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Doorstep lender Provident Financial receives £1.3bn takeover bid

Provident Financial, the doorstep lender that charges interest rates of 535%, has received a surprise £1.3bn takeover bid from a smaller rival led by its former chief executive.

The unsolicited bid for the “Provvy” from Non-Standard Finance (NSF), run by John van Kuffeler, has the backing of the key shareholder Neil Woodford and others who own more than 50% of the company’s shares.

Provident Financial has 800,000 doorstep borrowers – with loan payments collected weekly from their homes – and another 1.7 million holders of its Vanquis credit card that charges up to 69.9% interest.

Despite the high APRs, Provident Financial is yet to recover from a botched attempt to overhaul its 130-year-old business model by cutting staff numbers and ramping up its use of technology. Its shares plunged by two-thirds on one day in 2017 and last year it reported a £123m loss.

Van Kuffeler said Provident had “lost its way” and revealed it had rejected an approach in 2018. “[We] approached the Provident board with a proposal in January last year. That approach was rebuffed and since then Provident has further lost its way.”

Provident’s only official response so far has been to say it “notes the unsolicited offer for Provident Financial announced this morning … The board’s considered response to the offer will be announced in due course. In the meantime, shareholders are strongly advised to take no action in respect of the NSF offer.”

NSF said if successful it would keep Provident’s doorstep-lending business but sell off “non-core” Satsuma Loans and Moneybarn divisions.

Read More – www.theguardian.com

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Sainsbury’s shares dive after Asda merger put in doubt

Sainsbury’s shares have dived 15% after the UK’s competition watchdog cast doubt on its plan to buy Asda.

Customers could see higher prices and less choice if the two grocers combined, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said.

It said it could block the deal or force the sale of a large number of stores or even one of the brand names.

However, it also said it was “likely to be difficult” for the chains to “address the concerns”.

Sainsbury’s boss said the findings were “outrageous”.

In its provisional report on the proposed merger, the CMA also said the merger could lead to a “poorer shopping experience”.

Stuart McIntosh, chair of the CMA’s independent inquiry group, said it had found “very significant competition concerns in a number of areas – they are to do with grocery shopping in supermarkets, grocery shopping online and the companies’ petrol stations”.

“However, if one recognises that the competition concerns are quite broadly based… putting together a package of measures which addresses those concerns is likely to be complex and quite challenging,” he said.

But Sainsbury’s chief executive Mike Coupe described the CMA’s analysis as “fundamentally flawed” and said the firm would be making “very strong representations” to it about its “inaccuracy and lack of objectivity”.

“They have fundamentally moved the goalposts, changed the shape of the ball and chosen a different playing field,” he told the BBC.

“This is totally outrageous.”

 

Read More – www.bbc.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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Marmite-owner Unilever snaps up snack brand Graze

Marmite-owner Unilever has bought healthy snack brand Graze, which started life a decade ago as a snack box delivery service.

Graze produces nuts, seeds, trail mixes and snack bars, with no artificial ingredients and Unilever said the purchase would accelerate its presence in healthy foods.

The sale price was not given, though sources say it was less than £100m.

The boss of Graze described the deal as ‘transformational’.

Graze products are now available in stores including Sainsbury’s, Boots, WH Smith and Tesco, as well as online and direct to the consumers.

‘Growth journey’

The business was set up in 2008 by seven friends as an internet-based business. In 2009, Anthony Fletcher joined the company

In 2012 Mr Fletcher led a management buyout and became chief executive of the company.

The move, which was backed by US private equity group Carlyle taking a majority stake in the business, saw three of the seven co-founders end their day-to-day involvement in the business but remain as shareholders.

Mr Fletcher said the sale to Unilever “marks a transformational moment in Graze’s growth journey”.

“We look forward to working closely with the team to keep on inventing new healthy snacks, as well as continuing to work to understand the role technology can play in improving the food industry,” he added.

”Makes sense’

Nitin Paranjpe, president of Unilever’s food & refreshment business said: “Accelerating our presence in healthy foods and out of home this is an excellent strategic fit for the Unilever Food & Refreshment business, and a wonderful addition to our stable of purpose driven brands.

Nick Cooper, of global branding agency Landor said: “Unilever has a good track record when it comes to purchasing and then nurturing smaller brands. Its innovation and investment incubators have given it expertise in growing those smaller, more entrepreneurial brands. That’s why this deal makes sense for Graze.

Mr Cooper said in the short term Unilever would “likely leave Graze alone”.

“That’s certainly what it did with Ben & Jerry’s”.

However he added Graze would be able to “tap into” Unilever’s global distribution channels and reach new customers.

 

Read More – www.bbc.co.uk

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Bottler Coca-Cola HBC buys Serbian confectionary firm

Soft drink bottler Coca Cola HBC said on Monday it would buy Serbian confectionary business Bambi for an enterprise value of 260 million euros ($294 million) from private equity investor Mid Europa Partners, expanding its portfolio of beverages and increase its presence in the Western Balkans.

The Swiss-based company, which bottles and sells Coca-Cola Co drinks in 28 countries, said Bambi had revenue of around 80 million euros in 2018.

Shares of the company fell last week after it warned of higher finance costs on its existing borrowing and weak consumer spending in several of its markets this year.

 

Read More – www.reuters.com

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Stock Spirits buys Italian grappa producer Distillerie Franciacorta for €26.5m

Vodka manufacturer Stock Spirits has snapped up Italian grappa giant Distillerie Franciacorta in a deal worth €26.5m (£23.2m), the company said today.

The London-listed drinks firm will take over Distillerie Franciacorta’s spirits and liqueurs business for €23.5m and pay a further €3m for land, with plans to build a new production facility.

Stock Spirits, which operates largely in the eastern European market, will also acquire the Italian company’s wine brands.

The Lombardy-based spirits company Distillerie Franciacorta specialises in grappa, which is Italy’s fourth largest spirits category, as well as the region’s sparkling wine.

Shares in Stock Spirits were up almost 2.5 per cent this morning.

Stock Spirits chief executive Mirek Stachowicz said: “This is our first step in pursuing in-market consolidation opportunities in Italy, and Distillerie Franciacorta will strengthen our position in what is a fragmented but highly attractive market for us.

“It should also be seen as a clear reflection of our willingness to undertake value-creating mergers and acquisitions as part of our four-pillar growth strategy.”

The move comes just days after a major Stock Spirits shareholder launched an attack on the company’s board over low returns.

Portuguese investor Luis Amaral, whose firm Western Gate holds a 10 per cent stake in the business, called on fellow shareholders to oust chairman David Maloney and senior director John Nicolson.

Western Gate also criticised the board’s failure to offer a clear growth strategy and carry out acquisitions, and the investment firm today issued a further statement insisting the takeover is “immaterial to the company’s balance sheet”.

“This simply does not go far enough and is another example of Stock Spirits only acting under pressure from shareholders,” it said.

But Stock Spirits rebutted the claim. “This is an opportunity that we have been looking at for more than a year now, and discussions have taken place over many months,” the company said.

“It has nothing to do with shareholder pressure and everything to do with being a truly compelling opportunity that has clear and attractive synergies with our existing Italian operations.”

Read more – www.cityam.com

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Time’s up: Meet the startups fighting sexual harassment

It’s been more than a year since the #metoo movement swept across the globe, revealing the extent to which sexual harassment has infiltrated virtually every industry, as women and men have come forward to share their stories.

Despite the global outcry—and the naming and shaming of some of the culprits, which has resulted in public scandals and resignations reaching the very top of billion-dollar corporations—there is still little evidence of systemic change from companies themselves. In most cases, it appears that, for now, the movement has had consequences for individuals, rather than altering the corporate culture that has made sexual harassment permissible—or at least allowed some employees to get away with it.

When trying to understand just how prevalent this behavior is in the workplace, numbers help. According to a 2017 BBC survey, more than half of women and a fifth of men have been subjected to workplace sexual harassment in the UK. Across the pond, statistics from Statista reveal that 42% of women and 11% of men have experienced it. However, it is also crucial to note that the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission estimates that around 75% of all workplace harassment goes unreported, so as bad as these figures appear, the reality is probably much worse.

Most businesses have a set of human resources rules to deal with not only these issues, but all forms of discrimination, alongside the more mundane tasks of day-to-day working life. However, normalized HR practices to tackle sexual harassment are more often than not based on antiquated laws that are in need of an update to deal with the problems that appear in the modern workplace as society evolves.

As with any industry nowadays, when there’s a need for disruption, a good place to turn for innovative solutions is the startup world. Over the past couple of years, a rash of new companies have cropped up to not only help those who have been affected by sexual harassment, but also to try to prevent it in the first place.

Read More – www.pitchbook.com

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Spotify buys podcast firms Gimlet and Anchor

Spotify has bought two podcast firms and plans to spend up to $500m (£385m) on further acquisitions in an attempt to move beyond its music streaming roots for new growth.

The Swedish company has acquired Gimlet, the firm behind a string of popular podcasts including Homecoming, which was adapted into an Amazon TV series starring Julia Roberts.

It has also acquired Anchor, a platform that allows individuals and companies to create, publish and monetise podcasts. No price was disclosed for either deal, but Gimlet reportedly cost Spotify $230m.

Daniel Ek, the founder and chief executive of Spotify, said his company needed to break into the small, but fast-growing podcasting market in order to tap revenue streams beyond its core music service.

“We believe it is a safe assumption that, over time, more than 20% of all Spotify listening will be non-music content,” he said in a blog post. “This means the potential to grow much faster with more original programming.

“Our core business is performing very well. But as we expand deeper into audio, especially with original content, we will scale our entire business.”

News of the deals came as Spotify revealed its first ever quarterly profit. Operating profit for the final three months of 2018 was €94m (£82m), but it expects to slip back into the red this year. The company said its loss guidance for 2019 had increased from €200m to €360m, despite paid subscriber numbers being projected to rise from 117 million to 127 million.

 

Read More – www.theguardian.com

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Satirical News Website The Daily Mash Sold for £1.2m

The satirical news website the Daily Mash, which provided the inspiration for the Nish Kumar BBC comedy show The Mash Report, has been sold for £1.2m.

The site is known for spoof headlines such as “It wasn’t worth it, says 103-year-old vegetarian”, “Only people who still want Brexit are inexplicably angry posh couple with two labradors”, and “Man worried he’s the last of his friends to have an article in Guardian”.

Its co-founders Paul Stokes and Neil Rafferty, former national newspaper reporters, are in line for a payday after they agreed to sell the site’s parent company, Mashed Productions, to Digitalbox, a media company in Bath.

The Daily Mash has a loyal following built up during 12 years of publishing. Despite the site’s relatively high profile, its parent company recorded revenues of £396,000 and a profit before tax of £135,000 in the last financial year, showing the tight budgets in ad-supported online publishing.

The site, which has two full-time members of staff and relies on a pool of freelance writers, will become part of Digitalbox, which also owns the website Entertainment Daily. The combined business is intending to list on the Aim stock market next month and then acquire other digital publishers.

In a decidedly un-Daily Mash statement to the stock market, the new parent company said the site was “capable of consistently generating high-quality, original humour content which is extremely hard to replicate” and “has increasingly turned its attention to satirising social tribes and trends to produce highly viral content of a more timeless nature that has a much broader and longer appeal than daily news”.

The Daily Mash attracted 1.8 million visitors a month, the vast majority of them in the UK and most of them coming from social media referrals from the likes of Facebook.

Rafferty, the Daily Mash’s editor-in-chief, said: “This is a great opportunity for the Mash to build on what we have created so far. My co-founder, Paul Stokes, did an incredible job building a profitable business from the ground up.”

The site has occasionally spread confusion, notably when Sky News inadvertently read out a spoof Daily Mash headline claiming the former London mayor Ken Livingstone had a pet newt called Adolf, at the height of claims about antisemitism in the Labour party.

Read More – www.theguardian.com

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Liberty London department store could be sold for £350m

The department store Liberty London has been put on the market with a potential £350m price tag.

The retail landmark, which was founded by Arthur Lasenby Liberty in 1875 with a £2,000 loan from his future father-in-law, has grown to become an international brand that sells its tana lawn fabrics and luxury leather goods around the world.

The private equity firm BlueGem bought Liberty for £32m in 2010 and refinanced it in 2014, reducing its stake to about 40% and allowing some investors to take cash out but nearly all to reinvest in buying the department store for £165m.

It is understood BlueGem is looking to offload its stake. It is unclear if other investors are willing to sell.

Group sales reached £133m in the year to February 2018, up 8% year on year, while pretax profits more than tripled to nearly £7m. About 60% of the store’s profits come from selling own-label merchandise.

The Tudor-revival store on Great Marlborough Street in central London opened in 1924 and has been extensively renovated by its current owners as a home for designer fashion as well as beauty, accessories, homewares and haberdashery.

The company was once listed on the London Stock Exchange but controlled by property company MWB Group. It lost money for years, making sales of about £70m and losses of £4.5m in 2009.

BlueGem had hoped to bring Liberty back to the stock market last year, but has now hired UBS to seek a private buyer, according to Sky News, which first reported the potential sale.

The retailer is on the market during a period of great upheaval for department stores, which face competition from online shopping and a squeeze on consumer spending.

House of Fraser went into administration last summer and was bought out by Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct group. He also has his eye on Debenhams, which is struggling for survival after several years of poor trading and rising costs.

Read More – www.theguardian.com