Rich riposte

Macquarie has set a high hurdle for Techem’s white knight, BC Partners, to surmount. The Australians have raised their offer to E55 a share from E44, topping BC Partners’ E52-a-share bid. That’s a rich price, equivalent to paying a price-to-earnings multiple of 22 times 2007 forecast earnings, up from 17.1 times. Macquarie’s financing is still structured so that it only requires 50% of shareholders to tender their shares. That’s lower than the 75% threshold private equity buyers usually aim to ...