Sports Direct and their intentions30 Sep 2015 14:02
Morning all. I'm mainly active on advfn but this LSE board seems to have more interest in Findel at present.
In trying to fathom Sports Direct's intentions, I think it rather depends on whether they knew about the Kitbag sale. If they didn't then they may have been acquiring to try to influence a sale to them. The problem they would now have is that having discovered in yesterday's RNS that Kitbag has already been sold subject to contract, it is going to be difficult to stop the sale just through a minority equity position isn't it?
If on the other hand they already knew about the Kitbag sale and took the position in order to try to prevent it, the question is what makes them think they can stop the sale with this equity position? At the very least I would have thought they would have to be able to convince the other major shareholders that there would be more value (and manageable reputation damage) in a sale to Sports Direct - which would mean being prepared to offer a reasonable premium to the price agreed with the current intended buyer, and probably participating in a formal auction with that buyer.
But if they knew about the sale, which had not been publicly disclosed, and then bought a significant equity position don't they leave themselves open to suspicions of trading on inside knowledge?
The other interesting factor is that they seem to have acquired their stake from the 2 major shareholders and roughly the same amount from each. Given Toscafund's inclinations as an activist investor I find it difficult to believe that they just happened to want to reduce - I think it much more likely that they saw value in bringing Sports Direct in and quite possibly they got Schroders on board with the idea. Which begs the question of what do the 3 companies have in mind for the end-game?
I would not be completely surprised if Toscafund lead a takeover attempt fairly soon, and announce that they have the support of Schroders and Sports Direct to the terms they propose. If successful then I would expect Sports Direct to walk away with Kitbag.
There's the matter of tomorrow's possible TU to get past - whether good or bad it might provide some volume to allow either Toscafund or Sports Direct to acquire more before any potential bid is tabled.
To counter that optimistic assessment, I guess the main risk is that Sports Direct didn't know about the sale of Kitbag, decide they can't stop it and now want to get out of their Findel position - although before dumping their shares I presume they would first do everything they can to get Kitbag.
My opinions only. Please do your own research.