European buyout giant EQT to buy Baring Private Equity Asia for $7.5 bn

Swedish private equity firm EQT AB has agreed to buy Baring Private Equity Asia Ltd. for 6.8 billion euros ($7.5 billion) as it seeks to significantly build out its business in a region with fast-growing private markets.

It’s the biggest takeover of a private-equity company by another firm from within the industry, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, and gives EQT “immediate pan-Asia presence at scale,” according to a statement Wednesday.

The deal will be financed with 191.2 million new ordinary EQT shares, valued at 5.3 billion euros with the remainder paid in cash. The transaction is set to close in the fourth quarter and is expected to be “immediately high single digit accretive” to EQT’s earnings per share, the Stockholm-based company said.

“Expanding our footprint in Asia is part of the strategic objectives we set out at the time of our IPO,” EQT’s Chief Executive Officer Christian Sinding said.

EQT, which has grown into one of the largest listed private equity groups in Europe since it went public in 2019, says the deal will enable it take market share in Asia, which accounts for more than a third of global gross domestic product, and the region’s “underpenetrated private markets.” Those private markets are expected to grow at almost twice the rate of global private markets and investors are set to materially increase their private markets allocations in the region, the Swedish company said.

Baring Private Equity Asia, with 17.7 billion euros of assets under management, will be renamed BPEA EQT Asia and will continue to be led by current CEO Jean Eric Salata. The company invests in mid to large-cap companies in the region, mainly focused on private equity, but also real estate and more recently in growth companies, EQT said.