The Impacts of LBOs on the Performance of Acquired Firms:the French Case

This paper investigates the financial characteristics and changes in performance of French companies involved in a leveraged buy-out. The empirical study covers a sample of 161 MBOs in France from 1988 to 1994. The acquired firms outperform their counterparts in the same sector of activity before and after the buy-out. However, unlike findings concerning LBOs in the USA and the UK, the performance of French firms falls after the operation is completed. This downturn in performance seems to be less detrimental to former subsidiaries of groups than to former family businesses.leveraged buy-out;performance;French LBO;family businesses; group subsidiaries.

L'incidence des LBO sur la politique d'investissement et la gestion opérationnelle des firmes acquises:le cas français

In this paper, we study to what extent French LBOs investment policy and operations can explain their overperformance discrepancy. Our empirical study has been carried out on 132 French LBOs between 1989 and 1994. The results show that the abnormal falling of their economic return cannot be explained neither by overinvestment nor by a lack of efficiency in their working capital management. Nevertheless, abnormal in-creases in wages, in supplies and/or sales price reductions appear to be preeminent.Leveraged management buy-out;performance;investment policy; operation.

L'incidence des LBO sur la politique d'investissement et la gestion opérationnelle des firmes acquises:le cas français

Cet article étudie dans quelle mesure la politique d'investissement ainsi que la gestion opérationnelle des firmes françaises reprises dans le cadre d'un leveraged buy-out (LBO) peuvent expliquer la dégradation de leur surperformance après l'opération. L'étude empirique porte sur 132 LBO réalisés en France de 1989 à 1994. Les résultats obtenus montrent qu'on ne peut expliquer la réduction anormale de la rentabilité économique de ces firmes par un effet mécanique imputable à des surinvestissements, ni par une dérive de la gestion de leurs actifs et passifs d'exploitation. En revanche, l'augmentation des frais de personnels ainsi que des consommations intermédiaires et/ou des réductions de prix de vente à caractère commercial anormales joueraient un rôle majeur.Leveraged management buy-out;performance;politique d'investissement;gestion opérationnelle

The Impact of Lbos on Investment Policies and Operations of Acquired French Firms

This paper evaluates the extent that French LBO targets' investment policy and operations can account for their overperformance discrepancy. Our empirical study has been carried out on 132 French LBOs between 1989 and 1994. The results show that the abnormal plunge in economic return cannot be explained by overinvestments or by inefficient working capital management. Nevertheless, abnormal increases in wages, supplies and/or sales price reductions appear to be prominent.Leveraged buy-out;performance;investment policy;operations

Efficient gene targeting and foreign DNA removal by homologous recombination in the picoeukaryote Ostreococcus

With fewer than 8000 genes and a minimalist cellular organization, the green picoalga Ostreococcus tauri is one of the simplest photosynthetic eukaryotes. Ostreococcus tauri contains many plant-specific genes but exhibits a very low gene redundancy. The haploid genome is extremely dense with few repeated sequences and rare transposons. Thanks to the implementation of genetic transformation and vectors for inducible overexpression/knockdown this picoeukaryotic alga has emerged in recent years as a model organism for functional genomics analyses and systems biology. Here we report the development of an efficient gene targeting technique which we use to knock out the nitrate reductase and ferritin genes and to knock in a luciferase reporter in frame to the ferritin native protein. Furthermore, we show that the frequency of insertion by homologous recombination is greatly enhanced when the transgene is designed to replace an existing genomic insertion. We propose that a natural mechanism based on homologous recombination may operate to remove inserted DNA sequences from the genome

Comparative Analysis of Culture Conditions for the Optimization of Carotenoid Production in Several Strains of the Picoeukaryote Ostreococcus

International audienceMicroalgae are promising sources for the sustainable production of compounds of interest for biotechnologies. Compared to higher plants, microalgae have a faster growth rate and can be grown in industrial photobioreactors. The microalgae biomass contains specific metabolites of high added value for biotechnology such as lipids, polysaccharides or carotenoid pigments. Studying carotenogenesis is important for deciphering the mechanisms of adaptation to stress tolerance as well as for biotechnological production. In recent years, the picoeukaryote Ostreococcus tauri has emerged as a model organism thanks to the development of powerful genetic tools. Several strains of Ostreococcus isolated from different environments have been characterized with respect to light response or iron requirement. We have compared the carotenoid contents and growth rates of strains of Ostreococcus (OTTH595, RCC802 and RCC809) under a wide range of light, salinity and temperature conditions. Carotenoid profiles and productivities varied in a strain-specific and stress-dependent manner. Our results also illustrate that phylogenetically related microalgal strains originating from different ecological niches present specific interests for the production of specific molecules under controlled culture conditions

Use of plankton-derived vitamin B1 precursors, especially thiazole-related precursor, by key marine picoeukaryotic phytoplankton.

Several cosmopolitan marine picoeukaryotic phytoplankton are B1 auxotrophs requiring exogenous vitamin B1 or precursor to survive. From genomic evidence, representatives of picoeukaryotic phytoplankton (Ostreococcus and Micromonas spp.) were predicted to use known thiazole and pyrimidine B1 precursors to meet their B1 demands, however, recent culture-based experiments could not confirm this assumption. We hypothesized these phytoplankton strains could grow on precursors alone, but required a thiazole-related precursor other the well-known and extensively tested 4-methyl-5-thiazoleethanol. This hypothesis was tested using bioassays and co-cultures of picoeukaryotic phytoplankton and bacteria. We found that specific B1-synthesizing proteobacteria and phytoplankton are sources of a yet-to-be chemically identified thiazole-related precursor(s) that, along with pyrimidine B1 precursor 4-amino-5-hydroxymethyl-2-methylpyrimidine, can support growth of Ostreococcus spp. (also Micromonas spp.) without B1. We additionally found that the B1-synthesizing plankton do not require contact with picoeukaryotic phytoplankton cells to produce thiazole-related precursor(s). Experiments with wild-type and genetically engineered Ostreococcus lines revealed that the thiazole kinase, ThiM, is required for growth on precursors, and that thiazole-related precursor(s) accumulate to appreciable levels in the euphotic ocean. Overall, our results point to thiazole-related B1 precursors as important micronutrients promoting the survival of abundant phytoplankton influencing surface ocean production and biogeochemical cycling

Acclimation of a low iron adapted Ostreococcus strain to iron limitation through cell biomass lowering

International audienceIron is an essential micronutrient involved in many biological processes and is often limiting for primary production in large regions of the World Ocean. Metagenomic and physiological studies have identified clades or ecotypes of marine phytoplankton that are specialized in iron depleted ecological niches. Although less studied, eukaryotic picophytoplankton does contribute significantly to primary production and carbon transfer to higher trophic levels. In particular, metagenomic studies of the green picoalga Ostreococcus have revealed the occurrence of two main clades distributed along coast-offshore gradients, suggesting niche partitioning in different nutrient regimes. Here, we present a study of the response to iron limitation of four Ostreococcus strains isolated from contrasted environments. Whereas the strains isolated in nutrient-rich waters showed high iron requirements, the oceanic strains could cope with lower iron concentrations. The RCC802 strain, in particular, was able to maintain high growth rate at low iron levels. Together physiological and transcriptomic data indicate that the competitiveness of RCC802 under iron limitation is related to a lowering of iron needs though a reduction of the photosynthetic machinery and of protein content, rather than to cell size reduction. Our results overall suggest that iron is one of the factors driving the differentiation of physiologically specialized Ostreococcus strains in the ocean