Comment / Analysis: SATS + WFS – the Olympus of hybrid reverse mergers

ID 18616753 © Chance Buell | Dreamstime.com

Scratching the surface of the SATS + WFS deal disclosed today, the obvious headline M&A story is that one rather small provider of food and gateway services, as the Singaporean suitor defines itself, is doubling down to acquire a leveraged French handler, which fetched a hefty €2.25bn enterprise value (EV) to agree the sale.

That equates to S$3.1bn, which isn’t far away from SATS’s own enterprise value at between S$3.9bn and S$4.5bn, depending on whether we abide by forward or trailing EV ...