Blackstone to buy Alliance Data
Published May 18th, 2007
Private equity firm the Blackstone Group said on Thursday it would buy Alliance Data Systems Corp. , a provider of transaction, credit and marketing services, for $6.76 billion.
It will pay $81.75 per share in cash, a premium of about 30 percent over Alliance Data’s May 16 closing share price of $62.96 on the New York Stock Exchange.
Including debt, the deal is worth $7.8 billion.
A special committee of the Alliance Data board of directors made up of independent directors approved the agreement. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year.
The company said it is currently expected that substantially all of Alliance Data’s outstanding series A and series B senior notes will either be tendered for or repaid in connection with the deal.
Alliance Data’s shares rose 27 percent to about $80.13 in early trading, a bit below the offer price.
Blackstone is offering about 13 times estimated 2007 earnings per share of $6.16, based on Reuters Estimates.
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