working on a takeover offer for the UK-based insurance broker Towergate, The Sunday Times reported. The newspaper cited sources close to the situation who said March is thought to be thinking about offering up to GBP 800m (EUR 1.01bn) for Towergate, which put itself on the market in November.
The investment bank Goldman Sachs is advising Marsh, the article said. An offer at GBP 800m would wipe out the equity shareholdings of the company’s owners as well as the debt held by the company’s lenders, the item added.
Advent, a private equity group, acquired Towergate in 2011, the report noted.
A group of Towergate’s creditors that hold GBP 715m of the company’s secured bonds has hired the investment bank Moelis as an adviser, the newspaper said. Lloyds Banking Group is one of those creditors, the article added.
A group of Towergate’s lower ranking creditors, led by Highbridge and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR), has hired Houlihan Lokey as an adviser, according to the newspaper.
Towergate’s bondholders are believed to be preparing a debt for equity exchange under which they would take control of the insurer, the item said.
As previously reported, Towergate founder and chairman Peter Cullum is thinking about launching an MBO bid for the company, and has appointed Fenchurch Advisory Partners and Blackstone as advisers.
Source Sunday Times