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Project Neptune

Acquisition Opportunity

– Specialist in the manufacture and installation of bespoke joinery to the UK and Global Markets.

A rare opportunity to acquire a long-established, successful, dynamic, and privately-owned UK Company specialising in the manufacture and installation of bespoke joinery to a diverse range of companies operating in the following sectors:

  • Healthcare
  • Retail
  • Leisure
  • Corporate
  • Museum

The Business is led by a strong and experienced management team, and services a diverse blue-chip customer base across the UK and exports its finished joinery globally.

Services within the Business fall into two broad categories of High Volume and Bespoke Joinery.

The Company has a strong balance sheet – it is cash generative and has operated debt-free for the past twenty years.

2022 has seen total sales of £11,080,452, with a gross profit of £3,348,665 and an adjusted EBITDA of £1,859,859.

The figures forecast for 2023 are sales of £11,357,463 with a gross operating profit of £3,429,954, and an adjusted EBITDA of £1,902.

The Company has a strong and growing order book currently valued at £4Million, with orders secured globally.

The Company is a first-class manufacturer and installer of bespoke joinery to the UK and Global Markets – committed to a growth strategy with both capacity and resource.

Highlights:

  • Lean management structure – able to continue without shareholder involvement – skilled in Company operations
  • Capability to deliver complete turnkey projects
  • Leading joinery manufacturing facility; one of the finest in the UK
  • Sophisticated logistics and supply chain management portfolio in place
  • All works completed ‘in house’, no work is subcontracted
  • Non-cyclical business model offering continuity and resourcing throughout the year

Future Opportunities:

  • Strong succession plan in place, with shareholders willing to provide a long-term consultancy period post-sale, as well as having an experienced second-tier management structure
  • Strong and growing order book currently valued at £4 Million, with orders secured globally. Making Project Neptune a significant asset to any Buyer
  • The acquisition of Project Neptune allows the acquirer to tender for a broader range of projects across many industries and gives an outlet for high-quality joinery ‘in-house.’
  • An acquirer could reduce their reliance on suppliers and offer an increased service level to their Clients by capitalising on a central production facility and expand the provision of joinery services to construction and fit-out firms, and other direct competitors
  • By acquiring Project Neptune (a business that can carry out complete turnkey projects), the acquirer can distinguish itself from its competitors, enabling complex projects to be carried out using internal staff and skilled tradespeople. This gives the benefit of complete control over programme coordination, quality, and commercial issues without engaging external subcontractors

Contact mark@achieve-corporation.com for further details.

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Project Mercury

Overseas Company seeks to secure a foothold in the UK market within the specialist and general engineering sector.

The Company is seeking to add four bolt-on additions to its current portfolio before the end of September 2023.

With a billion-dollar turnover, the Company is asset and cash-rich. It has a proven methodology for its acquisitions enabling it to complete deals and due diligence in the minimum time frame.

The Company is looking for several smaller businesses with a turnover of circa £5 Million that can be grouped together to take advantage of the many projects and contracts that the Parent Company needs to fulfil.

The Company is flexible in its approach to acquisitions and will support cash sales, MBO and MBIs.

If You Feel Your Business Would Be of Value to Our Clients, please contact our Senior Partner, Mark Roberts, at mark@achieve-corporation.com.

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Binance to Buy FTX in Major Cryptocurrency Exchange Merger

Public squabble between the two largest offshore exchanges’ bosses led to run on FTX and forced sale

The two largest offshore cryptocurrency exchanges are merging, after a week of public squabbling between Binance’s chief executive, Changpeng Zhao, and FTX’s boss, Sam Bankman-Fried, triggered a bank run at the latter’s exchange and an embarrassing forced sale on Tuesday.

“This afternoon, FTX asked for our help,” tweeted Zhao. “There is a significant liquidity crunch. To protect users, we signed a non-binding letter of intent, intending to fully acquire FTX.com.”

The news was confirmed in a tweet by Bankman-Fried. He said: “Things have come full circle, and FTX.com’s first, and last, investors are the same: we have come to an agreement on a strategic transaction with Binance for FTX.com pending DD etc.”

The deal will see FTX being “fully acquired” by Binance, in return for covering the cash crunch at the embattled exchange. Further terms were not disclosed by either party.

Both Binance.US and FTX.US, the associated American regulated exchanges of the two companies, will remain independent.

Bankman-Fried is a major donor to the US Democratic party, and FTX was a top-20 contributor to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, giving over $5m. Bankman-Fried is reported to have donated about $40m this year in the run-up to today’s midterm elections.

The two chief executives are among the most prominent players in the industry, known by their initials – CZ and SBF – and each capable of moving markets with just a tweet. They have worked together in the past, with Binance investing in FTX at the exchange’s inception.

 

Read More – www.theguardian.com

 

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Raising Capital

Businesses can use either debt or equity capital to raise money—where the cost of debt is usually lower than the cost of equity.

Debt holders usually charge businesses interest, while equity holders rely on stock appreciation or dividends for a return.

Preferred equity has a senior claim on a company’s assets compared to common equity, making the cost of capital lower for preferred equity.

The financial models from Achieve Corporation involves determining the mix of debt and equity that is most cost-effective for your business.

Our scope of works normally includes:

  • Investigating and advising on the different funding options – debt, equity, grants, supplier finance
  • Preparing and presenting a set of forecasts and a business plan
  • Helping clients assess the commercial, accounting, and cash flow implications of financing structures
  • Introductions to funders based upon our existing network of PE companies’ and corporate lenders
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These firms are keying 2019’s record rate of add-ons

Private equity firms are living in the age of the add-on.

Through the first nine months of the year, add-ons to existing portfolio companies accounted for 68% of all private equity investments in the US—the highest annual rate on record—according to PitchBook’s 3Q 2019 US PE Breakdown. With deal multiples spiking across the broader buyout market, this inorganic growth is one of the few ways left for investors to find the potential for value creation to which they’ve grown accustomed.

As with every investment trend, some firms have embraced the strategy more fully than others. In ascending order, here’s a look at the six investors who have been most active in the US add-on market during 2019, according to PitchBook data, along with a rundown of the sorts of deals they’ve been getting done:

T-5. Insight Partners—30 add-ons

Until earlier this year, Insight Partners was known as Insight Venture Partners. That’s reflective of how the firm differs from most of the other firms on this list. Instead of focusing almost exclusively on buyouts and other private equity deals, Insight operates across a much broader segment of the private investment spectrum. It’s just as well known for its venture deals (or perhaps more so) as it is for conducting control investments.

But those control investments are still a major part of its strategy. And this year, it’s led to a spate of add-ons for a number of different portfolio companies, with a seeming focus on deploying new types of software across a range of sectors.

One example is Community Brands, a creator of software for nonprofits and other well-meaning organizations, which earlier this year announced three add-ons in a single day. Another is Enverus, which changed its name from Drillinginfo in August. The developer of software and data analytics for the energy sector has been busy building out its suite of services, acquiring one company that provides maps of the Permian Basin in March and another that makes billing and revenue software for the oil sector in July.

T-5. Harvest Partners—30

Harvest Partners, a New York-based firm that’s been making private equity investments since 1981, has taken a more diverse approach to its add-on activity in 2019, with no single portfolio company dominating its dealmaking.

In recent weeks, it’s been busy with Integrity Marketing Group, a distributor of life and health insurance that Harvest bought into alongside existing backer HGGC in August. (Of note to some, surely, is the fact that the chairman of Integrity’s board is Steve Young, the NFL hall of famer who’s also a co-founder of HGGC). Integrity was already on an add-on binge before Harvest entered the picture, and it’s kept it up in the meantime, acquiring four different insurance marketing companies in October alone, per PitchBook data.

The co-investor relationship with HGGC isn’t rare for Harvest. Some of its other portfolio companies that have been busy conducting add-ons this year are also examples of Harvest investing alongside fellow firms, including recycling specialist Valet Living (which it backs along with Ares Management) and insurance brokerage Acrisure (both Blackstone and Partners Group). That likely lightens some of the sourcing, diligence and dealmaking loads.

 

Read More – www.pitchbook.com

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Flying cars’ next stopover could be on Wall Street

Flying cars may soon descend on Wall Street.

China’s EHang, a maker of autonomous and remote-piloted flying passenger vehicles, has filed for an IPO on the Nasdaq, seeking to break a barrier for its industry.

EHang is unprofitable and its revenue has been declining this year, according to its SEC filing. The move also comes amid a setback for Chinese-manufactured drones, after the Trump administration said on Wednesday that the US Department of the Interior would stop using unmanned vehicles and related technology made in China, citing national security concerns. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the department had previously been employing EHang’s technology.

Like other so-called flying-car developers such as Germany’s Lilium, EHang is positioning its one- and two-seat vehicles as a mobility answer to the traffic congestion that plagues big cities. It also is taking aim at commercial applications like grocery or parcel deliveries.

Last year saw a new high in VC capital raised by drone and aerial makers, which gathered about $460.9 million across 71 deals, according to the PitchBook Platform. Among the bigger venture rounds of late were North Carolina-based PrecisionHawk’s $75 million funding in January of last year led by ClearSky and China-based SZ DJI Technology’s $75 million deal in 2015 from Accel and other investors.

If its IPO is completed, EHang would become the first VC-backed flying passenger-vehicle startup to go public, according to PitchBook data.

Led by software engineer Huazhi Hu, EHang has raised more than $95 million in venture capital since it was founded in 2014, according to its filing, which lists GGV Capital and Zhen Partners as top shareholders with stakes of 10.8% and 7.6%, respectively. EHang is also developing unmanned drones for industrial uses.

The startup currently does flight testing under the supervision of China’s aviation authorities and has delivered 38 passenger-grade autonomous aerial vehicles for testing and training.

EHang’s losses have been growing as its sales are falling. It lost about 37.6 million Chinese yuan (around $5.3 million) in the first six months of the year, up from a loss of 26.5 million yuan in 1H 2018, according to its filing. The company’s revenue doubled in 2018 to around 66 million yuan from the previous year. Through June 30, revenue dropped to 32.4 million yuan compared with 38.4 million yuan in 1H 2018.

 

Read More – www.pitchbook.com

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Is Thomas Cook about to collapse?

A leading analyst has cast doubt over whether Thomas Cook’s £750m rescue plan, announced at the end of last week, will work.

Citigroup’s James Ainley suggested the package, which would put Chinese conglomerate Fosun in control of the 178-year-old tour operator, could be blocked by its bondholders.

So how has it come to this and should holidaymakers be concerned?

What has happened to Thomas Cook?

The travel company, which employs 21,000 staff around the world and operates more than 560 stores in the UK, has “suffered as customers shifted from the high street to the internet, threatening its ability to service a £1.6bn debt pile”, says the Financial Times. It came close to collapse eight years ago and took on large loans to survive.

 

“Tough trading conditions have been exacerbated by Brexit uncertainty,” adds the FT.

Last Friday, the embattled company confirmed that it was in “advanced discussions” to secure new funding from its banks and Fosun, which owns the holiday resort chain Club Med. The £750m deal would hand control of its package holiday business to the Shanghai-based investor in return for a cash injection. Meanwhile, banks and bondholders would take a majority stake in its airline and a minority stake in the holiday unit.

The extra cash “is designed to see the company through the winter, when holiday bookings are at their lowest, affording it time to cut costs and raise money by selling its airline division”, explains The Guardian.

Will the deal go ahead?

Citigroup analyst James Ainley, described by The Daily Telegraph as “one of Thomas Cook’s most vocal critics”, has calculated that shares would be worth just 3p if the plan goes ahead.

“The uncertainties are significant and the risk of the process stalling seems high,” said Ainley, who sent shares in the company plunging in May by downgrading its stock to zero pence.

For the package to work, Thomas Cook needs a “strong turnaround plan, about which little detail has yet been given”, he added.

A spokesman for Thomas Cook said: “The board is clear in its view that it is in the best interests of all the group’s stakeholders, including bondholders, to pursue a full re-capitalisation supported by new investment into the business. It is a pragmatic and responsible solution which provides the means to secure the future of Thomas Cook.”

Should holidaymakers be worried?

On Friday, Peter Fankhauser, Thomas Cook’s chief executive, said there would be “no impact from today’s announcement on our holidays or our flights”.

Meanwhile, holidays booked through Thomas Cook are Atol-protected, meaning any customer would be entitled to a full refund or replacement holiday should the tour operator collapse before their scheduled departure time.

The Civil Aviation Authority would also protect package holidays and cover arrangements to return customers if the operator collapsed while they were on holiday.

However, some holidaymakers could be caught out if they have booked on Thomas Cook’s airline, which is separate from the tour operator, and sells flight-only trips, some of which are not Atol-protected.

 

Read More – www.theweek.co.uk

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Cathedral City maker Dairy Crest to be bought by Saputo

Dairy Crest, whose brands include Cathedral City cheddar and Country Life butter, has agreed to be bought by a Canadian company in a near-£1bn deal.

Saputo, one of the biggest dairy processors in the world, will pay 620p a share, valuing Dairy Crest at £975m.

The deal is Saputo’s first in Europe and it said Dairy Crest was an “attractive platform” for UK growth.

Dairy Crest said “virtually” all its 1,100 UK jobs are safe, including 150 at its head office in Surrey.

However, the Unite union said it would be “seeking an urgent meeting” with Saputo about assurances over job security.

Dairy Crest’s share price, which has risen steadily this week, had jumped almost 12% in late morning trading on Friday.

Read More – www.bbc.co.uk

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The Pac-12 wants a $500M investment from private equity

Private equity has long made its living turning around distressed companies.

Could the industry revive a struggling college sports league?

The Pac-12 Conference is seeking a $500 million investment from a private equity partner for a 10% stake in the league’s TV network and other commercial assets, according to The Oregonian. A possible deal could reportedly value the new business at between $5 billion and $8.5 billion, per the conference’s plans. It would also include broadcast and sponsorship rights, merchandising, and distribution agreements.

It’s unclear if any formal discussions between the Pac-12 and potential investors have begun.

Embattled Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott presented the plan to Pac-12 leadership last November, per the report, and if a deal is struck, it could provide the conference’s 12 schools with nearly $42 million apiece. The money is much-needed. The Pac-12 Network has struggled to generate revenue comparable to other Power Five conferences such as the SEC and the Big Ten, the latter of which is set to distribute $15 million-plus more annually to its schools than the Pac-12 currently does to its member institutions.

Why would a PE firm be interested in such a deal?

In 2011, the Pac-12 signed a 12-year television contract with ESPN and Fox worth some $3 billion. The deal expires in 2024 and the upcoming contract could provide a nice cash infusion within a typical five-to-seven-year investment timeline. And an investor wouldn’t have to do much in the meantime other than front the money, since a proposed deal from the Pac-12 would see the conference retain operational control.

But any firm would be attaching itself to a league that’s been criticized for spending too much on its conference headquarters in downtown San Francisco, overseen a raft of high-profile officiating errors in football, and failed to produce a team that reached the College Football Playoff in three of the past four years, plus other controversies. The Pac-12 has responded by hiring FleishmanHillard, a PR agency that specializes in crisis management, again per The Oregonian.

When the conference created its own network following the deal with ESPN and Fox, it touted that the Pac-12 Network was independently owned and thus would get 100% of the proceeds. But that arrangement so far hasn’t been very lucrative. The conference has failed to strike a deal with DirecTV because of a disagreement over media rights, costing the Pac-12 millions and hurting its national exposure. Meanwhile, Scott himself has drawn criticism for his $4.8 million salary, per a USA Today report, which was more than double his Big Ten and SEC peers in 2016.

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Saudi wealth fund weighing $1B investment in Tesla rival

After an especially tumultuous couple of weeks for Tesla, Elon Musk’s potential buyout partner is apparently looking to obtain a majority stake in another electric car company.

The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia is considering an investment in Lucid Motors, a Newark, CA-based electric car maker, that could total more than $1 billion and give the fund ownership of the company, according to Reuters.

Under the terms of the agreement, the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund, which manages some $250 billion, would reportedly provide an initial investment of $500 million, then make two subsequent investments if Lucid hits certain production targets.

Founded in 2007 by former Oracle executive Sam Weng and former Tesla vice president Bernard Tse, Lucid is backed by VCs including Venrock and Tsing Capital. Unlike Tesla, the company has yet to release any cars on the open markets. But last year, Lucid unveiled a prototype sedan, Lucid Air, which has 400 horsepower and a starting price of $60,000. The car is expected to ship sometime in 2019.

The potential Saudi Arabia PIF-Lucid partnership could be problematic for Musk, who already appears stressed. Last week, the billionaire entrepreneur gave an interview with The New York Times in which he alternated between laughing and crying while detailing the pressures of running Tesla.

The latest controversy came when Musk himself tweeted earlier this month that he planned to take the business private for $420 per share, or about $72 billion, noting that funding was secured.

Musk later clarified in a blog post that the Saudi Arabia wealth fund, which owns a 5% stake in Tesla, was the potential backer, though no formal agreement had been made. The company is now reportedly facing a subpoena from the SEC and lawsuits from investors that allege Musk’s tweet aimed to inflate the company’s stock price. Tesla stock initially dipped Monday before closing the afternoon up just about 1% at $308.44 per share.

 

Read Full Article – www.pitchbooks.com