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Thursday, July 02, 2009

Banks Take the Helm At Incisive

The FT reported yesterday that the banks who leant the debt that enabled Incisive Media to grow like topsy are in deep talks with Apax and the management about what to do next. Although Apax want to retain some equity and are prepared to put some more money into the pot the banks appear to have lost patience and now own Incisive in all but name.

You can bet that the FT numbers are not 100% correct but it looks as though Apax will end up being diluted from owning around half the business to owning about 2% of it. The management are keeping something north of 10% (which is a lot given that the banks have lost hundreds of millions and Apax lost its shirt. This isn't a done deal yet and things could yet change.

We should be interested not only because Incisive is a big b2b player but also because we as tax payers own RBS, the main lender. I am sure we all want Tim Weller and crew to make some more money, but lets hope not too much of it is ours.
;-)

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4 Comments:

At 4:31 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

What do you think the likely outcome of these changes in shareholding? Do you think the banks will look to close any unprofitable parts of the business, and sell what they can piecemeal, or hold on to it all in the hope of selling on in a few years?

 
At 9:53 am, Anonymous Anonymous said...

If RBS hold true to form we can expect to see closures, redundancies and wholesale asset disposal. They are govt owned and are likely to just want it off the books as quickly as possible.

Still it does mean that the taxpayer now owns a significant chunk of Incisive, I'm a taxpayer and therefore can I borrow Tim Weller's Ferrari?

 
At 3:53 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Never mind taking the helm they should be launching the lifeboats

 
At 11:51 am, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yes i think it will become interesting if Incisive start making a real cash-loss before interest payments. At that point will the banks actually want to put more money in?

I don't know what their cash position is like; but i know their markets are very very tough at the moment, so if they are still profitable even on that level, then they are doing well.

Is sad for their employees, as they basically have a good business; but overpaid for the constituent parts and the timing of the last couple of aquisitions was very unfortunate.

 

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