Blackstone, Blue Owl & Ares Lead $2.65B Loan for Permira's $6.9B Squarespace Take-Private Deal

Mon 05/13/2024 04:09 PM EDT

Reporting: Paola Aurisicchio Michael Haley

A group of private credit funds, including Blackstone , Blue Owl Capital , and Ares Management Corporation , are leading a $2.65 billion loan backing private equity firm Permira ’s $6.9 billion take-private acquisition of website builder company Squarespace according to sources.

Pricing for Squarespace’s $2.65 billion loan is expected to be around SOFR+500 bps, according to sources.

Permira today announced the acquisition, which, including debt, is valued at $6.9 billion on an enterprise value basis and at more than $6.6 billion on an equity value basis. Squarespace shareholders will receive $44 per share under the deal, a premium of 15% over the stock’s closing level on May 10, according to the takeover announcement.

The transaction will take Squarespace private. The company’s founder and CEO, Anthony Casalena, took it public in 2021.

As part of the agreement with Permira, Casalena will roll over a substantial majority of his existing equity and will continue to be one of the largest shareholders when the transaction is closed. He will continue to serve as chief executive officer and board chairman.

Current growth equity investor General Atlantic and venture capital firm Accel, which with Casalena represent about 90% of Squarespace’s voting shares, have agreed to vote in favor of the deal.

The transaction is expected to close by the fourth quarter of this year.

Blackstone and Ares declined to comment. Permira and Blue Owl did not respond when reached for comment.

Squarespace provides software as a service for website building and hosting. The company said it had canceled its investor day scheduled for Wednesday, May 15.

Squarespace did not respond when reached for comment.

Disclosure: Funds associated with Permira hold a majority interest in the parent company of Reorg.