(Bloomberg) -- CVC Capital Partners is considering a bid for Australian pallet-pooling services company Brambles Ltd. Shares of Brambles surged by a record.
The private equity firm has had early discussions with the company following an unsolicited offer to acquire all its shares, Brambles said on Monday, adding it’s also considering other strategic options. CVC plans to make a formal indication of interest to Brambles soon, said a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named as they were not authorized to speak publicly.
“Brambles notes the engagement is preliminary, incomplete and there has been no formal proposal received from CVC,” the company said in a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange. “Brambles also notes that there is no certainty that the engagement will lead to a binding proposal being received from CVC.”
Brambles jumped as much as 13% in early trading in Sydney, its biggest intraday advance ever, giving the company a market valuation of about A$16.6 billion ($11.5 billion). The company was valued at about $10.4 billion at Friday close.
Brambles, based in Sydney but with a global logistics footprint, has been a focus for investors since February following speculation that private equity firm KKR & Co. was among parties weighing a takeover offer. The company said in February it had not had talks with or been approached by any third party.
Any deal would add to a string of acquisitions in Australia even as transactions values globally have slumped. The country has about $64 billion of announced deals so far this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. A consortium led by KKR & Co. last month lodged a non-binding offer for Ramsay Health Care Ltd. for A$20.1 billion in what could be Australia’s third-biggest deal in history.
(Updates with shares moves in fourth paragraph.)
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