By Anshuman Daga
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - KKR & Co (N:KKR) has shelved a plan to sell Singapore-based Goodpack, which provides shipping containers and logistics services, after the coronavirus outbreak hit valuations, sources with knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday.
The private equity group had received bids from a few consortiums after tapping more than a dozen potential buyers late last year, the sources said, adding that a deal could have valued Goodpack at about $2 billion.
"Till about six weeks ago, bidders were interested and a deal looked likely but there's a lot of uncertainty in the current environment," said one of the sources.
The sources declined to be identified as the shelving of the deal has not been made public. KKR declined to comment.
A successful deal would have ranked as one of the largest private-equity backed sales in Asia excluding Japan and Australia for the past few years, according to data from Refinitiv.
KKR acquired Goodpack for about S$1.4 billion ($985 million)in 2014 and delisted it from Singapore Exchange. Goodpack then changed senior management, expanded into new markets such as food and chemicals and set up offices in Europe and the United States.
Goodpack's network is embedded in the supply chain of many multinational companies and its business is expected to weather any short-term downturn, the source said.
It also caters to global customers in the rubber and automotive sectors with operations across 80 countries and about 5,000 delivery and collection points.
The coronavirus pandemic has prompted governments around the world to impose social distancing and other containment measures that have brought many businesses to a near standstill.
The value of deals in Asia-Pacific fell 20% in the first three months of 2020 versus a year earlier, data from Refinitiv shows.