Unless you’ve been living under a rock lately, you’ll know that mergers and takeovers are making a comeback.
There is still a dearth of that other important City activity: flotations, but Whispers hears that European Green Transition (EGT) will announce its intention to list on junior market AIM within days.
EGT wants to invest in wind or solar farms and critical metal mines – anything to help the world get closer to net zero. Its main asset is a mining exploration project in Sweden.
Balancing act: EGT wants to invest in wind or solar farms and critical metal mines – anything to help the world get closer to net zero
The value of the firm is not clear – but it is looking to raise just £6 million at the same time as it floats on the stock market.
Whatever the size, it is encouraging to hear someone is interested in listing in London after a run of defections to New York.
Love Hemp struggle
While EGT gears up for life as a quoted company, the same cannot be said for troubled cannabis group Love Hemp.
The company is back in administration 13 months after it was rescued by a small investment group.
Portillion Capital initially said Love Hemp would rejoin the stock market in months as it signed up boxer Anthony Joshua and struck a deal to sell products through the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
But it struggled to raise funds. Word is that Portillion would like to buy Love Hemp again if it can – down but not out perhaps?
Gary Stevenson going for gold
Gary Stevenson, a former high-flyer at Citibank, is doing the rounds to promote his book The Trading Game.
It chronicles how the Ilford-born LSE graduate became the US investment bank’s most profitable trader in 2011 – only to quit three years later, disillusioned with the greed in finance.
Stevenson now campaigns against wealth inequality, teaching economics in YouTube videos. But he hasn’t given up trading entirely.
He let it slip to Whispers that in the pandemic he bought ‘£1 million worth of gold’.
When he placed his bet, gold prices were hovering around $1,445 an ounce. These days it’s trading at $2,160, an increase of nearly 50 per cent.
EE boss still making moves
He might have missed out on the top job at parent group BT last year, but EE boss Marc Allera was still making moves in boardrooms last week.
On Wednesday he was appointed chairman of Cambridge-based video game developer Jagex, after it was sold to private equity firms CVC Capital and Haveli Investments in a £900million deal last month.
While his day job is still mobile phones, the Jagex role is a homecoming for Allera, who led the UK arm of Japanese gaming giant Sega for four years at the turn of the millennium.
Let’s see if he can take Jagex to the next level.
Contributor: Francesca Washtell