Carlyle Group to aid in APN takeover

INDEPENDENT News & Media’s proposed buy-out of its Australian subsidiary company APN will be partly financed by the Carlyle Group, the US private equity house.

A failed bid to buy APN by Independent last year was only being backed by Providence Equity Partners. Independent has now brought Carlyle into the €2.3 billion bid.

The Carlyle Group is one of the world’s largest private equity firms and its heavyweight board is made up of former US presidents and other international leaders.

Such is the notoriety of Carlyle that it featured in the Michael Moore documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 as one of the investors in a Carlyle equity fund was the Bin Laden group, the Saudi firm owned by the family of Osama bin Laden. The firm returned the Bin Laden’s cash after 9/11.

Independent, Providence and Carlyle are offering AUS$6.02 (€3.62) per APN share, which is believed to be a slight improvement on what it offered for the company last year.

The deal will be funded with cash of €900m and debt financing of €1.4bn.

Independent owns nearly 41% of APN and if the bid for the Australian company was successful it would continue to run the business as well as holding a large stake in the entity.

APN publishes 23 daily and more than 100 non-daily newspapers across Australia and New Zealand.