This week's round of dealmaking in the UK kicks off with Ascential's £1.4 billion sale of two bits of the group to marketing giant Omnicom and Apax.
This morning Ascential, the FTSE 250-listed business information and events group, announced a deal to sell its Digital Commerce unit to Omnicom for £741 million and also the sale of its product design unit (called WGSN) to buy out house Apax for £700 million...
Today's deals include CoStar Group's £99 million purchase of London-listed property website OnTheMarket.
The Nasdaq-listed company is paying 110p a share for OnTheMarket, which is at a premium of 56pc. Below is the link to the press release:
https://www.londonstockexchange.com/news-article/market-news/offer-for-onthemarket-plc/16173247..
A sustainability consultancy firm that works for technology giants such as Amazon, FTSE 100-listed retailer Tesco and the British government could be about to change hands for around £400 million.
People following the situation said Anthesis Group has hired advisers from Lazard to work on a "strategic review", which could lead to a sale of the business...
Shares in Applus Services, the Spanish industrial testing company, are on a tear this morning thanks to an overnight scoop from Reuters hacks.
Andres Gonzalez and Amy-Jo Crowley of Reuters report that several private equuity firms, includng Apollo and Apax, are considering offers for Applus.
A consortium formed by I Squared and TDR has also signalled potential appetite for a takeover of the EURO 1 billion company, according to Reuters piece...
Mark "The Kleinmanator" Kleinman, City Editor of Sky News, is on a bit of a run of good form.
Earlier this week Kleimanator, a former boss and colleague during our time working on The Daily Telegraph, together smoked out Liontrust's interest in purchasing ailing Switzerland-listed asset manager GAM Holding. Below is a link to his scoop story and the confirmation:..
Competitors like to write off little old Betaville but this website was punching above its weight in 2019, landing a series of exclusive genuine "scoops" throughout the year...
That's the end of that, then.
The hedgies attempt to squeeze some extra cash out of Apax, Warburg Pincus and the Canadian pension funds for Inmarsat ends as a damp squib after they effectively folded in this game of poker by withdrawaing their joint legal action at today's hearing at the Court to sanction the Scheme of Arrangment. Below is the link:..
To the Court for tomorrow's hearing to sanction Warburg Pincus and Apax's Scheme of Arrangement to take Inmarsat private.
The judge may be confronted by a bunch of angry hedgies who have been arguing the private equity firms should pay more or attach a contigent value right aspect to their deal because of developments in the US sattelite industry may mean Inmarsat is worth significantly more...
Tucked away in the back of the business section of my old employer - The Daily Telegraph - are some rather interesting comments from Gervais Williams, the respected fund manager, about the prospect of a pick up in dealmaking.
Williams, who runs the Diverse Income invesmtent trust - told Richard Evans, a rather nice former ex-colleague who writes the Questor column- that London-listed companies are at "unusually attractive valuations"...
So, that was close: just 78.9pc of Inmarsat shareholders voted to approve the Scheme of Arrangement at today's court meeting.
The private equity consortium led by Apax and Warburg Pincus needed 75pc of Inmarsat shareholders to approve the Scheme and allow the $3.3 billion takeover to complete...