Hero Deals (cases worth studying)

thx gordon for reviving this thread, here's a list (some repeated) courtesy of GPT. Some not truly hero, but still more unique than the classic buy, hold, recapitalize and resell at a higher multiple/adds-on. trim or cut some of if needed/irrelevant (i went quickly and cut some), but it's a good start. some are operational, not only financial engineering

Liability management, priming, and asset-shielding plays

• Caesars, protect returns and move crown jewels out of reach in a downside case
• J Crew, trapdoor the IP to an unrestricted sub, debt exchanges follow on your terms
• Neiman Marcus, MyTheresa drop down to ring fence value, creditors chase air
• Serta Simmons, non pro rata uptier, redefine pro rata while everyone is looking the other way
• Boardriders, dual step uptier, reopen the capital structure midstream
• Revlon 2020, priming loan and mistaken lien release chaos, litigation as a financing tool
• Envision Healthcare, carve out and priming plus sponsor rescue, delay the inevitable and reshuffle recoveries
• TPC Group, exchange and backstop engineering, priority shuffle in plain sight
• Travelport, sequential exchanges to buy time, trading paper for position
• Incora, roll ups meet aggressive priming, suppliers fund the fix until they do not

Asset flip, peak-pricing, and de-risking masterclass

• EOP, back to back asset sales at peak of market to lock in gains and derisk the hold
• Hilton, buy all the real estate, restructure the liabilities, refi when the world reopens, list into a multiple rerate
• Merlin Entertainments, buy build theme parks and mid market attractions, cycle the asset, take public, take private again
• Invitation Homes, harvest the foreclosure wave, institutionalize single family rentals, public markets pay up for yield
• BioMed Realty, buy core life science campuses, show mark to market rent growth, recycle to a premium buyer
• QTS Realty, data center scale plus long leases, exit to infrastructure money at a scarcity premium
• Center Parcs, operational uplift and capex discipline, exit to core capital hungry for duration

GP and manager-level structuring, the meta game

• Kinder Morgan, segregate yield investors from fee streams, the GP alone becomes a monster asset
• KKR and KFN, GP merges with captive listed fund, build a permanent balance sheet for the manager
• Refinitiv, carve Thomson Reuters F and R, re-rate with cost takeout, trade up into LSEG currency
• Ingersoll Rand and Gardner Denver, sponsor creates the industrial remix, merger and spin to crystallize value
• Visma, partial sales and perpetual recaps, private perpetual capital meets recurring revenue flywheel

Carve outs and platforming

• Authentic Brands, isolate high multiple brands and licensing, push low multiple ops into JVs
• KION from Linde, operations cleaned and scaled, IPO into a different shareholder base
• Upfield from Unilever Spreads, fix the factory footprint, premiumize, exit optionality at scale
• TK Elevator, take the crown jewel, lean into services mix, delever with disposals then relist when ready
• Cobham, take private, shed non core, face the politics, sell focused assets back to strategics

Roll-ups with real pricing power

• TransDigm, buy niche aero, raise price with discipline, cash waterfalls pay back the bet many times
• Danaher style, not PE but the lesson holds, buy good, make better, compounding in plain sight
• JAB Coffee, assemble a global coffee system, efficiency and brand, exit to public multiples when it suits
• Ardagh, packaging platform plus balance sheet choreography, equity created in the capital stack
• PAI and Froneri with Nestlé, stitch ice cream systems, scale drives margin and shelf power

Tech and software, recurring revenue factories

• Dell and EMC, tracking stock gymnastics around VMware, collapse the structure on sponsor terms
• Silver Lake and Skype, carve from eBay, fix product, flip to Microsoft at strategic scarcity value
• Thoma Bravo and Ellie Mae, private improvements, sell to ICE where the adjacency is obvious
• Vista and Marketo, take private, fix go to market, sell to Adobe at a strategic premium
• Permira and Informatica, take private, cloud transition out of the spotlight, relist into new multiple bands
• Zendesk, take private after broken sale, patient operational reset outside quarterly glare
• Citrix and Tibco, merge under sponsor control, cost and cross sell, debt does the heavy lifting
• TeamViewer, carve fix price, list into a frothy SaaS tape, recycle again when the music slows
• Ping Identity, ping pong between listings and take privates, sponsors arbitrate the cadence

Telecom, towers, fiber, and data pipes

• Zayo, take private to finish capex cycle, refi and carve paths for a core infra exit
• TDC Denmark, classic multi sponsor telco LBO, delever with assets, dividend machine for a season
• Altice carve outs, roll ups plus heavy leverage, aggressive cost program funds the story until it does not
• GTT and Interoute, buy connectivity, sell when enterprise mix stalls, lesson in integration and funding
• American Tower and Crown Castle stake deals with sponsors, tower cash flows priced like long bonds

Healthcare and life sciences

• HCA, buy, recap, invest in throughput, IPO, dividend machine on stable reimbursement
• PPD, take private, scale and quality, sell to Thermo Fisher where revenue synergy is real
• Athenahealth, sponsor plus activist, delist, fix operations and pricing, sell into sponsor club at a richer multiple
• Bausch and Lomb, buy improve sell to pharma, later spin illustrates the value of pure play optics
• Medline, large scale club deal, leverage patient operating improvement, debt markets fund big and cheap

Consumer and retail, the playbook and the land mines

• PetSmart and Chewy, buy brick retailer, surface the high multiple e-commerce jewel, covenant chutes everywhere
• Dollar General, defensive unit economics, roll out and recap, public markets reward consistency
• Dunkin, refranchise and simplify, IPO to a market that pays for royalty streams
• Burger King and 3G, zero based budgeting at scale, refranchising converts capex into cash
• Michaels, delist to fix, re-IPO, sell again when multiples allow
• Boots Alliance, cross border with a strategic partner, scale pharmacy, later strategic recombination with Walgreens
• Toys R Us, cautionary tale, capex starvation plus secular decline, lenders become the owner of a liquidation

Energy and commodity exposure

• TXU and Energy Future Holdings, size and timing against gas prices, covenant freedom is not a hedge for macro (failed)
• LyondellBasell, distressed entry and exit, clean capital structure plus commodity upswing, huge equity creation
• EP Energy, sponsor rescue plus exchanges, timing and commodity beta can overwhelm any structure
• Kinder Morgan roll up, debt heavy but scale creates optionality, a lesson in cost of capital engineering

Europe cross border and special situations

• Amadeus, take private by BC and Cinven, transform, relist into the right investor base
• Axel Springer, founder alignment plus sponsor capital, take private to pivot to digital and classifieds
• Scout24 and AutoScout24, sell the piece the market overvalues, private ownership resets incentives
• Stada, tender after governance grind, pharma generics roll up under tighter control
• Visma in the Nordics, hold through cycles, partial exits and recaps, compounding while staying private
• Dometic, fix and scale, list into a market that pays for outdoor living
• Ziggo, telco consolidation, sell to Liberty Global, a lesson in selling into the strategic logic

Business services and industrials

• First Data, heavy debt plus merchant scale, clean up under KKR, exit through strategic merger into Fiserv
• BMC Software, delist to fix product and margins, recycle into a strategic sale at a cleaner story
• Vertiv, carve from Emerson, sponsor led operational fix, public listing via SPAC when windows are wide open
• Gates, industrial belt plus aftermarket cash flows, list when investors pay up for resilience
• Allied Universal, security guard roll up meets private credit, scale economics in a fragmented market

Media, sports, and entertainment

• Formula One under CVC, financial engineering meets promoter control, sell to Liberty for a long runway of monetization
• Endeavor and Silver Lake, assemble media assets and agencies, list into a narrative of IP and platform
• Nielsen, consortium take private, debt funds the fix, exit path likely toward strategic or re-IPO

Financials and payments

• Vantiv and Worldpay, sponsor custody and recombination, sell into FIS at a technology and scale premium
• Paysafe, take private, retool, SPAC back to public
• Refinitiv to LSEG, multiple expansion built on industrial logic, not just cost out