KKR puts Bis Industries on the block

The attempt to sell the firm comes after negotiations failed to refinance the loans used to buy Bis back in 2006. KKR is liable to pay back the A$905 million ($922.06 million) in leverage it borrowed by June 2013. The PE giant had reportedly been in talks with commercial banks to refinance the debt.

KKR had previously mulled the prospect of exiting Bis via an IPO, but the inert state of Australian IPO market means that option currently appears to be off the table.

Bis was established in 2006 after KKR paid A$1.83 billion for Brambles Industrial Services and Cleanaway Australia - its first acquisition in the country. The deal represented the largest ever management buyout in the local market at that time. Cleanaway Australia, a waste and recycling business, was later sold to a competitor, Transpacific Industries, for A$1.25 billion.

KKR also tried this year and in 2011 to exit MMI International, the precision-engineering company it took private in 2007, through an IPO. The offering - which would have taken place in Singapore - was hoped to raise $400-500 million, but the plans have been shelved due to poor market conditions.

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• Topics
• Australasia
• Exits
• Industrials
• KKR
• Trade sale
• Exit