Private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners is assessing a...

Private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners is assessing a privatisation of APM, as the target’s board holds the line over its view that CVC needs to offer at least $2 a share to gain control of the company, DataRoom has learned.

While it is now understood that Apollo Global Management is not close to the current action, Bain Capital is still sniffing around. However, it’s understood that a deal with the Jefferies Australia-advised Bain Capital and APM is not imminent.

APM’s shares remain suspended from trading after initially being halted before Easter. The company’s reason for the suspension was that it had “received approaches from parties to assess the potential for a transaction”.

“Discussions and correspondence with such parties are at a stage where … the company considers a voluntary suspension necessary to … allow trading its securities on an informed basis.”

It is now understood that one of those parties is 45 per cent shareholder Madison Dearborn.

However, whether it follows through on an offer to buy the business is thought to remain up in the air.

CVC is not thought to have gone completely, but is not believed to be the reason for the suspension in the company’s share trading.

UBS-advised APM declined to comment on the situation.

Sources have suggested that CVC had some willingness to pay $1.80 per share, but it’s unclear whether such an offer had gained clearance from its own global investment committee.

CVC failed to follow through on a $2-per-share buyout proposal (equating to a $1.8bn market value) earlier this year, where major shareholders would roll into the offer, following its period of exclusive due diligence that ended before Easter.

APM has requested the suspension until Friday, but it may be extended until early next week.

CVC, advised by Macquarie Capital and funded by Bank of America, first came to the table with a $1.60-per-share bid, but that was rebuffed by APM’s board.

Madison Dearborn bought APM from Quadrant Private Equity for $1.5bn in 2020 and listed it the following year as a business worth $3.25bn.

However, APM’s share price has subsequently fallen considerably, with its market value now at $1.49bn and trading before CVC’s bid at 83c a share.

APM also has borrowings of $911m and needs to pay back $523m by July next year.

If Madison Dearborn privatised APM, with 24 per cent holder and founder Megan Wynne, it would need to find another $600m to do so and would have to offer more than the $1.60 it rejected from CVC.