KKR spent 8 billion dollars a week to reverse the market and take over German IT giant DataGroup at a 33% premium

Zhitong Finance App learned that KKR & Co. has reached an agreement to acquire German IT service company DataGroup SE. This is another deal completed by the private equity giant in the context of market turmoil. According to reports, KKR plans to buy the Frankfurt-listed company at a price of 54 euros (about 61 US dollars) per share. The two companies announced that the purchase price was a 33% premium over Datagroup's closing price on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Max Hans-Hermann Schaber (Max Hans-Hermann Schaber), founder of Datagroup and chairman of the supervisory board, plans to transfer 54% of his shares to the holding company controlled by KKR and responsible for the acquisition. The statement stated that this will facilitate long-term joint control of DataGroup between KKR and Saber Family Holdings.

The two sides expect the deal to be completed in the third quarter of this year.

After the news was released, Datagroup's stock price rose 19% in after-market trading on the Tradegate Exchange on Tuesday. By the close, the company's stock price had fallen 12% since this year, and the market value was about 340 million euros. The deal is one of the $8 billion deals announced by KKR over the past week. These deals are mainly affected by increased market volatility.

According to reports, KKR & Co. signed an acquisition agreement worth at least 8 billion US dollars within a week, and this week the market was mainly affected by the turmoil caused by the trade war initiated by US President Donald Trump, breaking the sluggish situation in the global trading market.

The New York-based company readopted the investment strategies it deployed during the pandemic to address investment needs during the economic downturn. Before the opening of the US stock market on April 9, KKR announced that it will jointly acquire London-listed company Assura Plc with £1.6 billion (US$2.1 billion) in cash and acquire Swedish consumer health company Karo Healthcare. The latter's valuation exceeds 2.5 billion euros (US$2.8 billion). Subsequently, KKR won a fierce bid on Monday to successfully acquire post-deal service company OSTTRA, with a corporate value of more than 3 billion US dollars.

Although KKR has been doing such deals for some time, its recent moves are in stark contrast to its private equity peers. The latter suspended the deal due to uncertain economic prospects and soaring financing costs, and the acquisition company became cautious. Last week, the bidding deadline for Lijie Shi Group's home care brand portfolio arrived. The bidders were unwilling to make binding offers, and the valuation given was far below the expectations of the British company.

In the current context where banks are increasingly concerned about expanding the size of their balance sheets through leveraged transactions, KKR's ability to finance itself has become a major advantage. When a major round of funding from Karo Healthcare failed a few days before the binding bid deadline, KKR decided to arrange the financing itself and won the competitive bid, which also attracted the interest of competitors such as PAI Partners. KKR partner Inaki Cobo (Inaki Cobo) said in a press release that the company had “made every effort” to complete the deal.

Of course, despite the uncertainty, some other investors have remained active. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners LP led a group of investors to acquire Colonial Enterprises Inc. for around $9 billion this month. According to reports last week, Bain Capital agreed to buy restaurant chain operator Sizzling Platter from CapitalSpring for more than $1 billion (including debt).

KKR was founded by George Roberts, Henry Kravis, and Jerome Kohlberg in 1976, and currently manages more than $600 billion in assets, covering various fields such as private equity, credit, infrastructure, and real estate. KKR said in its recent article on US tariffs that it is expected that the global economic recovery will shift from America to Europe and Asia, which will be an important change in the global economy.

In the UK, Times Water last month selected KKR as the partner of choice for the next phase of equity financing and reversing its heavily indebted business. The UK's largest water and sewage company plans to reach an agreement with the US alternative asset management company by the end of the second quarter of 2025

According to reports, this deal may mark another major deal during the current market downturn, as the private equity firm has proposed to inject £4 billion into Times Water.