🍕 Franco Manca Has a New Home

Top Stories

🍕  Franco Manca owner changes hands

Fulham Shore announced on Wednesday they had agreed terms to be acquired by Japanese restaurant group Toridoll and PE firm Capdesia for £93m. The offer - a 35% premium to the latest share price - is recommended by the Fulham Shore board who encouraged shareholders to accept. Chairman David Page said he believed the combination with Toridoll and Capdesia would “enable Fulham Shore to fulfil its long-term potential”. Toridoll partnered with restaurant specialist fund Capdesia (who also own a stake in Wasabi) to support the rollout of Fulham Shore stores internationally. (Official)

⚽ Gambling giant Entain bolsters sports data offering with $150m acquisition

The owner of Ladbrokes and Coral announced it had acquired 100% of Scores365 to provide customers with a “broader offering of interactive content”. 365Scores provides data-driven sports media and live scores across a number of different sports including football and basketball, with a platform that allows users to customise their feed. The deal consisted of an up-front payment of $150m, with $10m of contingent consideration payable upon certain performance criteria. (Official)

🏎️💨  Car market revival speeds up

Sales of new cars jumped 18% year-on-year in March, marking the eighth straight month of growth amid a continued easing of supply chain pressures. Sales of electric vehicles also continued to march forward, posting a record month of sales (47k) as consumer taste shifts and availability increases.

One particular benefactor of the rebound in the car market (and EV demand in particular) has been London-listed retailer Lookers. The company announced an increase in 2023 forecast profit, with CEO Mark Raban hailing a “strong” start to the year. (Official)

📈  UK services activity grows for second month in a row

Another signal the UK might be turning the tide on a potential recession - the S&P UK services PMI hit the lofty height of 52.9 in March (above 50 signals growth) as business confidence rebounded. The continued strength in services was due to a surge in new business orders and the “strongest rise in new export sales in the survey’s history”, according to S&P. Also a positive for inflation - despite remaining high by historical standards, growth in prices charged reached a 19-month low in March due to a mix of competitive pressures and “improved supply conditions”. (Read the full report here)

What Else Happened?

Economics / Politics / General

Ofcom are preparing to unleash the UK Competition and Markets Authority on the cloud services sector (in particular Microsoft and Amazon), over concerns that big tech companies are abusing their dominant positions.

Home buyer interest dropped 43% year-on-year whilst sellers began flooding the market (listings up 78%); data from Zoopla reaffirmed views suggesting a correction is on the horizon for UK house prices.

Deals

Vodafone have reportedly received inbound interest from both private equity and strategic bidders for their Spanish business, in a deal potentially worth up to $4bn.

A London-based fintech providing cross-border payments both small and large raised a $100m Series B funding round consisting of debt and equity.

Company News / Trading Updates

London-listed food supplier Hilton Food Group’s shares slumped 5% despite posting a jump in revenue, as an inflation-led increase in costs caused profit before tax to drop 17%. (Official)

The Co-operative Group warned that profits were likely to fall across the business over the next year as it faced a continued surge in energy and labour costs.

🌎 Global Snapshot

Consumer healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson will cough up nearly $9bn to settle claims that its talcum powder caused cancer; J&J faces over 40,000 customer lawsuits. Shares actually rose on the news (+4.5%), with investors likely happy the saga was (potentially) coming to an end.

On the US labour market - jobs in the private sector rose by just 146k in March, well below the 210k forecast by economists; the Fed likely doesn’t hate it given the implications on inflation.

New Zealand’s central bank delivered an unexpected rate hike on Wednesday, raising rates by 50 basis points after claiming inflation was too high and persistent, with employment “beyond maximum levels”.

🔈 Share The Long & Short

Know any friends who would benefit from having a daily summary of all things UK business and finance news delivered directly to their inbox?

Copy and paste this link to others: www.thelongandshort.co.uk/subscribe

Feedback

Got any suggestions for how we can make The Long & Short more useful for you? Fire them over to [email protected] (or just reply to this email).