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GIP, Partners Form Consortium to Buy Signature Aviation for $4.73 Billion -- Update

February 05, 2021 at 08:59 am EST

--Consortium offer is $5.62 for each Signature share, up from GIP's sole offer of $5.50 a share

--Consortium includes Bill Gates's investment vehicle Cascade Investment LLC

--Carlyle Investment Management LLC also made takeover approach on Jan. 7

By Adria Calatayud and Anthony O. Goriainoff

Global Infrastructure Partners LLC has joined forces with Blackstone Group Inc. and Bill Gates's investment vehicle Cascade Investment LLC to acquire Signature Aviation PLC for $4.73 billion in cash.

Under the offer, which has been agreed by a newly formed entity called Brown Bidco Ltd. and Signature Aviation, accepting shareholders will get $5.62 a share--equivalent to 411 pence--the companies said Friday.

Signature said that in light of the new offer it has now withdrawn its recommendation for the original Global Infrastructure offer of $5.50 a share in cash that was agreed last month.

While the offer price in pounds is a 53% premium to Signature's closing price of 268.0 pence on Dec. 16--the day before it first declared that the company had received an offer approach from Blackstone--it is still a 3.3% discount to Thursday's closing price of 425.2 pence.

Signature shares at 1340 GMT were down 11.40 pence, or 2.6%, at 414.40 pence.

On Jan. 7, Signature said that it had been approached by Carlyle Investment Management LLC over a potential takeover of the company but said no proposal had been put forward. No further information on the approach has been disclosed since.

"We await with interest to see whether Carlyle or any other interested party make a higher offer," Peel Hunt said.

Blackstone Infrastructure and Blackstone Core Equity will own 35% of Brown Bidco, GIP will hold a further 35% and Cascade will own the remaining 30%, the companies said.

"We believe that the offer from Blackstone, GIP and Cascade represents an attractive and certain value in cash today for Signature shareholders reflecting the high quality of the business and its network, its people and its future prospects, and at a higher price than the previous GIP offer announced on Jan. 11 2021," Signature Chairman Nigel Rudd said.

Write to Adria Calatayud at adria.calatayud@dowjones.com and Anthony O. Goriainoff at anthony.orunagoriainoff@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

02-05-21 0858ET

Stocks mentioned in the article

Add to a list Add to a list 0 selected To use this feature you must be a member Log in Sign up	Price	Change	5d. change	Capi.
SIGNATURE AVIATION	396 GBX	-.--%	-0.18%	4.64B
THE CARLYLE GROUP INC.	46.34 USD	+2.52%	+3.83%	16.24B
BLACKSTONE INC.	124.2 USD	+1.75%	+0.84%	88.18B

Bill Gates

William Henry "Bill" Gates III (born 28 October 1955) is an American business magnate, philanthropist, investor, computer programmer, and inventor. Gates is the former chief executive and chairman of Microsoft, the world’s largest personal-computer software company, which he co-founded with Paul Allen.

He is consistently ranked in the Forbes list of the world's wealthiest people and was the wealthiest overall from 1995 to 2014—excluding a few brief periods post-2008. Between 2009 and 2014 his wealth more than doubled from $40 billion to more than $82 billion. Between 2013 and 2014 his wealth increased by $15 billion, or around $1.5 billion more than the entire GDP of Iceland in 2014.

During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of CEO and chief software architect, he was also the largest individual shareholder up until May 2014. Refn | group = "lower-alpha" | Gates regularly documents his share ownership through public U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission form 4 filings. His father was a prominent lawyer, and his mother served on the board of directors for First Interstate BancSystem and the United Way. Gates's maternal grandfather was JW Maxwell, a national bank president. Gates has one elder sister, Kristi (Kristianne), and one younger sister, Libby. He was the fourth of his name in his family, but was known as William Gates III or "Trey" because his father had the "II" suffix.Sfn |Manes | 1994 |p= 15 Early on in his life, Gates's parents had a law career in mind for him.Sfn |Manes|1994|p = 47 When Gates was young, his family regularly attended a Congregational church. The family encouraged competition; one visitor reported that "it didn't matter whether it was hearts or pickleball or swimming to the dock ... there was always a reward for winning and there was always a penalty for losing".

Source @ Wikipedia

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Cascade Investment LLC Cascade Investment LLC Financial ConglomeratesFinance Cascade Investment LLC is the private investment holding company of the Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Founded in 1995, the firm manages the personal assets of Bill Gates and his wife Melinda Gates, as well as the assets of his philanthropic foundations. Cascade Investment is headquartered in Kirkland, Washington.	Chief Executive Officer
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust Financial ConglomeratesFinance The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was formed in 1997 as the William H. Gates Foundation. In 1999, the foundation was renamed the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust was created in January 2000 through the merger of the Gates Learning Foundation, which worked to expand access to technology through public libraries and the William H. Gates Foundation, which focused on improving global health. The foundation participates in preventive approaches and collaborative endeavors with government, philanthropic and not-for-profit partners. Priority is given to grants that leverage additional support and serve as a catalyst for long-term, systemic change. The foundation also provides funds to promote greater equity in global health, education and public libraries. Through their partnerships in communities across the US, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is committed to raising the high school graduation rate and helping all students, regardless of race or family income. The foundation is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.	Chairman

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