Daniel Black
June‘s data released by the government show a 10% drop in insolvencies in England and Wales, in comparison to the same month last year. Fewer business failing, but a rising share of those that do are not going straight to liquidation, but for administration.
The curation of Teaser UK saw four indebted companies being bought between July 23 to 30, and none of the buyers was a distress specialist.
But they were not the only ones going to negotiation tables. This week:
- Bain Capital agreed to acquire Vitabiotics, the family-owned maker of Wellman and Pregnacare and the largest UK target of the week. Neither side disclosed terms; Bloomberg reported around £900m, citing people familiar with the matter.
- Ridgeview Partners tabled a possible offer for Pinewood Technologies at 448p a share, about £545m, with the board minded to recommend it.
- Zenobē acquired Bavarian developer sdp energie and a 1.75 GW transmission-connected battery pipeline in Germany.
Thanks for reading, and connect with me on LinkedIn if you want to discuss how I can help with your next M&A deal.
Week Summary | From July 23 to 30, 2026
The UK recorded 38 announced deals between 23 and 30 July, with business services, consumer and real estate the most active sectors, accounting for eight, six and five transactions respectively.
Domestic buyers took 21 of the 38, against nine inbound and eight outbound. Business services carried the count almost on its own, seven of its eight deals UK-to-UK and half of those accountancy or law firms absorbing smaller practices.
Administration is turning into a sales channel, and trade buyers are using it
Four of this week’s deals in Teaser UK came from an administrator or a receiver
- Cleverchefs bought South Wales caterer Just Perfect Catering from FRP Advisory‘s administrators in a pre-pack that preserved 86 jobs;
- Motor retailer Cars2 took a former Hayselden dealership site in Doncaster, marketed at £2.25m, after the family firm’s collapse;
- University College Birmingham bought the former Cube Hotel and Marco Pierre White restaurant from the administrators of MSHA Global Investments;
- And Caro Estates took a 38-home Liverpool City Region portfolio valued at £2.75m from Watling Real Estate acting as receiver, an enforcement remedy under a mortgage rather than a corporate insolvency procedure
A Insolvency Service report for June record 1,845 company insolvencies in England and Wales, 10% below June 2025, with creditors‘ voluntary liquidations down 15%. Administrations in the same month ran 80% higher. That 80% has been travelling. It should not be.
In the same document, the Insolvency Service disowns it noting that June was “affected by approximately 60 connected companies in the real estate sector entering administration”. Remove those and June is roughly 131 against 106, a rise closer to a quarter. April was distorted the same way, by more than 70 connected property companies. May administrations were 5% lower than a year earlier.
On law firm Shakespeare Martineau‘s count, real-estate administrations reached 336 in the first half against 78 a year earlier, more than two-thirds of the entire half-year increase, and the firm‘s head of restructuring attributes a substantial part of it to special purpose property companies connected to the collapse of lender Market Financial Solutions. Retail administrations actually fell, 142 against 153.
If we take property out and the half-year rise is nearer 17%. That is the number to work with, and it is still a real move against a total insolvency count that is going the other way. Britain is winding up fewer companies while making heavier use of the one procedure capable of delivering a business to a buyer rather than to a scrapyard. Neither series records what administrations actually end in, so it is defensible to claim it is about the mix of procedures, not about outcomes.
The channel has been sized once. Teneo estimates more than 600 UK distressed and special situations deals in 2025, generating over £1.7bn of cash proceeds for stakeholders and saving more than 73,000 jobs. That is an advisory firm’s market estimate rather than an official statistic, and it is the only measurement anyone publishes.
And now, in this week: a caterer, a car dealer, a university and a landlord. Among them we can find an interesting story: Cleverchefs, the Cardiff catering business, was itself sold in a pre-pack administration in November 2025, with all 420 employees transferring to the buyer. Nine months later it is the one doing the buying.
Rumour mill
- The giant of the oil and gas industry, BP Plc, is in advanced discussions to sell Lightsource bp to a consortium formed by private equity firm Qualitas Energy and Wren House
- US-based Ridgeview has made an offer to buy Britain’s Pinewood Technologies at 448 pence per share, a valuation of £545 million and a 42% premium to Pinewood’s closing price on 24 July
- The Financial Times reported a wave of PE takeovers of SaaS companies, as inflated valuations cede space to increasing bargains and investors seek to reduce risk under the ascent of AI
- A heavy debt load and a weak share price have Cellnex Telecom SA evaluating strategic options, including a possible take-private or a merger with a competitor
- Michael Murray is the pivot of a campaign from Frasers Group on Hugo Boss. Part of the strategy of the British company, as it pursues a takeover of the German fashion house, is to explore ways to install Murray as chief executive of its target.
- ZeroAvia is planning to sell a stake to an established aerospace or defence business, raising cash and gaining help in commercialising its hydrogen fuel cells
- Opposing strategies took over the backstage of the deal between DCC Energy, KKR and Energy Capital Partners. Synthetic positions in the company diverged during the possible-offer period, before the £5.75 billion transaction between the energy group and the funds was firmly agreed. On one side, Davidson Kempner preferred to take the liquidity, cutting long positions in CFDs referenced on 913,331 DCC shares
- Pentwater, which held exposure to almost 3.27% of DCC, had gone the other way and widened its spread position by more than 100,000 reference shares slightly earlier, on 21 July
- The same investor appears on both sides of the possible combination between Picton, LondonMetric and Schroder REIT. Rathbones held 6.03% of Picton, which places it among the relevant shareholders of the target in a proposal structured entirely in shares
- On the other side of the table, Rathbones also held 3.33% of LondonMetric and 3.21% of Schroder REIT, precisely the two shares used as currency in the revised terms: 0.190 of the first and 0.894 of the second for each Picton share. Sitting on both sides leaves the exchange ratio close to economically neutral for the holder
- It was not an isolated case. Dimensional declared positions equivalent to 1.12% of LondonMetric and 1.27% of Schroder REIT and stated that it also had disclosures relating to Picton, repeating the overlap between buyers and target
- Bluefield Solar was already trading practically flush with Drax’s offer. Rathbones held 1.17% of the fund and disclosed the sale of 49,525 shares at 92.1p, only around 0.5% below the fixed 92.574p component offered in the acquisition
- At NextEnergy Solar, execution risk remained far more open. Rathbones held 1.16% and sold 25,000 shares at 50.5046p, around 34% below the NAV of 76.1p, a discount to asset value rather than to any offer, since the fund was still running a formal sale process with no buyer announced
- More time meant more spread in ABB’s acquisition of Rotork. Jupiter sold 258,165 shares at 485.2p, around 3.7% below the 503p in cash offered in the deal, and was left with a stake of 2.05% in the British manufacturer
- The widest discount appeared at Spire Healthcare, where Toscafund’s proposal was still not binding. Dimensional held 2.99% of the company and disclosed a residual purchase at 231.5p, almost 8% below the 250p indicated by the potential buyer
- Among the more advanced deals, JTC concentrated one of the tightest spreads. Man Group held entirely synthetic exposure equivalent to 2.59% and added swaps referenced on 10,726 shares at 1,326.78p, around 1% below the 1,340p offered by Permira
- At Senior, the discount was still a little wider. Man Group’s exposure of 1.63% was also held entirely in equity swaps, while new long adjustments were executed close to 290p, around 2.7% below the cash component of 297.85p
- Advent International is in advanced talks to acquire FNZ Bank, the German banking arm of London-headquartered wealthtech FNZ, in a deal that could value the business at more than €400 million.
- Ireland’s ESB has appointed PwC to find a buyer for UK electricity supplier So Energy, after deciding that the business is no longer core.
- London-based LMAX Group is exploring a sale or a SPAC merger alongside a potential IPO, with the business potentially valued at up to $5 billion.
- Nightcap is seeking around £9 million to fund the acquisition of an unnamed competitive-socialising leisure concept, with a deal expected within weeks.
- Nostrum Oil & Gas is running due diligence with a potential buyer for its Kazakhstan business and discussing the possible terms of a sale.
- Samlerhuset has hired Alvarez & Marsal to find a buyer for The London Mint Office, with administration on the table if a sale is not secured quickly.
- Adani Ports is weighing a bid for the 63.9% controlling stake in Associated British Ports being sold by CPPIB and OMERS.
- Aser Ventures is exploring the sale of all or part of its minority stake in London-based sports streaming platform DAZN.
- Shell and Phillips 66 are exploring the sale of their stakes in Explorer Pipeline, in a deal that could value the US infrastructure business at around $3.5 billion.
- CityFibre is seeking £900 million from shareholders to fund further acquisitions, as consolidation accelerates across the UK fibre market.
- Gordon Brothers has joined Next and Frasers Group in bidding for Harvey Nichols, while Chalhoub Group and Reliance Retail also remain in contention.
- Monarch Collective sought to acquire 100% of West Ham United Women, but talks with the club have stalled after nearly a year of negotiations.
- Rumours of a consortium led by Amit Bhatia buying a significant minority stake in Liverpool FC moved forward. The group has approached Eduardo Saverin and Jeff Bezos as potential investors.
- Dragon Oil, Carlyle, Energean and Artemis Energy are expected to bid for BP’s West Nile Delta gas assets in Egypt.
- Anglo American is reportedly discussing a sale of its 85% stake in De Beers to the Global Diamond Consortium for roughly $1 billion, although the terms remain preliminary.
IPOs
- Airtel Africa chooses the LSE for a future listing in the second half of 2026. According to Sunil Taldar, chief executive of the African arm of the Indian telecom giant, a London listing “will provide access to a broad international investor base and unlock long-term value”
- Amaroq published its prospectus for a move from AIM to the Official List, with admission to the London main market set for 31 July. The Greenland-focused mine developer is issuing no new shares in the process, keeps the AMRQ ticker and has Citigroup as sponsor
Job moves
- Former HSBC banker Helge Weiner-Trapness is the new executive chairman of the biotech group Allergy Therapeutics PLC, as the company explores a dual listing in Hong Kong
- Azets appointed Jessica Lawrence as Office Managing Partner for its audit division in Leeds
- From government intelligence to private markets, former MI6 chief Sir Richard B. Dearlove was appointed to the advisory board of Pattern Computer. Dearlove retired from MI6 in 2004
- Primary Hydrogen Corp appointed Christopher Longton as Vice President, Exploration
- Lorenz Werndle steps up as independent non-executive director of Tertiary Minerals PLC
- Australia’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation appoints Paul McCartney as chief executive, succeeding Ian Learmonth, as its clean energy investment push accelerates
- Entain loses a non-executive after four years on the board. Rahul Welde retires with effect from 31 July, in a boardroom that chair Pierre Bouchut has been reshaping
- Forterra hired its new finance chief from a rival building products group. Lisa Oxnard joins as chief financial officer and executive director from Genuit Group, succeeding Ben Guyatt, who leaves on 31 October
- Legal & General recruited a risk overseer straight out of a competitor’s risk function. Stephen Shelley, group chief risk officer at Lloyds Banking Group until October, becomes an independent non-executive director on 1 December and joins the group risk and audit committees
Fundraising
- Australian Microba Life Sciences raised $5.41 million through a post-IPO equity placement and now seeks to expand operations in the UK
- A consortium of British pension funds is preparing to create a new fund to back early-stage science and technology businesses. The initiative is expected to deploy £1bn in its pursuit
- Saipem has secured two new contracts from Eni Côte d’Ivoire Limited worth a combined €800 million or so
- Play Padel secured £1.2m of funding from NPIF II, managed by Mercia, and the South Yorkshire Debt Fund
- Moa Technology raised €25.9 million in a Series C round co-led by Oxford Science Enterprises and Supernova Invest
- Furbnow has secured a £2.5 million seed round led by West Midlands Co-Investment Fund, Nesta, Wrightwood Investments and Danny Luhde-Thompson, with a follow-on investment from SFC Capital and several angel investors
- Yope raised $12.3 million, around £9.2 million, in a pre-Series A led by Northzone with Inovo. The London app is selling private, algorithm-free sharing as the answer to the public feed
- Arrakis came out of stealth with a £22.5 million Series A led by Blossom Capital and Accel. The London company is pointing its AI agents at industrial and supply chain work rather than at office tasks
- TidalSense secured £14.2 million from Cross-Border Impact Ventures, BGF, Airstream Capital and Foresight Group. The Cambridge company builds an AI-powered breath test for COPD aimed at NHS use
- Blackstone backed the plumbing of its own industry. LemonEdge raised $21 million, around £15.8 million, in a Series A led by Blackstone Innovations Investments with BNY and Sidekick Partners, for fund accounting software built for private markets
