BUYOUTS are back in vogue after embattled e-commerce firm THG became the latest British business on the receiving end of a private equity bid.
The bid by private equity firm Apollo marks five takeover offers from buyout firms in as many days.
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The takeover approach for THG, which has crumpled in value since its £5.4billion listing three years ago, follows almost a year of speculation about whether founder Matt Moulding would get too fed up with the City, investors and media scrutiny and take it private again.
Mr Moulding has said his experience of being on the London stock market has “sucked from start to finish”.
Last year THG rejected two takeover approaches from Nick Candy, the property tycoon, and Belerion Capital, which is run by one of THG’s board directors.
Mr Moulding said Belerion’s £2billion offer undervalued the business.
News of Apollo’s interest sent shares in THG rocketing by 44 per cent, or 29.66p, to close up at 95.76, valuing the business at £858million.
Apollo was reported to be looking at the business, along with investment firm rivals Leonard Green and Advent, back in February 2022 but no bid ever appeared — until now.
Apollo, which yesterday cemented its interest in the UK with the announcement of a new London office, is also going after oil services and engineering firm John Wood Group.
Apollo has been stalking the firm for the past few months, with four bids already rejected.
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Wood’s board has now said it would consider a 240p-a-share bid, valuing the business at £1.66billion.
The buyout also follows weekend news that Carlyle has taken an interest in buying a minority stake in Manchester United while payments firm Network International has received a £2.1billion bid from another big beast of private equity, CVC.
Animal health business Dechra Pharmaceuticals has also bowed to a £4.6billion bid by Swedish private equity firm EQT.
Last month events organiser Hyve Group also accepted a £481million takeover from a US private equity firm, Providence.
Buyout firms typically own companies for just three to five years.
The string of deals has sparked life back into the market after a drought of mergers, acquisitions and stock market listings.
But now that markets think both the US and the UK central banks will slow their interest rate rises, it has given buyout firms more confidence that they can sort out financing packages for takeovers.
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SONIC IS A BEAKY BLINDER
HEDGEHOGS and Angry Birds could soon be teaming up in a video game merger between Japan’s Sega and Finland’s Rovio Entertainment.
Sega Sammy Holdings, the maker of Sonic the Hedgehog, said it will pay £625million for Rovio, which created one of the biggest mobile phone games over a decade ago.
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At the height of its popularity, in 2016, Rovio teamed up with Columbia Pictures to produce box office hit The Angry Birds Movie.
Alexandre Pelletier-Normand, boss of Rovio, welcomed the deal and said that he had “grown up playing Sonic the Hedgehog”.
Rovio said fans had downloaded five billion games.
The firm made £279million in sales last year but profits had halved to £25million.
Its ambition of broadening beyond Angry Birds has never been realised, with the brand still accounting for two-thirds of its revenues.
SHARES
BARCLAYS down 3.60 to 154.28
BP up 2.80 to 543.80
CENTRICA up 0.90 to 114.50
HSBC down 6.20 to 578.10
LLOYDS down 0.49 to 48.45
M&S up 1.40 to 168.65
NATWEST down 4.50 to 271.3
ROYAL MAIL up 15.20 to 246.80
SAINSBURY’S up 2.70 to 279
SHELL down 7 to 2,455
TESCO up 3.90 to 272.10
WARNING ON CASH
CASH will become “less usable in everyday transactions”, a Bank of England chief has warned.
Deputy Governor Sir Jon Cunliffe said that as more high street shops and restaurants choose to take contactless payments only, use of coins and notes will “decline further”.
He said the trend adds further weight to the argument for the Bank launching its own digital currency — nicknamed “Britcoin”.
SORRELL TUMOUR SURGERY
ADVERTISING mogul Sir Martin Sorrell has confirmed that he has had keyhole surgery to remove a tumour.
The boss of S4 Capital said yesterday that all was “business as usual” after his “excellent recovery”.
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Sir Martin, 78, started S4 Capital in 2018, months after a bitter departure from WPP, the advertising and marketing giant he founded in 1985.
He has since rapidly grown the new firm through a string of takeovers and last year it made £1billion in sales.
In a note to staff, released on London’s stock exchange, he said: “My doctors have advised me that during this treatment, I should be able to work as normal most of the time”.
The globetrotter, who has previously said he rarely spends a week in one place, has reduced his travel load for a few weeks.
Despite the health news, shares in S4 Capital were relatively unmoved yesterday.
MORE than 11,000 UK beauty salons are struggling to survive as clients forgo treatments in the cost-of-living crisis.
A USwitch poll found salons are raising prices and cutting staff as one in four customers opt for cheaper haircare.
BARC ‘NOT IN CLEAR’ ON STALEY
BARCLAYS has questions to answer over its backing of former boss Jes Staley despite his links to dead paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, a corporate governance service insists.
Institutional Shareholder Services yesterday voiced concerns about the bank’s judgment from 2019 to 2021.
“While it is accepted that the board could only act on the information available to it at the time, there are questions over the judgment exercised during this period, given the particularly disturbing nature of the charges against Epstein,” ISS said.
Staley stepped down from Barclays in 2021 but continued in his job for almost a year after the financial regulator started investigating his relationship with Epstein.
