STOCKS TO WATCH: Is mystery buyer on route for £1bn car hire firm Redde Northgate?
Redde Northgate is in focus amid another round of takeover rumours. The mutter from the gutter is that a mystery suitor is eyeing the vehicle hire company that was formed from the merger of Redde and Northgate.
Earlier this summer, the chatter doing the rounds was that TDR Capital – which together with the Issa brothers bought Asda, for £6.8billion – was interested in buying Redde Northgate.
The theory was TDR Capital might want to combine it with webuyanycar. com owner BCA Marketplace, which the private equity firm bought for £2billion in 2019.
Handover: Is a mystery suitor eyeing the vehicle hire company that was formed from the merger of Redde and Northgate?
City gossips even went so far as to suggest TDR could look at a possible offer of between £4.75 and £5 a share for Redde Northgate, valuing it at around £1.1billion.
However, TDR Capital insiders have poured a large bucket of cold water on the rumours, claiming there is nothing in them whatsoever.
And a spokesman for Redde Northgate said it is ‘categorically untrue that the company is in any conversations with any party regarding a takeover of the business’.
The hunt for the mystery suitor goes on.
City set for frenzied wave of floats after summer holidays
Rumours abound that there will be another frenzied wave of flotations when City folk return from their summer holidays next week.
One company hitting the market is Caracal Gold. It will join the main market following a reverse takeover of Papillon Holdings by mining investment company Mayflower Capital.
That means investors with a gold bug can get exposure to the yellow metal being dug out of the ground in western Kenya through Caracal.
Speculation is mounting that Caracal Gold may have more deals up its sleeve. Word is it is targeting new mines in East Africa.
Stakebuilding talk in Tiziana Life Sciences
There is talk of stakebuilding in Tiziana Life Sciences, a developer of treatments for infectious diseases.
The company’s shares have come under pressure recently after it said it was looking at leaving the London main market and relisting in the US on the Nasdaq.
The word is an American hedge fund that specialises in biotechnology stocks has seen the low share price as an opportunity to build a sizeable stake in the business and may soon disclose it publicly.
Meggitt and Ultra Electronics could disappear from FTSE250
Meggitt and Ultra Electronics might be about to disappear from the FTSE250 index following multi-billion pound takeover bids from foreign predators, but that paves the way for others to fly the flag for the British defence industry on the London market.
One firm looking to do that is Cohort, which makes anti-drone equipment, sonars for the Royal Navy and fire control units.
Chief executive Andrew Thomis told me: ‘We have grown from a minnow to well-established mid-sized international group over the past ten years. When I look at the market situation and the capabilities we have now compared with 2011…I don’t see why we can’t grow even more dramatically over the next ten years.’
Bullish indeed!