Could boohoo hoo-ha upstage the Budget?
After boardroom handbags with Mulberry, Mike Ashley picks another fight with a brand under pressure
'Twas the week before the Budget, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
Welcome, Rainmakers, to another weekly round-up and with apologies to Clement Clarke Moore, this pre-Budget period has been anything but quiet.
This week has seen a very public spat between Frasers Group and boohoo with words like "crisis", "stone-walling" and "leadership void" lobbed in an open letter-shaped grenade at boohoo.
Frasers wants to oust boohoo CEO John Lyttle and install Mike Ashley. The company is the largest shareholder in boohoo and holds around a 27% stake in the online fashion retailer.
For their part, boohoo is having none of it and is worried that Frasers also owns a 23.6% stake in rival ASOS. Boohoo also thinks that Frasers is in too much of a rush and wants more time to make what it's calling "a critical board decision".
Mike Ashley has never been backward at coming forward, of course, and despite taking a more subdued role after handing over the reins at Frasers Group to CEO Michael Murray, he's clearly itching to get back into the scrum.
Ashley went public with his fight with boohoo just one day after Mulberry told him to get lost with his plan to go from second-largest shareholder to owner of the luxury handbag maker.
boohoo looks to have bought itself a touch more time with a statement to the London Stock Market, but there might be a tense weekend at board level.
And who would put it past Mike Ashley to upstage the Budget announcement next week by completing his coup?
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ON RAINMAKERS THIS WEEK
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TRUE GRIT FOR FOOD FIRM
Lovers of appetising but unhealthy foods can celebrate a deal which could help make their guilty pleasures healthier but just as enjoyable.
Ingredients technology firm MicroLub, a University of Leeds spinout, has bagged a £3.5m investment which is addressing demand for less calorific alternatives from food and food ingredients companies.
The company is developing a healthy alternative to the fats and oils which make foods appealing to our taste buds but disastrous for our waistlines.
The investment has come from Northern Gritstone and co-investors LIFTT and NPIF II - Praetura Equity Finance, which is managed by Praetura Ventures as part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II.
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PLASTIC FANTASTIC FOR RIVER CAPITAL
As exits go, River Capital could not be blamed for feeling rather smug having passed on the baton in Liverpool’s Plastic Recycling to London-based Rubicon Partners, for an eight-times return.
However, while most deals run for roughly a five-year average, this one has been a long haul, with the first investment, through the then Merseyside Special Investment Fund (MSIF), taking place in 2014, when the fund backed a management buyout at the company, which trades as Centriforce.
For those with long memories, it will also come as vindication for the funder. Then called MSIF it faced, some would say, unwarranted media criticism for its strategy of using successful exits to fund future support packages for struggling or burgeoning Merseyside firms.
For some critics, the returns weren’t worth the investment. However, with MSIF having been incorporated in October 1994, attitudes and outlooks then were light years from today.
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FIRSTGROUP GETS ON BOARD FOR GROWTH
FirstGroup is picking up speed with its latest acquisition: Lakeside Group, a well-known bus and coach operator in Shropshire and Cheshire.
With Lakeside’s 145-vehicle fleet — including brands like Lakeside Coaches, Merediths Coaches, and A.T. Brown Coaches — FirstGroup is set to boost its school transport, private hire, and business services in the West Midlands.
Lakeside’s MD Neal Hall will keep the wheels turning on day-to-day operations, while former owner Gareth Davies shifts gears to join First Bus to help steer its coaching strategy.
Lakeside, known for its solid revenue from school transport and private hires, reported £12.5m in revenue for 2024.
Graham Sutherland, FirstGroup CEO, thinks the deal is “a perfect route to growth.”
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GET YOUR PORTFOLIO COMPANIES ENTERED INTO THE LEADERSHIP AWARDS
Entries are now open for TheBusinessDesk.com’s Leadership Awards, which are a great opportunity to raise the profile of the management teams of the businesses you invest in and advise.
The entry process is straightforward, and free, and there is a category for every size of business.
All the details are at leadershipawards.uk, and the deadline is November 8. Show some leadership today and get an entry sorted!
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RAINMAKERS CONFERENCE
As a thank you for being a supporter of Rainmakers — and just in case Rachel Reeves clears out your wallets next week — we're pleased to offer you 20% off tickets to next year's Rainmakers Conference.
The 2025 conference will feature more opportunities to network, to hear amazing speakers, to be inspired by entrepreneurs and industry leaders, but also to interrogate the challenges of value creation.
More than 200 tickets have already been sold for the event on March 26 in Manchester, and we'd love for you to be a part of the day.
Click here to use the discount code MAKEITRAIN20 by October 31st and claim your 20% discount.