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Pacific Equity Partners acquires Citadel
Gilbert + Tobin has advised Pacific Equity Partners on its $449 million Citadel acquisition.
Tony Zhang
Firm: Gilbert + Tobin (Pacific Equity Partners).
Value: $449 million.
Area: M&A.
Key players: The G+T team was led by banking and infrastructure partner John Schembri, supported by partner Spiro Papadolias, lawyer Corrie Eames and graduate Logan O'Brien.
Deal significance: Pacific Equity Partners secured support for its $449 million acquisition of Citadel Group Limited (Citadel) by receiving backing for the approach from the company’s board back in September 2020. The scheme was approved by the Federal Court on 7 December 2020 and was implemented on 17 December 2020.
Under the terms of the unsolicited approach, PEP would acquire 100 per cent of the equity interests of Citadel for $5.70 per share in cash, reduced to the extent of any special dividend – this represents a premium of 43.2 per cent to the last closing price, the publicly listed IT services company told shareholders.
The proposal values Citadel’s equity at $448.6 million and its enterprise value at $503.1 million.
“We are proud to have been involved in such a significant public to private transaction for our longstanding and highly valued client, Pacific Equity Partners. The acquisition of Citadel will complement their portfolio of investments and we look forward to Citadel’s continued growth in this market under PEP ownership,” Mr Schembri and Mr Papadolias said.
Citadel is an ASX-listed software and technology company that specialises in secure enterprise information management across health, national security, defence and corporate enterprises. The company specialises in providing core software for medical specialists and secure records management software, technology and professional services to a diversified set of government clients in Australia and the UK. It has recently made a push into healthcare software.
