The two private equity firms have teamed up after Blackstone withdrew from the auction at the end of last week. They now hope to share ownership of Iglo and to rotate the chairmanship annually if successful.
However, the two firms will today bid below Permira’s EUR 2.8 billion asking price and could be declined — at least initially. Permira will almost certainly have to investigate the option of keeping the company, which means having to refinance Iglo’s EUR 1.4 billion of loans.
However, with debt markets under stress, Permira is unlikely to be able to raise enough money to also pay management enough to keep them at the company, which owns Birds Eye and Bake to Perfection.
