L.A. merger activity continues at healthy pace.

Local mergers and acquisitions held steady in February with 64 deals totaling $7.1 billion, up slightly from the previous month and the same number as a year ago.

Indeed, the number of mergers and acquisitions has averaged about 60 a month for the past year as the private equity market both nationally and locally has flourished.

"We have a really healthy M&A market right now," said Ed Villeneuve, managing director at Goldsmith Agio Helms, a Minneapolis-based investment bank that tracks M&A activity for the Business Journal.

Consumer-related industries, such as food and retail, experienced the highest level of deal flow in February, with the top two acquisitions related to the nutrition-supplement market.

Los Angeles-based Herbalife Ltd. got a $38-a-share buyout offer from its largest shareholder, investment firm Whitney & Co. based in New Canaan, Conn. The $2.7 billion deal comes four years after Whitney and another private equity firm bought Herbalife for $685 million. The company went public two years later.

Herbalife, which sells weight-loss and nutritional supplements, has been trying to broaden its international reach and most recently became one of 20 companies to obtain a license from the Chinese government allowing direct sales to consumers in China.

Herbalife had experienced a 20 percent decline in value since forecasting lower sales in Mexico in January 2006.

Another top purchase was the $1.65 billion acquisition of GNC Parent Corp., parent company of General Nutrition Centers Inc., by Los Angeles-based Ares Management LLC and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan. GNC, a Pittsburgh-based specialty retail chain selling supplements and health products, has 4,800 stores in the United States.

The food services sector saw one major deal. City of Commerce-based Smart & Final Inc. was sold to private equity firm Apollo Management LP of New York for $813 million. Apollo plans to work out a purchase agreement with Paris-based Casino Guichard-Perrachon SA, which owns 55 percent of Smart & Final's common stock.

The media sector experienced the most activity in February, amounting to about a quarter of all mergers and acquisitions in Los Angeles. Getty Images Inc. of Seattle paid $202 million for Los Angeles-based Baroda Ventures LLC, which provides visual content for print and online media.

Two entertainment Web sites were acquired by Los Angeles-based Gemstar-TV Guide International Inc. for an undisclosed price.

BY BOOYEON LEE

Staff Reporter

Holding Steady

Announced mergers and acquisitions in
L.A. County.

Month         Deals   Value *

March          67      12.2
April          65       5.9
May            88      11.8
June           84      20.0
July           81       4.7
August         67       4.4
September      71       5.0
October        63       4.3
November       53       6.1
December       62      21.4
January '07    59       3.0
February       64       7.1

(* in billions)

Source: Goldsmith Agio Helms