_{DEAL OF THE MONTH}

Celsius Energizes Itself with a $1.8 Billion Deal

We’re back with another month of Buysiders, and guess what - we have another food deal!

Bankers this one is for you, because your favorite energy drink maker is expanding its portfolio. Celsius is spending $1.8 billion to acquire Alani Nu from its co-founders, Katy and Hayden Schneider, and Congo Brands’ co-founders, Max Clemons and Trey Steiger.

The purchase price is comprised of $1.3 billion of cash, $500 million worth of shares of Celsius stock (~9% pro forma ownership), and a $25 million earnout tied to 2025 performance.

This deal represents a 12.0x multiple on Adjusted EBITDA including synergies or 2.8x revenue. It’s certainly not cheap, but it is compelling.

Now you are probably asking yourself, how can Celsius afford to pay $1.3 billion in cash for something? That’s a fair question, you have to sell a lot of Celsius energy drinks to get that much cash, but they are raising $900 million of debt to fund the acquisition and paying the remaining $375 million using their balance sheet.

Pro forma leverage will remain modest at ~1.0x Net Debt / EBITDA, with $500 million of PF cash on the balance sheet at closing.

Now that you understand the purchase price, let’s dive into the strategic rationale a bit. Celsius identifies five key strategic rationales (below), but in my eyes the most compelling one is the second.

In 2024, Celsius grew 22%, adding $489 million and had $2.7 billion in retail sales. That makes it the second largest energy drink business by retail sales, and the largest in terms of growth. Alani on the other hand grew 64% to $0.8 billion in revenue, growing by $324 million in the year.

While historical growth doesn’t predict the future, these two brands combined are in a position to rundown Red Bull, which would be a big disruption of the market. If that isn’t convincing enough, Celsius and Alani accounted for 50% of the total growth in the energy drink category. 

In terms of impact to Celsius, it is expected that Adj. EBITDA will increase to $393 million with 20% margins, and is expected to be cashflow accretive in year 1, with $50 million of cost synergies expected.

Celsius’s share price has been struggling, down 62% in the past year; however, its share price jumped ~28% on the news of the acquisition, which is a sign that shareholders are supportive of the acquisition.

Overall, this is a hefty price tag, but the energy drink business has been popping off recently. If you’ll remember, Keurig Dr. Pepper bought 60% of Ghost for $990 million (implying a 100% equity value of $1.7 billion). That implies a TEV / Revenue multiple for Ghost of ~3x, which means that Celsius is certainly not overpaying for this deal. Overall, hopefully both of these deals workout because I need as much caffeine as possible to get through my days.

_{PRESENTED BY HERON FINANCE}

Unlock the Power of Private Credit

Investing in private credit on your own requires navigating two difficult problems—complex due diligence and challenging fund access.

Heron Finance solves both. They make it easy for accredited investors to diversify their portfolios, generate passive income, and let automation do the heavy lifting.

Here’s how it works:

• Fund Selection: Heron’s proprietary scoring model identifies the best-of-the-best funds from the world’s leading private credit managers like Ares, Apollo, and more.

• Personalized Portfolio: Using the world’s leading private credit funds, they build a private credit portfolio tailored to your risk tolerance.

• Automated Investing and Rebalancing: You invest, sit back, and start earning passive income each month from exposure to 1000s of high-quality loans.

With target yields of 7-12% and no lock-ups, Heron Finance brings institutional-grade private credit investing to the next generation of investors.*

_{NEWS ROUNDUP}

Top Reads

• TPG aims to double its AUM in 2025

• General Catalyst is in the early stages of considering an IPO

• HSBC plans for significant staff reductions

• Steve Schwarzman’s pay tops $1 billion

• Thoma Bravo raises first European fund at ~$2 billion 

• Roark nears $1 billion deal for Dave’s Hot Chicken

• General Atlantic acquires KAYALI fragrances from Huda Beauty

• Goldman Sachs Projects Strong M&A Rebound in 2025

• Young entrepreneurs rise as private equity's newest stars

• Healthcare Startups Poised for Acquisition Spree in 2025

• Private equity dominates wealth management M&A activity

• KKR nears $14 billion for buyout fund in show of momentum

_{SPONSOR-BACKED DEAL OF THE MONTH}

Blackstone Finds Safe Harbors

Steve Schwarzman was looking for a new place to park his yacht and Blackstone Infrastructure delivered nicely with the $5.65 billion acquisition of Safe Harbor Marinas from Sun Communities.

Safe Harbor operates 138 marinas across the US and Puerto Rico, which makes it one of the leaders in boat storage and servicing.

Sun Communities is selling down Safe Harbor to deleverage and is set to realize ~$5.5 billion of proceeds and a book gain of ~$1.3 billion.

Blackstone isn’t doing this deal for synergies as it is just an investment for the infrastructure fund; however, this deal does help streamline Sun’s strategic focus, making it a pure-play mobile home and RV operator, which will account for ~90% of NOI going forward.

Reducing the existing $7.3 billion debt burden by ~$5 billion would certainly help alleviate some pressure with near-term maturities looming. Leverage will drop from 6.0x to 2.5x-3.0x, which should improve the company’s credit rating as well.

Of course, Sun Communities’ investors have responded well to this news, with the stock up ~7% on the news of the acquisition.

Overall, Blackstone Infrastructure has been able to grow its AUM by 40% year-over-year since inception to $55 billion, which is a testament to their skill as investors. It is likely that this deal will be another home run for them, I just hope they give us a parking space for our yacht (well, we may need to get a a few more subscribers before we buy one of those).

_{INT’L DEAL OF THE MONTH}

Prosus Takes a Bite Out of Just Eat Takeaway

Dutch tech investor Prosus came back from its 6-month holiday hungry and ready to satisfying its cravings—this time with a $4.1 billion acquisition of European food delivery giant Just Eat Takeaway.

The offer represents a 60% premium to Just Eat’s unaffected share price and caused the stock to run up ~55% on the day of the announcement.

The purchase price of $4.1 billion represents a ~14x TEV / EBITDA multiple, excluding GrubHub. Just Eat recently sold GrubHub for $650 million to online takeout startup Wonder, which is a massive haircut from the $7.3 billion that it paid for GrubHub.

Prosus, which is majority owned by Naspers out of South Africa, wasn’t quite so luckily, with its share price tumbling ~9% on the day of the announcement.

Prosus also owns a 28% stake in the leading food service delivery company in Europe, Delivery Hero. Its share price was relatively unchanged by the announcement.

All in all, Prosus shareholders clearly don’t love the idea of paying such a large premium for Just Eat, but hopefully this deal works out better for Prosus than GrubHub; otherwise, some partners may find themselves looking for their next meals.