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Ending a year-long saga, Schneider Electric SA, a French electrical equipment maker, said Tuesday it had finalized a price of euro 3.7 billion ($3.65 billion) for the sale of Legrand SA to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. LP and France's Wendel Investissement SA. Details of the financing remained to be worked out, Schneider said, but those should be finalized shortly.
With assumed debt estimated at euro 1.4 billion, KKR and Wendel are paying at least 8.6 times Legrand's Ebitda in 2001 of euro 591 million.
The Legrand case had become a debacle for Schneider and a test for competition law after the European Commission refused to approve Schneider's takeover of Legrand, a competitor, in 2001. Regulators concluded the merger would create a dominant player in the low- voltage electrical components market. But...