Eurazeo Picks Carlyle for Exclusive Talks on B&B
July 31, 2010, 10:42 AM EDTBy Tara Patel
(Updates with other bidders in fifth paragraph.)
July 31 (Bloomberg) -- Eurazeo SA, France’s largest publicly traded private equity firm, said it’s in exclusive talks to sell B&B Hotels, the budget chain it bought five years ago, to Carlyle Group.
“The transaction is proceeding on the basis of an estimated enterprise value at the closing period of 485 million euros ($633 million),” Paris-based Eurazeo said in a statement.
Eurazeo, which is also an investor in Europe’s largest hotel group, Accor SA, bought B&B from Duke Street Capital Ltd. in 2005 for an undisclosed amount. B&B is France’s third-biggest budget hotel group, operating 215 hotels in France, Germany and Italy.
The period for exclusive negotiations on B&B “will end before the end of next week and may be extended if certain conditions with regard to the financing of the transaction are fulfilled,” according to the statement.
Eurazeo selected Carlyle, the world’s second-largest private equity firm, as well as London-based Bridgepoint Capital Ltd. and French companies PAI Partners and LBO France for management presentations and further due diligence after they submitted indicative bids, three people who declined to be identified because the process is private said last month.
--Editor: Steve Rhinds, Keith Campbell.
To contact the reporter on this story: Tara Patel in Paris at tpatel2@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Will Kennedy at wkennedy3@bloomberg.net
