🙅‍♂️ Apollo's bid for THG falls apart

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 ❌ THG <> Apollo deal falls apart

The listed eCommerce company’s exit from the public markets was put on ice as it announced talks with private equity firm Apollo Management had collapsed. The announcement claimed there was no longer “any merit” in THG engaging with Apollo due to differences in valuation and offer structures. CEO Matthew Moulding later took to Linkedin to elaborate - he claimed the Apollo bid was just “smart financial engineering” that was capitalising on a “wildly low” share price. Moulding’s tweet also reiterated an earlier rant about the public markets, saying that it is “unpleasant being listed in London”. (Official)

📊 UK economy declines in March

The economy unexpectedly dropped 0.3% in March, driven by a fall in services - in particular, retail sales suffered as a result of the wet weather, whilst car sales also dropped. On the upside, construction output rose thanks to a jump in new business for infrastructure and public sector projects. However, thanks to a strong showing in January, the economy grew 0.1% overall for Q1 - in line with expectations. The Bank of England said they expect UK growth to stagnate in the first and second quarters, picking up pace in the second half of the year. (Full ONS report here)

👋 AngloGold picks New York for listing

The gold miner chose to shift its primary stock market listing from Johannesburg to New York, in another blow to the London Stock Exchange. AngloGold - worth around $11.5bn - claimed to have “outgrown” South Africa’s largest stock exchange, choosing the US as it has the “largest pool” of gold capital. However, the UK won’t miss out completely. As part of the restructuring, AngloGold will move its corporate headquarters to the UK and become a tax resident over here. (Official)

What Else Happened?

Economics / Politics / General

The GMB union is urging the UK government to scrutinise any further investment by a Macquarie-led consortium into the UK’s gas grid; the consortium acquired 60% of the grid in January, and has first refusal over the remaining stake from this summer.

Nursing union leader Pat Cullen demanded a double digit pay increase from the government to resume talks, despite having previously recommended the 5% increase on offer.

Deals

UK retirement savings platform Smart is set to announce a £76m capital raise, led by asset manager Legal & General.

Sticky - whose payment ‘stickers’ allow retailers to transform any space in their store into a point of sale - raised £1.5m in seed funding.

Company News / Trading Updates

Premiums written at listed insurer Beazley increased 12% during the first quarter, driven by the property and cyber security sectors - shares closed 3% higher. (Official)

The UK’s largest building contractor - Balfour Beatty - expects profit to be flat for 2023, with the order book year-to-date slightly lagging that of 2022 (Official)

🌎 Global Snapshot

US-listed gold giant Newmont is nearing a $19.5bn acquisition for Australian rival Newcrest. (BBG)

Ride-hailing app Lyft’s CEO David Risher claimed the company would be “open to offers” to acquire it, but insisted it was not up for sale. (BBG)

Tiger Global is reportedly looking to liquidate some of its $40bn portfolio of privately held companies, by way of a sale in the secondary markets. (FT)

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