Markross121_ No Comments

Hasbro buys Peppa Pig owner Entertainment One in £3.3bn deal

The US toy company behind My Little Pony and Play-Doh has agreed to buy Peppa Pig for £3.3bn in the the latest foreign takeover of a much-loved British brand for a bargain price following the collapse in the value of the pound over fears of a no-deal Brexit.

The sale of Peppa Pig’s owner Entertainment One to Hasbro brings the total value of UK companies to fall into overseas hands in the last two months to more than £25bn. City analysts said foreign investors were finding UK businesses very attractive since Boris Johnson’s ascension to prime minister sent sterling to its lowest level against the dollar in recent years.

“It’s pretty clear that a whole raft of London investment banks are trawling the world saying, ‘Do you want to buy this in Britain?’,” Clive Black, an analyst at broker Shore Capital, said this week.

“The foreign takeovers keep on coming,” Russ Mould, the investment director at stockbroker AJ Bell, said: “Entertainment One has been seen as a bid target for a long time although all the chatter has focused on a media company being the logical suitor.”

Hong Kong’s richest family bought the 220-year-old pub and beer company Greene King this week in a £4.6bn deal. The US private equity group Advent International agreed a £4bn buyout of the UK aerospace and defence supplier Cobham last month, and the Netherlands-based Takeaway.com agreed a £5bn takeover of Just Eat.

Read More – www.theguardian.com