New in brief

• Private equity firm Apax Partners has agreed to back a management buyout of Faceo, a European facilities management group, from joint shareholders Cegelec and Thales. Headquartered in France, Faceo provides various real estate services including property management, cleaning and security. Clients include Nestlé, Siemens and France Telecom. The deal will be financed through equity, senior debt arranged by Société Générale and mezzanine debt from Indigo. Serge Clemente, co-manager of Faceo, said the deal will allow the group to expand via further deals: “Thanks to the support of Apax Partners, we will be in a position to see through an ambitious development programme and grasp the best opportunities in terms of acquisitions, be they in France or in Europe to reach critical size.” Cegelec, an electrical engineering group, says the sale will allow it to focus on new acquisitions, as it saw Faceo as a non-core division.

• Delta Two, the Qatari state vehicle in detailed talks with the board of J Sainsbury, could see its £10.6bn (€15.3bn) possible bid derailed if it fails to satisfy demands from the supermarket’s pension fund. The potential bidders are met trustees of the scheme yesterday, led by chairman John Adshead, to try and resolve their differences. Delta Two has offered to put in £1bn to the scheme. Adshead has requested £1.75bn according to sources. The Sainsbury family, which owns around 18% of the shares, has indicated it will not support the offer proposals, unless this issue is resolved. A similar obstruction stopped the potential 582p a share bid from private equity group CVC earlier this year. Delta Two, which has a 25% stake in the company, has said it would offer 600p a share for the supermarket. Prominent members of the Sainsbury family previously said they would not accept anything less than that.

• AIM-listed retailer Monsoon again faces a takeover approach from the founding Simon family after chairman Peter Simon has made a 424p a share cash offer for the 858-store chain though his vehicle Drillgreat. Simon originally tried to take the group, in which his family has over three quarters of the shares, private in late 2005. But this attempt failed. The latest offer is being made via a scheme of arrangement. This requires 75% of shareholders to accept the proposals at a specially convened EGM. In theory therefore, it should be waived through. However, the family shareholders cannot vote at the EGM to approve the scheme, making it potentially more likely that unhappy shareholders can vote it down. And there is likely to be some disgruntlement from minority shareholders as the £755m (€1.1bn) offer is set at just a 4% premium to Monsoon’s recent closing price.