Is the Daily Mail gearing up for a reverse-ferret of epic, historic proportions?
The paper has been leading an excellent campaign against the ills of private equity, offering us, among many others:
Ten Deals to Make Your Blood Boil
And:
A High-Risk Pandemic Plundering Spree
This was always slightly uncomfortable, since parent DMGT has its own venture capital arm.
Two days ago, editors awoke to the news that DMGT is considering a bid to take itself private.
That depends on various ins and outs, but if the controlling shareholder Lord Rothermere wants to do it, he pretty much can.
Will he use private equity cash to secure the deal?
If he does, won’t the paper have some explaining to do to its readers? So far, it hasn’t given any explanation to anyone.
Private equity is evil, unless we’re doing it, it might have to say.
Even if the deal is structured differently, won’t it look to the casual reader like just the sort of thing the paper has been railing against?
If it does go ahead, it leaves Reach as the last standing listed newspaper company.
I think newspapers, like football clubs, don’t belong on the stock market in the first place.
As for private equity, well, it is awful.
Unless my employer happens to need it.
A London centric one here from Dojo – a report into which of the city’s boroughs were most affected by Covid.
It looks at wages, job openings, property prices and transport.
Havering and Worthing did best. Hackney suffered most. Tell me about it.
Be good to see similar on a national scale.
