More mergers mooted for 2010
Last week's multi-billion pound bid for Cadbury by US food giant Kraft highlighted that everything has its price.
Cadbury had been resolute in seeing off Kraft's early probing, but eventually the 850p-a-share offer was deemed too good to resist.
Who knows what Kraft has in store for UK workers or Cadbury's products? But that's not the concern of large shareholders in the group. As one institutional investor put it, "business is business".
Indeed it is. Apart from a handful of distressed sales late last year corporate activity in our own sector has been sluggish. But some observers suggest the appetite to do deals is returning, for example among private equity houses looking to make use of unutilised funds.
Whether the result of the looming general election prompts a rush of activity is debatable. No-one knows what an incoming government will do and business types hate uncertainty. Taxes will inevitably rise in the coming year or two to heave the country out of the current financial mire; the scale of the impact on businesses and consumers alike can only be wondered at.
Will there be a rush to sell assets, like there was in early 2008 immediately prior to new capital gains tax rules coming into play, before what is likely to be a spring election? Will the banks' reticence to get back into the sector ease? It looks like 2010 will throw up as many conundrums as its predecessor.
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So, no rights issue from JD Wetherspoon then, for the time being at least. The group is trading well enough, while talks with its banks over its £435m facility are said to be positive. What a far cry from the days immediately before the smoking ban, when many predicted Tim Martin's company would go belly up.
