Zero-Money Leveraged Takeovers

“*If a deal’s any good, you should be able to do it with no money.*”

“Gibbs handed over his A4 sheet of analysis, saying, ‘Look, James this is a good deal, we need funding, here are the facts.’ He then had to wait three months while Wardley’s analysts went to work on the figures to confirm Gibbs’ calculations. With that hurdle crossed, Gibbs hired Yonge as his investment banker for the takeover bid with a large success fee. The generous fee encouraged Yonge to pull all the strings necessary with his parent, the Hong Kong Bank, to lend the New Zealanders 100 per cent of the money required for the bid. Since Gibbs and Farmer were using a fresh company to make the bid, Tappenden Nominees, which had only $100 capital of its own, this wasn’t straightforward. Gibbs says:”