Luke Johnson hires bankers for Gail’s Bakery sale November 6, 2019 Serial entrepreneur Luke Johnson has reportedly appointed bankers to explore a sale of Gail’s Bakery. Johnson has appointed bankers at Nomura to oversee the sale of Gail’s parent company Bread Holdings, Sky News reported. A sale process is expected to be launched in the next few months with a price tag of £150m, the report [...]
Investment bank in talks for £500m Neil Woodford healthcare portfolio November 4, 2019 A consortium led by a boutique life sciences investment bank is in talks to acquire £500m of healthcare assets bought by former star fund manager Neil Woodford. A WG partners-led consortium is the frontrunner to buy the stakes in roughly 15 companies held by Woodford Investment Management, Sky News reported. The potential deal follows Woodford’s [...]
Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot owner PSA have agreed a merger which could reshape the car industry October 31, 2019 Fiat Chrysler (FCA) and Peugeot owner PSA have agreed to go after a merger which would create a €180bn (£155bn) revenue automotive industry titan. PSA and FCA said they had decided to “work towards” a deal which would give shareholders in each company 50 per cent ownership of the new firm, creating the fourth-largest car [...]
Goals Soccer Centres bought by Soccerworld and private equity firm Inflexion after accounting fiasco October 31, 2019 Five-a-side football operator Goals Soccer Centres has been acquired today by rival Soccerworld and private equity firm Inflexion. Goals has been hit by an accounting scandal after its auditor BDO discovered it had mis-declared VAT amounting to at least £13.2m. The company delisted its shares from Aim in August after it declared it was unable [...]
Q&A: What is behind Fiat Chrysler’s proposed mega-merger with Peugeot? October 30, 2019 After Fiat Chrysler’s (FCA) deal with Renault fell apart over the summer, chairman John Elkann has wasted no time in finding a new suitor – Peugeot-owner PSA. The two European automakers are in talks over a potential tie-up that could create a £36bn giant, in a move which highlights how urgently car makers are looking [...]
Men dominate investment banking deals, research finds October 28, 2019 A new ranking of Europe’s top investment bankers reveals that no women were included in the top 10 by number of deals over £100m. According to the research by data platform Mergerlinks , the top deal doer in Europe in the year ended the first half of 2019 was Rothschild & Co banker Dominic Hollamby [...]
Can Freshfields’ young guns retain the Magic Circle firm’s private equity crown? October 27, 2019 Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s youthful private equity team are on the frontline of the struggle between UK and US law firms to control the City legal market. The firm has led the European private equity deal rankings for the last three years, seeing off the challenge of both Magic Circle and US rivals. However, the shock [...]
Competition watchdog to examine £500m Ovo Energy-SSE deal October 24, 2019 The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said today it was looking into whether Ovo Energy’s £500m acquisition of energy supplier SSE’s retail arm will harm competition. SSE’s retail energy business supplies around 3.5m households in the UK. The watchdog said it was inviting comments on the transaction from interested parties until 6 November. Alistair Phillips-Davies, [...]
KPMG in exclusive talks to sell pensions arm to private equity firm for more than £200m October 23, 2019 KPMG today confirmed it is in exclusive talks to sell its pensions advisory arm to private equity firm Exponent. The Big Four firm is in discussions to sell its pensions unit to the former Quorn-owner for more than £200m, Sky News reported. Read more: KPMG launches £100m cost-cutting programme The division has more than 20 [...]
Goals Soccer Centres: Sports Direct says ‘skulduggery’ wiped out shareholders October 23, 2019 Retailer Sports Direct has today blasted the management of Goals Soccer Centres after the five-a-side football firm delisted from Aim after an accounting scandal. Goals suspended shares in March after saying its financial results contained a misdeclaration of VAT, leaving a black hole in its accounts of more than £12m. Read more: Goals Soccer Centres [...]