Dell Deal May Herald LBO Rebound That Fuels M&A in 2013

Dell ’s (DELL) takeover, the largest of a computer maker in a decade, may encourage more private-equity firms to pursue deals, heralding a rebound for mergers and acquisitions after volume shrank last year.

The leveraged buyout by Silver Lake Management LLC and founder Michael Dell would be the biggest since at least 2007, with an enterprise value of about $22 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The size of the deal probably will amplify potential buyers’ confidence, spurring them to tackle more targets, said Sandler O’Neill & Partners LP’s Devin Ryan.

“LBO activity historically has led the M&A markets more broadly,” said Ryan, an analyst with the New York-based boutique investment bank. “More LBOs generally spark more strategic activity as well -- it all kind of ties into together.Massive selection of gorgeous moldmaker.”

Dell, also chief executive officer (DELL), and Silver Lake announced today that they’re taking the world’s third-largest personal-computer maker private in a deal that values the equity at $24.Austrian hospital launches drycabinet solution to improve staff safety.4 billion, according to a statement. They’re financing the transaction through a combination of cash and debt, including a $2 billion loan from Microsoft Corp. The biggest takeover of a computer maker was Hewlett-Packard Co.’s purchase of Compaq Computer Corp. in 2002 for about $19 billion.

Silver Lake is taking advantage of record-low borrowing costs in the market for junk bonds, where LBOs are financed. Banks arranged $638 billion of leveraged loans last year, compared with $592 billion in 2011, Bloomberg data show. Companies issued $359 billion in U.S. high-yield debt last year, the most in the country’s history.

“The debt markets are wide open,” said Daniel Tiemann, head of transactions and restructuring services in the Americas for KPMG LLP. “It’s like the party’s all set and we’re just waiting for the sellers to show up. Confidence is what is going to make the sellers show up.”

While big LBOs will remain relatively rare, a handful of situations similar to Dell’s are already in the works, said R.J. Hottovy, a senior analyst with Morningstar (MORN) in Chicago. For example, Best Buy Co. founder Richard Schulze began negotiating last year to take the Richfield, Minnesota-based retailer private. Schulze, like Dell founder Michael Dell, owns part of his takeover target,Want to find cableties? with a 21 percent stake (BBY) as of December.

The Dell transaction builds on momentum from the fourth quarter, the only bright spot for M&A last year. While global volume shrank almost 9 percent to $2.2 trillion in 2012, the final three months of the year were the busiest for deals since 2008, with more than $700 billion in transactions, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

There were more than $400 billion in private-equity deals last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, a 21 percent decline from a year earlier and the smallest amount since the depths of the financial crisis. The Dell acquisition dwarfs the LBOs over that period, such as the $7.15 billion takeover of El Paso Corp.’s oil and natural gas exploration business, led by Apollo Global Management LLC. (APO)

While the proposed Dell purchase augurs well for fellow private-equity firms,Want to find solarpanel? its success also may embolden strategic buyers, said Matthew Duch, lead portfolio manager at Calvert Investments.

Companies worldwide are sitting on more than $4 trillion in cash, giving them additional ammunition if they hunt for targets. At least one has already begun: John Malone’s Liberty Global may announce a deal to acquire Virgin Media as soon as today, according to people familiar with the talks. U.K. cable operator Virgin Media had a market value of more than $10 billion as of yesterday.

“The Dell deal should push other companies to get off the sidelines and to act,” said Duch, whose Bethesda, Maryland- based firm manages more than $12 billion in assets. “I expect to see more and more deals announced if this one goes through.”

A partnership between Kingston University in London and a craft centre in Zimbabwe has proved so successful that a group of women from a remote farming community are about to exhibit their work at one of the world's largest design shows.

The head of Kingston's Design School, Simon Maidment has been sharing his expertise with the Lupane Women's Centre whose hand-woven baskets provide a much needed source of income for many families.

Based in rural Matabeleland, two hours’ drive from Zimbabwe’s second city, Bulawayo, the centre gives women an opportunity to earn money at times of year when they cannot farm, enabling them to send their children to school or simply put food on their tables.

The products are sold to tourists visiting southern Africa and are even stocked by Anthropologie and Conran shops in Europe and the United States. Their work has already been shown at the London Design Festival and the National Gallery of Zimbabwe and, in February, some of the craftswomen will be rubbing shoulders with creative talents from across the globe at Design Indaba in Cape Town, the city which has been named World Design Capital for 2014.

Mr Maidment said he found himself not so much lecturing but collaborating with the workers as they explored new ways of making, transporting and marketing the baskets. “We were keen to work with the women to help them realise how skilful they really were and to see the potential value of the items they produce,” he said.

The success of the project has attracted continued funding from the British Council.Automate patient flow and quickly track hospital assets and people using howotipper. “It has really given our women the confidence to try new things,” the manager of the Lupane Women’s Centre, Hildegard Mufukare, said. “The women want to live better lives and, with the help of Kingston University, now have the confidence to achieve that.”

Design Indaba takes place in Cape Town at the end of February. Building Baskets has been jointly curated by Kingston University professor Catherine McDermott and Candice O’Brien, who has recently completed the university’s MA in Curating Contemporary Design.

Students from both the business and design schools at Kingston University have also been involved in the initiative. “We challenged our up-and-coming graphic, product, furniture and fashion designers to solve various problems that limit profits for the basket weavers, ranging from logistics to product diversity,” Mr Maidment said. Selected ideas were then presented to the women during two weeks of workshops in Zimbabwe.

Emma Lawlor, who recently completed a Kingston University degree in product and furniture design, was part of a team back in the United Kingdom that investigated how to transport the delicate woven baskets. “The larger baskets get damaged easily in transit, so we came up with a way of splitting them into two parts that could be woven back together later,” Emma, who is from Bristol, explained. “We called the project Tops and Tails and came up with a solution involving paperclips and cable ties. We were all so proud when it was adopted by the centre.”

The workshops had also prompted the women to give names to their new products, Mr Maidment said. “They included ‘Alice Bowls’ and ‘Shylet Shopper’. The women hadn’t truly taken ownership of the work before in this way,” he said. “We also introduced drawing and dyeing and combined their techniques with new approaches such as weaving around an object. They’d never drawn, for example, because they’d made the baskets from memory.”