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KKR agrees to buy up to $44bn of PayPal’s pay-later loans. (FS)
Italy’s Eni nears $5bn deal for Neptune Energy.
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Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella and Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick will be in court this week to try to persuade a federal judge in California to reject the Federal Trade Commission’s effort to block their $69bn deal.
US District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley is presiding at a five-day hearing in San Francisco starting Thursday over the FTC’s bid to prevent Microsoft from acquiring Activision while the agency’s legal challenge to the deal is pending. Nadella and Kotick were listed as key witnesses in a joint court filing Tuesday, Bloomberg reported.
Activision Blizzard is advised by Allen & Company LLC. (led by Nancy Peretsman ), Morgan Stanley (led by Anthony Armstrong ), Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates (led by Sonia Nijjar and Kenton King ), Brunswick Group (led by Jonathan Doorley ) and FGS Global (led by Paul Verbinnen ). Financial advisors are advised by White & Case LLP (led by Denise Cerasani). Microsoft is advised by Goldman Sachs (led by Sam Britton ), Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP , Sidley Austin LLP (led by C. Frederick Beckner, Christopher Shenk and Robert Keeling ), Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP (led by William Allen , Anthony Vernace and Alan M. Klein ), Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP (led by Michael Moiseyev ) and Assembly.
Blackstone , an active investor across energy, transportation, digital infrastructure and water and waste infrastructure sectors, completed the $1bn investment in Invenergy , company that operates in renewable fuels sector.
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“We are proud to support the continued growth of Invenergy’s business. Invenergy has a premier platform for developing, owning, and operating clean energy projects and we are excited to continue supporting the realization of these projects and their important contribution to decarbonizing the energy sector,” Matthew Runkle, Blackstone Senior Managing Director.
Cadeler , an offshore windmills installation services provider, agreed to merge with Eneti Inc. , an offshore wind farm construction and services, in a $597m deal.
“The combination will represent a significant step up in our ability to meet the increased demand globally for projects with larger scopes and project sizes in service of the much-needed green transition. To deliver on this ambition, we will provide our customers with the largest and most diverse fleet in the industry, operated by highly skilled teams with unique expertise and track records. For customers, the combined fleet will unlock unrivalled value due to increased cross-utilization of resources and improved flexibility, capacity, and agility," Mikkel Gleerup, Cadeler CEO.
Eneti is advised by Perella Weinberg , Bech-Bruun , CMS and Seward & Kissel LLP . Cadeler is advised by DNB , Campbell Johnston Clark (CJC) , Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP (led by Connie Milonakis ), Gorrissen Federspiel and Thommessen .
KKR agrees to buy up to $44bn of PayPal’s pay-later loans. (FS)
KKR agreed to purchase as much as $44bn of buy-now-pay-later loan receivables from PayPal in a deal that frees up the payments giant to do more share repurchases. The agreement is part of a €3bn ($3.3bn) loan commitment that allows private credit funds and accounts managed by KKR to purchase loans originated by PayPal in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK. PayPal expects the transaction to generate $1.8bn in proceeds, allowing it to repurchase an additional $1bn of shares this year, Bloomberg reported.
While the concept of split installment payments for consumer purchases has been around for decades and online consumer financing has been a strategic offering of PayPal since 2008, BNPL has dramatically increased in popularity over the past several years. Since launching its first BNPL offering in 2020, PayPal has become an industry leader with its PayPal Pay Later products, issuing more than 200m loans to over 30m customers in eight markets around the world.
Italy’s Eni nears $5bn deal for Neptune Energy.
Italian energy group Eni is nearing a deal to acquire oil and gas explorer Neptune Energy for about $5bn. Eni could announce a deal as soon as this week for private equity-backed Neptune. Eni is poised to beat out suitors, including TotalEnergies , for the asset, Bloomberg reported.
No final decision has been made and the timing of the deal could change, or talks could still fall through. Neptune is backed by The Carlyle Group and CVC . Eni has had Neptune on its radar since at least late last year as the company seeks to expand its natural gas business. Roughly three quarters of Neptune’s production comes from natural gas in the North Sea, North Africa and Asia — all regions where Eni operates.
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