Giant Interactive, a Chinese Web Video Game Operator, Agrees to $3 Billion Buyout

HONG KONG â€" Giant Interactive, one of China’s biggest online video game operators, said on Monday that it had agreed to be taken over and privatized by its chairman and a pair of private equity companies after the buyers made a sweetened, $3 billion offer.

The buyout of Giant, which is based in Shanghai and listed in New York, ranks as the second-biggest such “take-private” deal for a Chinese company after the $3.8 billion privatization of Focus Media, which was delisted from the Nasdaq after being acquired last May by its chairman and a consortium of private equity companies.

Giant on Monday accepted the leveraged buyout offer from its chairman, Shi Yuzhu, Baring Private Equity Asia and Hony Capital of China after the group raised its bid to $12 per share, up from the $11.75 per share they originally offered in November. The buyers already controlled a 47 percent stake in the company and have lined up debt financing of $850 million, slightly more than half of the $1.6 billion they will need to pay for the shares they do not already own.

While a new wave of Chinese Internet companies is lining up to sell shares in the United States â€" led by companies like the e-commerce powerhouse Alibaba and the Sina Corporation’s Weibo microblog unit â€" a group of companies that conducted American initial public offerings years ago is in the process of delisting.

In many cases, these take-private deals are the result of slumping share prices that came after a spate of short-seller attacks on American-listed Chinese companies in recent years. Private equity companies have often teamed up with management to help bankroll the buyout bids.

Giant, which develops and operates a number of popular multiplayer online games in China, raised almost $900 million when it listed in New York in 2007. In going private, Giant is following another major Chinese online game company, Shanda Interactive Entertainment, which was delisted from the Nasdaq in 2012 by its chairman in a deal that valued it at $2.3 billion.

Giant’s board, which unanimously supported the buyout, was advised by Morgan Stanley.

The buyers were advised by China Minsheng Bank, BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, ICBC International Capital and JPMorgan Chase; those banks are also arranging debt financing for the buyout.

Giant Interactive, a Chinese Web Video Game Operator, Agrees to $3 Billion Buyout

HONG KONG â€" Giant Interactive, one of China’s biggest online video game operators, said on Monday that it had agreed to be taken over and privatized by its chairman and a pair of private equity companies after the buyers made a sweetened, $3 billion offer.

The buyout of Giant, which is based in Shanghai and listed in New York, ranks as the second-biggest such “take-private” deal for a Chinese company after the $3.8 billion privatization of Focus Media, which was delisted from the Nasdaq after being acquired last May by its chairman and a consortium of private equity companies.

Giant on Monday accepted the leveraged buyout offer from its chairman, Shi Yuzhu, Baring Private Equity Asia and Hony Capital of China after the group raised its bid to $12 per share, up from the $11.75 per share they originally offered in November. The buyers already controlled a 47 percent stake in the company and have lined up debt financing of $850 million, slightly more than half of the $1.6 billion they will need to pay for the shares they do not already own.

While a new wave of Chinese Internet companies is lining up to sell shares in the United States â€" led by companies like the e-commerce powerhouse Alibaba and the Sina Corporation’s Weibo microblog unit â€" a group of companies that conducted American initial public offerings years ago is in the process of delisting.

In many cases, these take-private deals are the result of slumping share prices that came after a spate of short-seller attacks on American-listed Chinese companies in recent years. Private equity companies have often teamed up with management to help bankroll the buyout bids.

Giant, which develops and operates a number of popular multiplayer online games in China, raised almost $900 million when it listed in New York in 2007. In going private, Giant is following another major Chinese online game company, Shanda Interactive Entertainment, which was delisted from the Nasdaq in 2012 by its chairman in a deal that valued it at $2.3 billion.

Giant’s board, which unanimously supported the buyout, was advised by Morgan Stanley.

The buyers were advised by China Minsheng Bank, BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, ICBC International Capital and JPMorgan Chase; those banks are also arranging debt financing for the buyout.

2 Oligarchs in $7 Billion Deal for a German Oil Company

LONDON â€" The German utility RWE said on Sunday that it had reached a preliminary agreement to sell its oil and natural gas subsidiary, RWE Dea, to the Russian billionaires Mikhail Fridman and German Khan for 5.1 billion euros, or roughly $7 billion.

The RWE Dea acquisition is the first known oil and gas transaction by the LetterOne Group, the investment vehicle Mr. Fridman and Mr. Khan set up in 2013 to invest the estimated $14 billion they received for selling their shares of TNK-BP, the Russian oil affiliate of the oil giant BP.

The latest transaction brings the Russian investors a small oil company based in Hamburg, Germany, that could be a useful platform on which to build a wider empire. In Sunday’s statement RWE said that the Russian investment group intended to make the German unit “the principal conduit of the group’s investments in the oil and gas industry.”

The energy investments, someone close to the company said last year, would be part of a broader effort to diversify the Alfa Group, which Mr. Fridman heads, outside Russia. Such diversification makes sense for the Russian oligarchs, particularly at a time when the Russian business environment is unsettled by a confrontation with the West over Ukraine.

Still, with worries that Russian natural gas exports to Europe, and particularly Germany, might be cut off, the timing of this sale of German energy assets to Russian investors seemed unusual.

LetterOne declined to comment, other than to confirm the deal.

The group, which is based in London, hired prominent advisers including John Browne, the former chief executive of BP, and Andrew Gould, the former chief executive of Schlumberger, and have been scouting for deals.

Mr. Fridman is one of Russia’s wealthiest businessmen and heads the Alfa Group, which has investments in banking and telecommunications. Mr. Khan is his longtime business partner.

The two men, along with other Russian partners, sold a 50 percent stake in a Russian oil company then known as TNK in 2003 to BP. While the investment proved lucrative for all parties, it was marred by infighting and litigation.

RWE has been trying for about a year to sell its oil and gas subsidiary in order to reduce debt and focus on its core power business, which is struggling because of Germany’s decision to exit nuclear power and competition from renewable energy sources.

This month, the company reported a €2.8 billion loss for 2013, mainly because of write-offs on power plants. “This agreement is a major milestone in delivering our announced strategic realignment of the group,” RWE’s chief executive, Peter Terium, said in a statement.

The deal brings the Russian investors a small oil company with production or stakes in locations including Germany, Norway, the British North Sea, Denmark and Egypt.

The subsidiary has about 1,300 employees. In 2012, it had net income of €525 million on revenue of about €2 billion, according to its website.

Vodafone Expected to Buy Ono, a Spanish Cable Operator

The British telecommunications company Vodafone has reached a deal to buy the Spanish cable company Ono for about $10 billion, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The deal is expected to be announced Monday morning and values Ono at about 7.2 billion euros, including the assumption of debt, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the transaction publicly.

Vodafone and Ono declined to comment Sunday.

The deal is expected to allow Vodafone to compete with Telefónica of Spain in offering high-speed broadband to its Spanish customers. This would be Vodafone’s first big deal since the recent sale of its stake in Verizon Wireless to Verizon. The deal could also complicate any efforts from AT&T to acquire Vodafone. AT&T in January said it did not intend to make a bid anytime soon, but has been widely reported to remain interested in a deal that would give it room to grow in Europe.

Last week, Vodafone submitted a tentative offer for Ono ahead of the company’s annual meeting. Vodafone also was given access to the company’s financials as part of the due diligence process ahead of a potential deal.

At the meeting, Ono’s shareholders approved the process of beginning an initial public offering for the company. But the company’s board decided to also continue discussions with Vodafone, according to another person familiar with the discussions.

Ono’s shareholders include the private equity firms Providence Equity Partners, CCMP Capital Advisors and Thomas H. Lee Partners. They were thought to prefer a sale to a larger rival over a listing on the Madrid stock exchange.

In 2013, Ono’s earnings before taxes, depreciation and amortization declined 8.8 percent to €686 million from the year-earlier period. The company has about 1.5 million broadband customers and about one million mobile telephone customers. Its fiber-optic services are offered to about 7.2 million homes.

The deal comes amid a flurry of asset sales and consolidation among European telecom companies in the past year.

Through the 12 months that ended March 7, announced takeovers involving telecom companies increased fourfold to $194 billion, according to data from Thomson Reuters. That includes Vodafone’s $130 billion sale of a 45 percent stake in Verizon Wireless last year.

On Friday, the French media conglomerate Vivendi said that it would enter into exclusive negotiations with the cable and mobile phone provider Altice for three weeks over SFR, Vivendi’s mobile phone unit. The Vivendi agreement followed a showdown between Altice and Bouygues, the owner of Bouygues Telecom, France’s third-largest mobile operator, for SFR.

The bidding war has pitted Martin Bouygues, the billionaire who runs the diversified industrial group that bears his name, against the French entrepreneur Patrick Drahi, who since 2002 has built Altice into a global operation with cable and cellphone assets in Europe and the Caribbean.

The Altice offer consists of a payment of 11.75 billion euros, or about $16.3 billion, and 32 percent stake in Altice’s Numéricâble, which will be combined with SFR. It also provides Vivendi with predetermined exit conditions, Vivendi said.

Chad Bray reported from London and David Gelles from New York.

Alibaba Confirms It Will Begin I.P.O. Process in U.S.

The Alibaba Group, China’s online commerce giant, confirmed early on Sunday that it plans to begin the process of becoming a public company in the United States.

In a post on its corporate blog, the company said it plans to list on an American stock market to become “a more global company.”

The short blog post formally highlights that the company is on its way toward setting up its long awaited initial public offering, one that could set new records for the biggest ever. Among China’s burgeoning contingent of Internet titans, Alibaba is unique â€" part eBay, part Google, part PayPal.

Its I.P.O. could eventually raise more than the $16 billion that Facebook reaped in its public debut nearly two years ago. Analysts speculate that the company could fetch a valuation well north of $130 billion.

The offering is expected to make some of Alibaba’s executives extremely wealthy, including Jack Ma, the former English teacher who founded the company in 1999.

Alibaba’s offering has drawn virtually all of Wall Street, as banks have regularly courted top officials like Mr. Ma and Joseph Tsai, a former American corporate lawyer who now serves as the company’s executive vice chairman.

According to a person briefed on the matter, the company plans to work with at least five major banks on its planned offering: Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley. Citigroup is also expected to play a role, the person added.

The blog post also shows that the company has snubbed its hometown exchange, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The Asian market operator has refused to bless Alibaba’s partnership structure, in which a group of insiders will maintain control of the board despite owning a minority of shares over all, since its rules prohibit dual classes of shares and other schemes that give shareholders more than one vote per share.

Alibaba added that at some point in the future, it may become open toward a dual listing in China.

“We wish to thank those in Hong Kong who have supported Alibaba Group,” the company said in its post. “We respect the viewpoints and policies of Hong Kong and will continue to pay close attention to and support the process of innovation and development of Hong Kong.”