Property firm Helical is open to offers on takeovers. Property developer Helical (HLCL) on Monday admitted it had received “more than one” bid approach as the firm batted its eyelids at other potential suitors. Helical, which concentrates on property investments in London and Manchester, was linked with a potential £500 million bid approach from a US private-equity firm over the weekend. But the shares rose 4%, or 14.5p, to 369.5p as the company confirmed it “has in the recent past been in receipt of more than one unsolicited approach from different parties”. All the proposals have come at a “significant discount” to net asset value, a key property industry benchmark, and the board decided they “did not reflect the fair value of the company”.
Shares in Thomas Cook surge on takeover approach from Fosun. The City piled into struggling holiday firm Thomas Cook Group (TCG) on Monday, cheered by the prospect of its tour operator business being sold to the Chinese investment giant behind Club Med. Thomas Cook said it is in discussions with Fosun, its largest shareholder with an 18% stake, over a sale after “receipt of a preliminary approach”. The pair already have a joint venture in China. Any deal could pave the way for 178-year-old Thomas Cook to be broken up and allow it to pay down its £1.3 billion debt pile. Shares in Thomas Cook rose 1.68p, or more than 10%, to 17.78p. In early trading the shares surged as much as 24%. In Hong Kong, shares in Fosun — a division of billionaire Guo Guangchang’s empire — rose 4.2%.
Ocado invests to get on fast track to vertical farming. Online grocer Ocado Group (OCDO) made a surprise pitch into the fledgling vertical farming industry on Monday as part of a “revolutionary” long-term bid to bring fresher products to customers. Vertical farming entails growing food in indoor centres, on a series of levels under precisely controlled conditions. Ocado has bought a 58% stake in Scunthorpe-based Jones Foods, Europe’s largest operating vertical farm, and could integrate the operation with its Ocado Zoom service to deliver fresh products to customers within an hour. The farms could eventually be placed next to Ocado’s customer fulfilment centres. Ocado chief executive Tim Steiner said vertical farming “will allow us to address fundamental consumer concerns on freshness and sustainability”. He added: “Our hope ultimately is to deliver the very freshest, most sustainable produce to a customer’s kitchen within an hour of it being picked.”
Battered fund manager Neil Woodford ran for cover from hedge-fund short attacks on Monday by putting a blackout on a published list of stocks in his funds. The stricken firm, which has previously been lauded for its transparency, will no longer disclose all investment positions in three funds, reversing a move to disclose every position when it launched. “We firmly believe this is in the best interests of investors,” a Woodford spokesman said. Woodford is trying to quietly liquidate some of his harder-to-sell stocks and recycle the cash into FTSE 100 giants to help meet redemptions. Only the top 10 holdings will be shown for the shuttered Equity Income fund and the Income Focus and Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) funds, which are still open, to shield Woodford’s funds from the spotlight. The shockwaves of the saga mounted today as the board of Woodford Patient Capital attempted to stem criticism of their governance by saying the trust “is not impacted by recent events”. Chair Susan Searle said the board was “closely monitoring the situation” and talking to shareholders after shares in the company plummeted 20% due to the crisis.
