CVC in Exclusive Talks to Buy Barclays's iShares

CVC Capital Partners is in exclusive talks with Barclays PLC to buy its exchange-traded funds business iShares, people familiar with the situation told Dow Jones Newswires Tuesday.
The price is around £3 billion ($4.28 billion) and doesn't include the securities lending business, these people said. Barclays would get warrants equivalent to 20% in iShares as part of the deal, one person familiar with the situation said, but added that the terms of the warrants have yet to be ironed out. The warrants would allow Barclays to participate in any upside in the value of iShares in the future. The deal, expected to be completed by the end of the week, would be a coup for the London-based buyout firm, which entered the auction relatively late in the process.
Other bidders for iShares included a group comprising Hellman & Friedman and Apax Partners, and another consortium made up of Colony Capital and Bain Capital. Goldman Sachs is also likely to have put in a bid, people familiar with the situation said. The £3 billion price tag is equivalent to 10 times the business' earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.