- Morrisons bidder gets deadline extention
- Deliveroo shares leap
- Bluejay Mining signs up with Gates-backed firm
Private equity raiders
The bidding war for Morrisons is not over yet. The Takeover Panel has this morning extended the deadline for private equity group Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) to improve its offer for the grocer. The group has until 20 August to make a final bid. The move comes after rival Fortress upped its offer to 270p plus a 2p special dividend, marking a total consideration of almost £10bn. Meanwhile, Vectura shares rallied a further 2 per cent to 167p after Philip Morris raised its offer to 165p after Carlyle’s recommended 155p offer on Friday.
Neil Wilson has commented on this morning’s private equity raiders in his trader column here and Bearbull touches on the irony of big tobacco’s expansion into inhaled medicine here.
London miner signs up with Gates-backed firm
Greenland-focused Bluejay Mining (JAY) will team up with a Bill Gates and Andreesson Horowitz-backed exploration company, KoBold Metals, to further explore a prospective nickel, copper and cobalt asset. KoBold, which is backed by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, will spend $15m on exploration at the Disko-Nuusuaq project in Greenland in exchange for a 51 per cent stake.
London investors were star-struck enough by the announcement to send Bluejay’s shares up 28 per cent, to 12p. This takes it closer to its 12-month high of 14p in late 2020. The company is also developing the Dundas ilmenite project on the coast of Greenland.
Deliveroo leaps on takeover murmurs
German takeaway company Delivery Hero has taken a 5 per cent stake in it UK-based counterpart Deliveroo, sending speculations flying that it could be in the market for an acquisition. Consolidation is rife in the food delivery business at the moment as competition mounts and the industry dynamics sway in the post-Covid world. Shares in Deliveroo rose as much as 10 per cent this morning.
The news comes one week ahead of Deliveroo’s financial results when questions will be asked whether the company can continue its Covid-run of fortune and keep the shares moving in the right direction.
PageGroup still faced by uncertain jobs market
Shareholders in PageGroup (PAGE) are in line for a total interim dividend pay-out of 31.41p after the recruiter booked net profits of £38.6m against a loss of £1.56m at the halfway mark in 2020. The half-year pay-out and special dividend underpin an effective yield of 5.2 per cent, but the outlook for labour markets is difficult to gauge even though there was a marked increase in volumes through July. There were particularly encouraging outcomes in Germany and the Americas, but group chief executive Steve Ingham remains circumspect over the underlying health of the market.
