BC Partners and Blackstone team up for Iglo The two private equity firms have teamed up after Blackstone withdrew from the auction at the end of last week. They now hope to share ownership of Iglo and to rotate the chairmanship annually if successful. However, the two firms will today bid below Permira's €2.8bn asking price and could be declined - at least initially. Permira will almost certainly have to investigate the option of keeping the company, which means having to refinance Iglo's €1.4bn of loans. However, with debt markets under stress, Permira is unlikely to be able to raise enough money to also pay management enough to keep them at the company, which owns Birds Eye and Bake to Perfection. Martin Glenn, Iglo's chief executive, is seen as central to taking the frozen foods business forward by helping it plan acquisitions such as Findus, which is currently at the mercy of a dog-fight between vulture fund Triton and owner Lion Capital. Before the auction, Mr Glenn's team had been promised a mega pay day of more than €30m if the sale attracted an offer of €3bn or more, which has not happened. If Permira kept Iglo without any cash deal for the management team, Mr Glenn would almost certainly quit. The scenario would also mean investors going without a pay day. This would be a disaster for Permira, which is currently trying to raise €6.5bn from its investors for a new fund. The BC Partners/Blackstone bid will also want tens of millions of pounds in deductions to cover Iglo's pension fund deficit, taxes and other debts on the balance sheet. The two firms have been promised around €1.6bn of debt from the banks, leaving them to find less than €1bn between them.