Apollo outbids CEO for EGL Inc.

Private equity firm Apollo Management has lots of discipline when it comes to valuations on its buyouts. So when the firm competes on a deal, the valuation is usually pretty low.

Back in March, a group of investors -- CEO of EGL (James Crane) as well as private equity firms Centerbridge Partners LP and Woodbridge Co. -- made a $38 per share offer for EGL (NASDAQ: EAGL).

According to Apollo, it was left out in the cold. Not to be outdone, the firm made its own offer. It was certainly much better at $43 per share or $2 billion, compared to the earlier offer of $38 a share.

Apollo controls Ceve, which is in the warehousing business. It should have synergies with EGL, which is in the freight forwarding industry.

Well, as should be no surprise, EGL's special committee likes the Apollo offer much better, calling it "superior."

And it looks like it's the end of the bidding. EGL's stock price is up only $0.09 to $42.30.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.