Make Me an Offer
Private equity firms had an active if challenging year in 2011. The activity was apparent in deals worth more than $1 billion, a category that included 21 deals worth $59 billion last year, according to Dealogic. That’s roughly on par with the 24 such transactions worth $53 billion in 2010, but 2011 saw the announcement of the two largest buyouts since financing markets collapsed in the summer of 2007. On February 28 Blackstone Real Estate Advisors agreed to pay $9.4 billion for the U.S. assets of Centro Properties Group [Big Deals, April 2011], and on November 23, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P. led a group of investors that agreed to buy Samson Investment Company for $7.2 billion [see Big Deals].
