M&A Deal Summary

EQT, CPP Investments and Temasek Holdings Acquire Keywords Studios

On July 3, 2024, private equity firm EQT, pension CPP Investments and sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings acquired digital media company Keywords Studios for 2.1B GBP

Acquisition Highlights
  • This is EQT’s 3rd, CPP Investments’ 2nd and Temasek Holdings’ 2nd transaction in the Digital Media sector.
  • This is EQT’s 8th, CPP Investments’ 15th and Temasek Holdings’ 0th largest (disclosed) transaction.
  • This is EQT’s 2nd, CPP Investments’ 1st and Temasek Holdings’ 1st transaction in Ireland.

M&A Deal Summary
Date 2024-07-03
Target Keywords Studios
Sector Digital Media
Buyer(s) EQT
CPP Investments
Temasek Holdings
Deal Type Going Private
Deal Value 2.1B GBP
Advisor(s) Robey Warshaw LLP
Deutsche Numis (Financial)
DLA Piper
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett (Legal)

Target

Keywords Studios

Dublin, Ireland
Keywords Studios is an international technical services provider to the global video games industry. The company provides integrated art creation, localization, testing, audio, and customer care services across 50 languages and 14 game platforms to a blue-chip client base in more than 15 countries. It has a strong market position, providing services to 20 of the top 25 most prominent game companies, including Microsoft, Supercell, King, Bandai Namco, Sony, Konami, Electronic Arts, 2K, and Square Enix. Recent titles worked on include Tom Clancy's The Division, Halo 5: Guardians, Batman: Arkham Knight, Street Fighter V, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Clash Royale, and Mobile Strike. Keywords Studios was founded in 1998 and is based in Dublin, Ireland.

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Buyer(S) 3

Buyer

EQT

Stockholm, Sweden

Investor Investor Investor Investor Investor

Category Private Equity Firm
Founded 1994
PE ASSETS 242.0B EUR
Size Mega
Type Sector Agnostic
DESCRIPTION

EQT is a global private equity group that purses a variety of investment strategies around the world. EQT is divided into several investment disciplines, including private capital, real assets, credit, and venture. The Firm's private capital group targets large, market-leading enterprises (investment size of €125 to €1.5 billion) across Europe and the US, as well as mid-market, growth companies (investment size of €40 to €125 million) across the US, Europe, China, and Southeast Asia. The Firm's real assets group seeks to identify control or co-control equity investments (investment size of €500 to €1 billion) in medium-sized infrastructure companies that provide an essential service to society, are recession resilient, and have secure cash flows. EQT's credit group provides flexible, long-term debt capital solutions to medium-sized European businesses, across a wide range of sectors. EQT was established in 1994 and is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden.

DEAL STATS #
Overall 305 of 315
Sector (Digital Media) 3 of 3
Type (Going Private) 21 of 23
Country (Ireland) 2 of 3
Year (2024) 10 of 20
Size (of disclosed) 8 of 47
PREVIOUS DEAL
DATE TARGET DEAL TYPE VALUE
2024-06-28 idealista

Madrid, Spain

idealista is an online real estate marketplace that supports approximately 40,000 real estate agents and 38 million unique monthly visitors across Southern Europe, by providing an online real estate classifieds marketplace for home buyers and sellers. idealista was formed in 2000 and is based in Madrid, Spain.

Sell €2.9B
FOLLOWING DEAL
DATE TARGET DEAL TYPE VALUE
2024-08-07 Acronis

Schaffhausen, Switzerland

Acronis is a provider of virtualization, the explosion of data creation and the opportunities Cloud services offer are bringing new challenges to maintaining effective backup and disaster recovery programs for critical data. Acronis was founded in 2003 and is based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland.

Buy -
Buyer

CPP Investments

Investor Investor Investor Investor Investor

Category Pension
Founded 1997
Size Mega
Type Sector Agnostic
DESCRIPTION

CPP Investments is a Canadian pension fund focused on a variety of investing strategies, including public equities, debt, and alternative investments. The Firm's private equity arm looks to acquire direct stakes in private companies, as well as make fund investments and acquire secondary positions. For direct stakes in companies, CPP looks to invest across North American and Europe and seeks to commit a minimum of $150 million per transaction. CPP has no industry preferences however the Firm will not invest in real assets. CPP Investments was established in 1997 and is based in Toronto, Ontario.

DEAL STATS #
Overall 49 of 51
Sector (Digital Media) 2 of 2
Type (Going Private) 10 of 10
Country (Ireland) 1 of 1
Year (2024) 2 of 4
Size (of disclosed) 15 of 26
PREVIOUS DEAL
DATE TARGET DEAL TYPE VALUE
2024-05-06 Allete

Duluth, Minnesota, United States

Allete is an energy company operating Minnesota Power, an electric utility that serves 150,000 residents, 14 municipalities, and industrial customers. In addition to Minnesota Power, the company owns Superior Water, Light and Power, based in Superior, Wisconsin, Allete Clean Energy, based in Duluth; BNI Energy in Bismarck, N.D.; and New Energy Equity. ALLETE was founded in 1906 and is based in Duluth, Minnesota.

Buy $6.2B
FOLLOWING DEAL
DATE TARGET DEAL TYPE VALUE
2024-09-04 AirTrunk

North Sydney, Australia

AirTrunk is an Asia Pacific data center platform operating 800MW of capacity committed to customers and owns land that can support over 1GW of future growth across the region. AirTrunk is based in North Sydney, Australia.

Buy AU$24.0B
Buyer

Temasek Holdings

Investor Investor Investor Investor Investor

Category Sovereign Wealth Fund
Founded 1974
PE ASSETS 496.6B USD
Size Mega
Type Sector Agnostic
DESCRIPTION

Temasek Holdings is a state-owned investment holding company. Temasek is owned by the government of Singapore and invests directly and indirectly in a broad range of assets and sectors. Target sectors include financial services, telecommunications, media, technology, transportation, industrials, life science, consumer, real estate, energy, and resources. Temasek was formed in 1974 and is based in Singapore.

DEAL STATS #
Overall 33 of 33
Sector (Digital Media) 2 of 2
Type (Going Private) 1 of 1
Country (Ireland) 1 of 1
Year (2024) 1 of 1
PREVIOUS DEAL
DATE TARGET DEAL TYPE VALUE
2023-09-07 CAA

Los Angeles, California, United States

CAA is a talent and literary agency that represents the most creative and successful artists working in music, film, television, theatre, sports, and games, and provides a range of strategic marketing services to corporate clients. CAA was founded in 1975 and is based in Los Angeles, California.

Sell -
Mergr

Product

Company

Legal