Bryan Matthews

Platinum buys Biscuit.     Platinum Equity buys Biscuit International from Qualium Investissement.     Biscuit makes a range of products with European or local presence, including traditional biscuits and a growing mix for people with specific dietary needs (organic, low-calorie, sugar-free, gluten-free, milk-free, no palm oil). Created in 2016 by the merger of Poult (the French leader) and Banketgroep (Netherlands), it grew to include A&W (Germany), Stroopwafel (Netherlands), NFF (United Kingdom), and Army (Spain). The group now produces 130,000 tons of biscuits and waffles in 14 European factories, with 1,900 people, and €500m in annual sales.     Louis Samson of Platinum Equity said: ‘Biscuit International has an exceptional portfolio and a well-deserved reputation for high-quality products. We support the company's plan to continue expanding its offering and its international reach, both organically and through more add-on investments....

Intuit buys Credit Karma.     Intuit buys Credit Karma for $7.1 billion.     Founded in 2007, Credit Karma has 100 million members in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. B est known for helping people track and control their credit, members use the firm for everything finance. This includes identity monitoring, applying for credit cards, shopping for a car, home, or personal loan, filing taxes, and high-yield savings accounts. It’s a personal financial assistant providing insights into your money and helping you find the right products.     The deal unites two fintech leaders with a shared goal to help you manage debt, maximize savings, access better credit cards and loans, and put more money in your pocket. The background scenery is a United States household debt of $14.1 trillion. This includes $9.6 trillion mortgage debt, $1 trillion in credit cards, and $1.5 trillion in student loans.     Sasan Goodarzi of Intuit said:...

Franklin buys Legg .     Franklin Templeton buys Legg Mason for $4.5 billion.     The deal is to bring in new investors, expressly in foreign markets, gain scale for technology investments, and find new ways to market and sell each other’s fund lines. Legg Mason and its affiliates manage $806 billion in assets. This will make Franklin Templeton the sixth-largest independent fund firm with $1.5 trillion in assets. It deepens key geographies balanced between institutional and retail client AUM and creates a separately managed account business. Franklin will keep the autonomy of Legg Mason’s affiliates, making sure their investment philosophies, processes, and brands stay unchanged.     G reg Johnson of Franklin said: ‘This is a landmark acquisition for our organization that unlocks value and growth opportunities driven by greater scale, diversity, and balance across investment strategies, distribution channels, and geographies. Our complementary s...

Advisor buys Ladenburg.     Advisor Group buys Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services for $1.3 billion.     Ladenburg's independent advisory and brokerage firms are Securities America, Triad Advisors, Investacorp, KMS Financial Services, and Securities Service Network. Other divisions are insurance brokerage Highland Capital, trust services company Premier Trust, and Ladenburg Thalmann & Co., a middle-market investment bank.  Each of these firms delivers unique, value-added solutions to Ladenburg financial advisors.     Advisor Group's network of firms is FSC Securities Corporation, Royal Alliance Associates, SagePoint Financial, and Woodbury Financial. This deal augments its industry leadership with the company now covering 11,300 financial advisors and $450 billion in client assets. Advisor Group is committed to a multi-brand network model delivering the advantages of industry-leading scale and resources through familiar relationship manag...

Heartland buys AIM.     Heartland Financial buys AIM Bancshares and AimBank for $280.4 million.     AimBank was founded in 1925 as the First National Bank of Littlefield. Today it’s a community bank based in Levelland, TX with $1.78 billion in assets, $1.16 billion in loans, and $1.54 billion in deposits. AimBank serves Lubbock, Midland-Odessa, Amarillo, Abilene, and other West Texas communities from 19 banking centers. It also has 6 full-service banking centers in Northeastern New Mexico. AimBank will merge into Heartland’s existing Lubbock, TX-based subsidiary FirstBank & Trust which has $1.14 billion in assets. Founded in 1996, it specializes in business lending and deposit services, providing mortgage, private client, investment, treasury management, card services, and electronic banking programs. 8 locations serve the cities of Lubbock, Snyder, Wilson, Colorado City, Tahoka, and surrounding communities. This will create Heartland’s largest bank subsid...

Simon buys Taubman.     Simon Property Group buys 80 percent of Taubman Centers for 3.6 billion.     Founder Alfred Taubman was a pioneer developer who exploited the explosive growth of America’s suburbs. He built an empire of upscale regional malls, such as Mall at Short Hills in New Jersey, Woodfield Mall outside Chicago, Waterside Shops in Naples, and Beverly Center in Los Angeles. Taubman’s 26 shopping centers in the US and Asia are the most productive in the US regional mall industry. These will continue to be managed under the leadership of Robert Taubman, in partnership with Simon.     David Simon said: ‘We are happy to announce this transaction, which will be immediately accretive to Simon's FFO. By joining together, we will enhance the ability of TRG to invest in innovative retail environments that create exciting shopping and entertainment experiences for consumers, immersive opportunities for retailers, and substantial new job prospects for...

Harsco buys ESOL.     Harsco buys ESOL from Stericycle for $462.5 million.     ESOL will be joined with Harsco’s Clean Earth business in beneficial reuse solutions for hazardous wastes and contaminated soils. Stericycle will continue to provide unused pharma take-back and hazardous waste services to healthcare customers.  Harsco will deliver transport and disposal to Stericycle’s customers under a long-term services agreement.     ESOL offers a broad range of disposal solutions across industrial, retail, and healthcare. With a network of 13 federally permitted treatment, storage, and disposal facilities, it collects, receives, and processes 500,000 tons of hazardous waste a year. It also provides transport services via its logistics network and runs a fleet of 700 vehicles serving 90,000 customer locations with 450,000 service stops each year.     With the addition of ESOL, Harsco will enjoy greater service offerings across the indust...

Platinum buys Cision .     Platinum Equity buys Cision for $2.74 billion.     Cision is a global provider of media software and services to public relations and marketing communications professionals. Cision 's software allows people to find key influencers, craft and distribute strategic content, and measure meaningful impact. Cision has over 4,800 employees with offices in 22 countries throughout the Americas, EMEA, and APAC.     Tom Gores of Platinum Equity said: ‘ Cision is well established as the industry-standard platform for communications professionals navigating an increasingly complex environment. This is an investment that plays to Platinum's core strengths. We will deploy our full range of global operations capabilities, financial resources, and M&A support to help the company maximize its potential.’     Jacob Kotzubei of Platinum Equity said: ‘ Cision offers an impressive value proposition built through a comb...

Pacific Premier buys Opus.     Pacific Premier Bancorp buys Opus Bank for $1 billion.     Opus, with $8 billion in assets, $5.9 billion in loans and $6.5 billion in deposits, has 46 branches in California, Washington, Oregon, and Arizona. The deal builds Pacific Premier’s total assets to $20 billion. This bigger scale boosts efficiencies and leverages tech investments. The addition of Opus’ strong fee income-generating business makes for greater revenue diversification. A large source of stable, low-cost deposits through escrow and trust business lines will add $2 billion in deposits. The speedup of capital generation makes for sustained prudent management and creates other openings to return shareholder capital.     Pacific Premier Bank is a business bank with $11.8 billion in assets. It serves small and middle-market businesses in the counties of Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Barbara, Californi...

Westrock buys S&D.     Westrock Coffee Company buys S&D Coffee and Tea from Cott Corporation for $405 million.     Founded in 1927 to offer fresh roasted coffee and tea to local and regional grocery stores, S&D is now a top custom coffee roaster and the biggest blender of iced teas for foodservice and convenience stores in the United States. It's also a leader in the extracts and ingredients category. The firm serves 110,000 customers through national distribution and direct store delivery in the restaurant industry and convenience stores. Customers include McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Chick-fil-A, and Circle K.     Founded in 2009 by Scott Ford, his father Joe, and other private investors, Westrock Coffee is a farmer-focused, fully integrated firm providing coffee sourcing and financing, supply chain management, roasting, packaging, and distribution services to customers worldwide. Through its US-based roasting operations, the company roa...