Sodexo (Baa1 Neg/BBB+/BBB+) is reportedly eyeing Aramark (Ba3 Pos/BB) (€17b) follow up #3
Some equity takes hereand echoing our regulation concerns - but as we said market is highly fragmented. We haven't found any management shared figures but estimates from 3rd parties would peg combined global share in the teens; somewhat similar to ATD/7-11 tie-up in the US which FTC has pre-emptively begun investigating. Not parallel to the over 50% the FTC alleges TPR/CPRI have in accessible luxury - but as that has shown definition of the market is open to interpretation.
RBC flagging combined group could increase competition for local issuer Compass (A2/A) is worthwhile to note but 1) it is the margin leader among the three (~9% vs. ~6%) 2) for credit it has the lowest levered BS by some margin (net 1.4x & Moody's 1.9x) 3) is guiding to continued double-digit growth alongside margin expansion. New 9Y pricing through earlier this month reflects sentiment on that.