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HedgeCo.Net \u2014 SoftBank Group is weighing an acquisition of Allied Universal, the largest security services company in the U.S., in a potential deal that could give the closely held company an equity value of as much as $18 billion, Bloomberg News reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The Wall Street Journal subsequently reported that SoftBank was in early talks to buy the company, whose backers include private equity firm Warburg Pincus and Canadian pension investor La Caisse.<\/p>\n
Allied also carries about $12 billion of publicly traded loans and bonds, according to Bloomberg, which would put the total value of a transaction at close to $30 billion including debt, Private Equity Wire reported. The discussions are preliminary, and no final decision has been made on a transaction or its price. Neither company has confirmed the talks.<\/p>\n
The strategic logic described in the reports centers on Masayoshi Son’s push to put artificial intelligence and robotics to commercial use. Allied provides security personnel and specialist services to sectors including data centers, alongside facilities management and maintenance, and SoftBank is exploring the use of autonomous robots for tasks such as patrols and event security, according to the reports. Replacing human security staff at scale remains a longer-term ambition. The approach would build on SoftBank’s $5.4 billion acquisition of ABB’s industrial robotics business.<\/p>\n
For private equity holders, the potential buyer matters as much as the price. A strategic acquirer with a technology thesis can underwrite a labor-intensive services business differently from a financial sponsor, and a sale to SoftBank would give Warburg Pincus and La Caisse a route to monetize one of the largest sponsor-backed services platforms in the U.S. Allied’s sizable traded debt stack also means credit investors will be watching how any deal would be financed and whether existing loans and bonds are refinanced or assumed.<\/p>\n
What comes next is whether the talks progress to a definitive agreement, and on what terms. Investors will look for clarity on the equity value, the treatment of Allied’s roughly $12 billion of debt and how SoftBank would fund a deal of this size alongside its other AI investments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
HedgeCo.Net \u2014 SoftBank Group is weighing an acquisition of Allied Universal, the largest security services company in the U.S., in a potential deal that could give the closely held\u2026 Continue reading