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Project Deneb

Acquisition Targets – Multi-Sector – Subject to KPI

We are currently working on several ‘live’ briefs for our Client.

They are looking to add to the twelve companies that currently make up their Group and are now benchmarking potential targets for their next phase of planned growth.

Timescales from initial contact to completing in full on deals have been as quick as four weeks, but an average timeframe is four months.

They aim to complete acquisitions before the end of October 2023, have the experience and expertise to support and grow business, can supply evidence of companies they have already acquired and provide proof of funds. Their acquisitions brief focuses on the following:

  • Loss of income and trading profits due to Covid 19 to be added back to the financial accounts
  • Building a group of companies to gain a competitive edge
  • Future profits as a basis for valuation and return on investment
  • Flexible deal structure and handover period to meet your needs
  • Protecting the skills and goodwill that you already have in place

Our role is to identify companies’ suitability based on their brief, protect the confidentiality of both parties, enter first-stage negotiations, and assist their internal acquisitions team in achieving a successful completion.

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

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Project Saturn

Civil Engineering and Construction Companies Wanted.

We are working with several companies within the Civil Engineering and Construction sector and are looking to make several acquisitions before the end of October 2023.

To ensure impartiality in all acquisitions that the companies wish to pursue, the boards of each company have adopted a best practice format to score and project manage their acquisitions.

This approach ensures that all potential target companies are benchmarked against each acquiring company’s acquisition strategy, and the entire Board’s collective decision is taken on which acquisitions to pursue.

Non-Disclosure Agreements protect all parties, and a complete project brief is signed off by all parties who enter discussions.

The senior Board for each company have agreed to meet every 30 days to formulate offers and ‘sign off’ on all target companies that match their acquisition briefs.

If you feel your business would be valuable to Our Clients, please contact Simon Ashcroft at Simon@achieve-corporation.com.

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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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SaaS – Software as a Service Provider

Client – SaaS – Software as a Service Provider

Instruction – Shareholders wishing to leverage their solution to the financial markets by merging into a large PLC

Role – Conduct confidential auction as sell-side advisor

Result – Project managed the auction process and managed the sale to Completion. 12 sealed bids. All final bids made at full enterprise value with 100% cash on Completion, on a cash and debt-free basis

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UK Industrial Cleaning and Food Hygiene Services

Client – Partners in Hygiene Ltd – UK Industrial Cleaning and Food Hygiene Services.

Instruction – Disposal of business to trade or non-trade buyer.

Role – Review market opportunities, benchmark possible share price, and source buyers based on management culture and ethos. Generate sealed bids. Assist German-based buyer in their UK division’s first acquisition. Manage through to Completion.

Result – Successful sale of Company to a non-trade buyer – Leadec Group. 20,000 employees, 300 locations and sales of 900 million euros.

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Specialist In Worldwide Distribution Of High-Quality Steels

Client – Masteel Ltd – Specialist In Worldwide Distribution Of High-Quality Steels. £20 Million Turnover

Instruction – Conduct trade sale of the business with a focus on matching culture and ethos of the incoming buyer to existing management

Role – Project managed auction process and handled the sale to completion

Result –Successful share sale. Existing shareholder exiting the business six months post-completion. Headhunted new financial controller for the Company on behalf of the new Owner

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Flutter shares jump 14 per cent on £11bn merger with Stars Group to create one of the world’s largest gambling firms

Flutter Entertainment and Nasdaq- and Toronto-listed Stars Group said today they were merging in a deal that will create one of the world’s largest gambling businesses.

Shareholders in Flutter, formerly known as Paddy Power Betfair, will own approximately 54.6 per cent of the new company with Stars shareholders owning approximately 45.3 per cent of the combined group.

The combined revenue of the two businesses in 2018 was £3.8bn and their combined market capitalisation is £11bn, enough to make it one of the world’s largest online betting and gaming operators globally.

The new business will be based in Dublin, with a premium listing on the London Stock Exchange and a secondary listing on Euronext Dublin.

Flutter shares jumped nearly 14 per cent this morning to 8,700p.

News of the deal also boosted other gambling stocks, with William Hill up 3.65 per cent, 888 Holdings up 1.8 per cent and GVC Holdings up nearly one per cent.

 

The two businesses said the merger would help the combined group crack the US market which is liberalising its gambling rules.

The pair said the deal would create value for shareholders with pre-tax cost-synergies of £140m per annum along with lower finance costs.

Flutter chief executive Peter Jackson will be chief executive of the combined group with Flutter chair Gary McGann taking the role of chair.

Flutter has entered into third-party deals in the US with Fox Sports, Fastball Holdings and Boyd Interactive Gaming conditional on the merger going ahead.

 

Read More – www.cityam.com

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Debenhams on the brink as it rejects £150m Mike Ashley rescue deal

Debenhams is on the brink of falling into the hands of its lenders in a move that will wipe out shareholders after the company and its financial backers rejected a £150m cash injection from Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct.

A pre-pack administration deal is expected to be announced on Tuesday morning that would affect Debenhams’ holding company only, meaning its 165 stores would continue to trade. However, shareholders’ stakes will be rendered worthless, including Sports Direct’s near 30% stake, which cost about £150m to build up.

The retailer’s banks and bondholders also want Debenhams to close about 50 stores via an insolvency process known as a company voluntary arrangement, which is likely to follow within weeks. Landlords will hold a vote on whether to approve the deal, expected to involve stores closing after Christmas and putting thousands of jobs at risk.

Sports Direct said Debenhams had turned down its offer of a £150m rescue package, in the form of a fully underwritten rights issue, in a deal it hoped would keep the company in the hands of shareholders. In a stock market announcement on Monday afternoon after that deal was rejected, Ashley’s retail group said it was still considering making a fully funded takeover bid instead, but no offer had emerged by a 5pm deadline.

With the deadline missed, the most likely outcome for the chain, which has 165 stores and employs 25,000 people, is that lenders will take control of Debenhams. They have lined up administrators to organise a pre-arranged deal under which Debenhams’ listed holding company will go into administration. The group’s operating companies, which run its stores, will then be sold to a new entity controlled by the lenders in return for reducing the group’s £640m debt pile.

 

Read More – www.theguardian.com

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Norway’s DNO raises Faroe Petroleum bid to $816 million

Norwegian oil company DNO ASA raised its bid for Britain’s Faroe Petroleum to 641.7 million pounds ($816 million) on Tuesday, lifting its cash offer to 160 pence per share from 152 pence.

Shares in Faroe, which rejected DNO’s 610 million pound hostile bid in November as inadequate and “opportunistic”, have since ranged between 140 pence and 160.8 pence.

DNO’s Chairman Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani said in a statement that while the company “does not overpay for assets”, it was in the interest of most parties to raise its offer.

The deal will be funded from cash resources and the closing date for the final offer has been set for Jan. 23, DNO said.

DNO, which has been building up a stake in Faroe since April, said its combined ownership and bid acceptances on Jan. 4 stood at 43.8 percent. It requires 50 percent of Faroe’s shareholders to back its takeover bid.

 

Faroe had no immediate comment after DNO raised its offer.

Paul Mumford of Cavendish Asset Management, who according to Refinitiv Eikon data holds 1.4 percent of Faroe and who has said DNO’s previous offer was too low, said on Tuesday that the revised offer – which he also referred to as “low-ball” – looked likely to succeed.

“For minority shareholders this may be the nail in the coffin. They are unlikely to want to stick around with DNO holding a controlling stake in the business,” he said.

Sears reaches a deal to stay alive

Analyst Teodor Sveen-Nilsen of broker Sparebank 1 Markets in Oslo said he expected the increased offer to be successful.

“Considering the fact that peers have become cheaper over the past quarter…, we believe DNO now will end up with at least 50 percent of Faroe’s share capital,” he said in a note.

 

Read More – www.uk.reuters.com

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Takeda and Shire shareholders back £46bn drugs takeover

Japanese drugs giant Takeda’s £46bn ($59bn) takeover of Irish pharmaceuticals firm Shire has been approved by both sets of shareholders.

The acquisition, the largest by a Japanese company, propels Takeda into the world’s top 10 list of biggest pharmaceutical companies.

Shire shareholders met in Dublin to approve the deal. Takeda investors gave the green light earlier in the day.

Some Takeda investors objected over fears it will increase the firm’s debt.

The votes to approve the takeover follow a long-running battle in which Takeda made multiple offers for Shire.

On Tuesday, Kazuhisa Takeda, a member of the firm’s founding family, spoke out against the deal over concerns with the level of debt it would add to Takeda.

Takeda plans to finance the takeover via the issue of new shares in exchange for Shire stock, bank loans and bonds.

The takeover is part of Takeda’s strategy to become a global pharmaceutical company. The firm wanted to buy Shire to strengthen its cancer, stomach and brain drug portfolios.

But one of its potentially lucrative treatments will have to be sold off at the direction of European regulators over competition concerns.

“We are delighted that our shareholders have given their strong support to our acquisition of Shire,” said Takeda chief executive Christophe Weber after the investor vote in Osaka.

Shire was founded in the UK, but moved its corporate headquarters to Dublin a decade ago. It has 24,000 employees in 65 countries.

 

Read more – www.bbc.co.uk