Stock market listings fall further out of fashion
Another regional business reveals plans to go private
Hi Rainmakers,
Welcome to our weekly round-up…and as it’s another week, another company reveals plans to leave the London Stock Exchange.
This time it is Manchester-based retailer N Brown, which has agreed a takeover from the Alliance family, who already had a controlling stake, that values the business at £191m.
“N Brown is not benefiting from being listed on the Aim market, whilst having to bear significant costs associated with its listing,” the company said.
Joshua Alliance, who is the son of N Brown’s driving force and former chair for 44 years Lord David Alliance, told shareholders: “In the business’s current cycle of evolution, we will be able to achieve this growth potential more successfully away from the public markets.”
It has been a tough time for retailers, especially those in the glare of the stock market reporting cycles.
Just a 5-minute walk from N Brown’s head office through Manchester’s Northern Quarter will see you at Boohoo, where they have also been busy discussing and deciding some major moves.
Chief executive John Lyttle is to depart and a new £222m debt facility has been put in place.
Even more significantly Boohoo’s chairman, Mahmud Kamani today spoke about “the aim of maximising shareholder value” as the retailer considers the possible break-up of the group.
Its share price is around 90% lower than it was both before Covid in early 2020 and at the end of the second Covid lockdown, in April 2021.
In January 2020 it had achieved what then appeared to be a major milestone when its value overtook Marks & Spencer, a moment that captured the power of online retail and the demise of the high street.
Today, M&S is worth nearly 20 times more than Boohoo’s £400m valuation. There is a lot of work to be done if Boohoo is to become fashionable again.
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FRASERS GOES SHOPPING FOR BARGAINS…AGAIN
Retail giant Frasers Group, which last month increased its shareholding in Boohoo again and now holds a 26% stake, is busy looking out for a bargain to add to its portfolio of brands.
And not for the first time, its bullish behaviour when it comes to buying up struggling retail brands has caused the feathers to fly.
Earlier this week, Mulberry Group, which makes fancy handbags, swatted away another attempt from the Derbyshire-headquartered firm to takeover the struggling brand.
Its 150p-per-share proposal was 15% higher than its first approach and would see Frasers pay £72m for the shares that it doesn’t own. Frasers has built a 37% stake in the business.
However, majority shareholder Challice – which owns 56% of Mulberry – has said it “has no interest in either selling its Mulberry shares to Frasers or providing Frasers with any irrevocable or other undertaking”.
Frasers now has until October 28 to make another offer. This one could go down to the wire.
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ON RAINMAKERS THIS WEEK
This week’s premium pieces on Rainmakers have seen the second installment from the already-popular Secret Investor, who looks past the hoodies and hands-on expertise of Praetura as they run the rule over the regional ecosystem, and we returned to the consolidation in the legal sector to see how Lawfront’s acquisition of Nelsons is going.
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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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LATEST ACQUISITION KEEPS CORPACQ IN THE FAST LANE
Cheadle’s Klarius Group, a car parts powerhouse, has been acquired by investment firm CorpAcq, joining its 40+ company lineup and £650m turnover.
No need to panic — the current board is staying put, so it’s business as usual.
Founded by Sale Sharks owner Simon Orange (it might not be long before Take That’s Jason will be better known as Simon’s brother), CorpAcq just hit the brakes on a £1.26bn merger with an American firm.
While Wall Street will have to wait, Klarius is in good hands and ready to roll.
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FUNDING DEAL TO TRAIN AI
With our headlong rush towards an AI-dominated future showing no signs of slowing down, a £4.4m funding deal secured by a Sheffield business aims to help solve a key problem for developers of this technology.
The funding round led by Edge and including Mercia Ventures is supporting the groundbreaking work of Mindtech Global.
Mindtech is on a mission to help AI developers source sufficient images and datasets to train computer vision systems to identify humans or objects in different settings and recognise small but significant differences. The firm's platform uses games technology to create a virtual world and generate a diverse range of realistic images.
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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 in a couple of weeks’ time — 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.