The founders of Sophos Group (SOPH) will share a £460 million payday after their company was acquired by an American private equity fund. In the latest overseas takeover of a London-listed company, Thoma Bravo agreed to buy Sophos, the cybersecurity specialist, for $3.8 billion. The San Francisco-based fund has offered $7.40 per share, worth 583p when the deal was unveiled yesterday. The deal was recommended by Jan Hruska and Peter Lammer, Sophos’s founders, and Apax Partners, its largest investor. The likelihood of a counterbid appears remote.
Julian Dunkerton plans to remain as chief executive of Superdry (SDRY) until 2021 after seizing back control of the company he co-founded, despite saying initially that he would take the job on an interim basis only. Mr Dunkerton, 54, rejoined the fashion retailer as its interim boss in April after shareholders narrowly voted in favour of his return — in turn prompting the resignations of senior directors including Euan Sutherland, the former chief executive. Superdry confirmed yesterday that he had agreed to stay on as chief executive until 2021.
Ferrexpo (FXPO) denied yesterday that its chief executive and biggest shareholder had been served with legal papers, amid reports that authorities in Ukraine have started a process to add him to an international wanted list. In the latest stage of a long-running saga, Ferrexpo said in a stock market statement that its board is “closely monitoring” the situation but has been informed that Kostyantin Zhevago “has not been served with any legal notice” and “strongly denies any allegations of wrongdoing”. A month ago, Ferrexpo denied reports that Mr Zhevago was suspected of embezzling about $100 million from Bank Finance and Credit. The Ukrainian lender, which he formerly controlled, was declared insolvent in 2015.
The new transport secretary will be questioned by MPs on why his department handed the operation of the west coast main line and the new High Speed 2 line to FirstGroup (FGP) when the company’s running of South Western Railway already had financial and operational problems. Grant Shapps is to face the Commons’ transport select committee tomorrow. Before that, the Labour Party has tabled questions in parliament, including: “What assessment, if any, of the financial performance of First Group’s existing rail franchises did the Department for Transport undertake prior to the announcement of the award of the West Coast Partnership?”
Ashmore Group (ASHM) led by one of the City’s wealthiest financiers attracted £1.9 billion of new money in the last quarter. Net inflows at Ashmore Group reached $2.4 billion in the three months to the end of September. However, assets under management edged up by only 0.1% to $91.9 billion after $2.3 billion of investment losses in the period offset the new business that the company had pulled in.
Thousands of people have signed an online petition urging Barclays (BARC) to reverse its decision to prevent its customers withdrawing cash from post offices. A Change.org campaign attacking the bank for putting profits ahead of its customers and urging its executives to think again “before it is too late” had been backed by more than 4,400 people last night. The petition, set up by the National Federation of Subpostmasters, warns that the move “will present major challenges to older and disabled people. Barclays’ actions will be damaging to customers and to a national institution — the local post office.”
Ocado Group (OCDO) shares drop as JPMorgan gets negative. They reckon that Ocado’s valuation is “stretched”, that the shares are worth 20% less than their value and there is little upside remaining in the price. “At this point we do not see risk/reward as compelling and scope for outperformance appears limited,” they said. “We downgrade the shares from ‘neutral’ to ‘underweight’.”
NMC Health (NMC) dropped after a bearish note from Jefferies, which described a surge in the share price as “unwarranted”. The hospital operator had looked set to be kicked out of the FTSE 100 after its value fell by a third in the first eight months of the year. Yet towards the end of August its shares recovered all those losses and more amid “unsubstantiated” reports that two groups, including one backed by Fosun, of China, were competing to buy a 40% stake. “We see no merit to this speculation as we believe the UK Listing Authority markets monitoring team would have likely investigated,” Jefferies said. The analysts believed that the rumours had “detracted from the fundamentals” and they repeated their “underweight” rating and £19.25 price target.
Tempus – Augmentum Fintech (AUGM): Buy. Solid portfolio should be capable of sustaining knocks and still generating good value over time
Tempus – Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM): Hold. Quality business that at the moment feels fairly valued
