Contested bids in the quoted private-equity industry are rare enough. The assumption is that the bidder can do a better job than the company under siege in liquidating the investment portfolio, which is tricky to prove. The offer for SVG Capital from HarbourVest is an odd one, in that the bid reaches its first closing day on Thursday with the wind in HarbourVest’s favour but no obvious reasons why investors should accept now.
HarbourVest is offering 650p in cash. SVG has been under pressure over performance and the amount it pays key executives. The latest net asset value figure for SVG is 735p which would suggest that the offer well undervalues the company, except that SVG had to take a writedown of £13.1 million against