Cash holdings: UK corporates’ £109bn warchest increasingly a rival to private equity in M&A July 26, 2021 UK corporates have seen their aggregate net cash holdings rise from £20bn to £109bn since March 2020 and the start of the Covid pandemic, a jump of 500 per cent. The build up in cash balances has been so dramatic that UK corporates are increasingly seen as a serious rival to private equity funds in [...]
Carlyle seeks to raise up to $27bn in largest ever private equity fund July 23, 2021 Global investment firm The Carlyle Group is looking to raise as much as $27bn in what would represent the industry’s biggest ever buyout fund. Carlyle is in discussions with investors about the size of the fund, according to Bloomberg reports citing insiders, which could see the total change. If the buyout group achieves its target [...]
Archie Norman granted £1.75m ‘singing-on’ fee to join board of Bridgepoint July 22, 2021 Chairman of M&S Archie Norman has been offered a rare signing-on fee of £1.75m to join the board of newly floated buyout group Bridgepoint as the senior independent director. As Bridgepoint took the unusual step of listing on the London Stock Exchange on Wednesday, Norman’s onboarding fee was buried in registration documents detailing the terms [...]
Morrisons shareholders to vote on Fortress-led takeover bid on 16 August July 22, 2021 Shareholders in Morrisons will vote on a £6.3bn takeover bid from a trio of private investment groups led by SoftBank-owned Fortress on 16 August. In a document outlining Fortress Investment’s offer, Morrisons today said a court meeting and a general meeting of shareholders would be held on the August date. Fortress’ offer for the British [...]
Bridgepoint shares swell 26 per cent upon rare London IPO July 21, 2021 Shares in private equity firm Bridgepoint surged upon its London stock exchange debut on Wednesday, in the first major UK listing for the industry in decades. The buyout group, which has around €27.4bn of assets under management across equity and debt funds, set a share price of 350 pence per share in an announcement on [...]
BlackRock smashes profit estimates as assets reach almost $10 trillion July 14, 2021 Blackrock has reported a 14 per cent rise in quarterly profit and a record $9.5tn in assets under management, signalling increased investor confidence in a post-pandemic economic recovery. The asset management giant posted a second quarter profit of $1.378bn (£994m) or $8.92 per share, up from $1.214bn and $7.85 per share a year earlier. Its [...]
Bridgepoint sets London IPO of up to £2.9bn July 14, 2021 Private equity firm Bridgepoint’s London IPO could value the company at as much as £2.9bn, in the first major UK listing for the industry in decades. The buyout group, which has around €27.4bn of assets under management across equity and debt funds, is looking to raise up to £789m when it lists on the London [...]
Dan Loeb’s Third Point rejects investor call for meeting July 13, 2021 The £1bn UK investment company denied investors a meeting to tackle its share price discount and claimed doing so would be legally “ineffective.” Dan Loeb’s Third Point Investors Limited (TPIL) has hit back at a group of activist investors in the latest clash over how the firm is run, by rejecting their calls for a [...]
UK tech on track for second record-breaking year of Asian investment July 13, 2021 The booming UK tech sector received almost twice the amount of Asian capital in the first six months of 2021 as it did during the whole of 2020, paving the way for a second record year of regional investment. By the end of June, Asian and Middle Eastern investors funnelled over £1.7bn into UK tech [...]
Tide banking valued at $650m, after securing $100m in funding July 12, 2021 Tide Banking, the UK fintech startup, has raised over $100m in Series C funding, bringing its valuation to over $650m (£468m), the company announced today. The four-year-old startup has raised a total of $200m to date including the latest funding. The injection of cash will allow the company to grow its market share, and expand [...]