Shore Capital Markets

"A top of the league acquisition."   Shore Capital's Real Estate Equity Analyst, Andrew Saunders, believes Landsec's £490m acquisition of the Liverpool ONE shopping centre is a nice addition to its portfolio, despite wider market scepticism in destination retail, as reported by The Times.   You can read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/d7yUwh7Z

Shore Capital is delighted to have acted as Nomad, Joint Corporate Broker and Joint Bookrunner on an oversubscribed £21.25m placing for Inspired PLC. Inspired is a leading energy and sustainability consultant to UK corporates and the issue price of 40p represents a c.1.3% premium to the closing mid-market price on the last practicable date prior to the placing. The net proceeds of the placing will be used to strengthen the Company’s balance sheet and to enable it take advantage of its significant opportunity in its Optimisation division with a pipeline consisting of projects to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions for c.130 customers.

Recovery on the horizon?   As reported in The Times, Shore Capital Technology Equity Analyst, Martin O'Sullivan, believes macroeconomic factors, and the return of Brendan Mooney as CEO, should see a recovery in service demand at Kainos.   You can read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/eXRQ6jFP

Shore Capital is pleased to have acted as Joint Corporate Broker to NewRiver REIT plc (“NewRiver”) on its recommended £151 million cash and share offer to acquire Capital & Regional plc (“Capital & Regional”). The recommended cash and share offer, announced on 24 September 2024 and completed on 10 December 2024, increases the size of NewRiver’s portfolio by 65% to create a £0.9 billion portfolio through the combination of high-quality, complementary assets with similar low-risk tenant profile and attractive income characteristics. The transaction to acquire Capital & Regional was part funded through a significantly oversubscribed 19.9% equity placing and retail offer in September 2024 on which Shore Capital was pleased to have acted as Joint Global Coordinator and Joint Broker.

Shore Capital is pleased to have acted as Financial Adviser, Rule 3 Adviser, Nominated Adviser and Broker to musicMagpie plc (“musicMagpie”) on its recommended cash offer by AO World plc (“AO”). The recommended cash offer, announced on 2 October 2024 and completed on 12 December 2024, follows a comprehensive sale process within the scope of the UK City Code on Takeovers and Mergers. Shore Capital has supported musicMagpie since its IPO and is pleased to have assisted the company complete this transaction with AO. musicMagpie is a market leader in the re-commerce of consumer technology, disc media (including CDs, DVDs and games) and books in the UK, with operations in the US, with sustainability running to the very heart of its operations. The company has the highest number of seller reviews on both Amazon and eBay and has consistently achieved extremely positive feedback scores as well as a 4.4* rating on UK Trustpilot with over 300,000 reviews. musicMagpie also won Best Refurbished Device Supplier in the Uswitch Telecoms Awards 2024, as well as Best Online Retailer and Best Secondary Market Provider at the Mobile News Awards 2023. We wish the musicMagpie team all the best in the future.

Shore Capital is delighted to have acted as Sole Bookrunner and Retail Offer Co-ordinator on Warpaint London PLC's £15m placing and retail offer (AIM: W7L). The placing, which raised £14m, was substantially oversubscribed and the proceeds are being used for the cash consideration in relation to Warpaint’s recommended offer for Brand Architekts PLC. Shore Capital is acting as Financial Adviser to Warpaint in relation to the recommended offer. Warpaint sells branded cosmetics under the lead brand names of W7 and Technic. W7 is sold in the UK primarily to retailers and internationally to local distributors or retail chains. The Technic brand is sold in the UK and continental Europe with a significant focus on the gifting market, principally for high street retailers and supermarkets. In addition, Warpaint supplies own brand white label cosmetics produced for several major high street retailers. The Group also sells cosmetics using its other brand names of Man'stuff, Body Collection and Chit Chat. Shore Capital also acts as Nomad and Sole Broker for the Company. 

Wrong timing? That’s certainly the view of Shore Capital’s Technology Equity Analyst, Alasdair Young, who was quoted by The Times and This Is Money after Learning Technologies Group plc agreed a £802m takeover. The coverage notes that Alasdair was “unimpressed” by the offer and believes it is “the wrong time to sell the business.” You can read both articles below. The Times – https://lnkd.in/ehV92dA6 This Is Money – https://lnkd.in/eYByRMNw

Shore Capital’s oil & gas exploration and production franchise is pleased to feature in this week’s Financial News.   We are committed to supporting this important London-listed sector and we are demonstrating this through the expansion of our senior E&P-focused team.   In the Financial News article, Ben Canning in Shore Capital’s Corporate Broking team and James Hosie our E&P Equity Research Analyst discuss the attractiveness of London’s E&P companies and why it is important for us to support them at a time when many of our larger peers have stepped away from the sector.   Simon Fine, CEO, says, "We are delighted to expand our E&P franchise, having invested in a team comprising some of the UK's most highly regarded sector specialists. We look forward to further growing this offering and supporting an important sector, underserved by the market in the past decade.”   Read the full article here on Financial News: https://lnkd.in/eAg_jh3z

Congratulations to Shore Capital’s Dr Clive Black who was recognised with an Honorary Doctorate by Queen's University Belfast for services to the agri-food industry locally, nationally, and internationally.   The Honorary Doctorate, presented by the University’s Chancellor, Hillary Clinton, is richly deserved recognition for Clive’s tireless and outspoken support for the UK’s agri-food industry. A vital industry which, from farm to fork, is the largest industrial segment of the nation’s economy that feeds the nation and employs millions of people.   Upon receiving the Honorary Doctorate, Clive said: ‘I was greatly surprised by this award, and I am truly delighted and honoured to be associated with the wonderful people with whom I was standing alongside. Honours, of course, are rarely the result of a single person’s efforts, and so it is in this case. The work that Queen’s has recognised through me has taken place within the Shore Capital ecosystem, with the support of and commitment of our fabulous consumer team, which I also take pleasure in commending and thanking.’

Renewables Resurgence?   The FT Adviser has published an article on a research note by our Investment Funds analysts, Saumya Banerjee and Rachel May, written as a follow up to our October conference on renewable energy funds.   The article notes that “the renewable sector in the UK has fallen out of favour with investors as interest rates increased” and that it would take lower rates for the tide to turn and investors to want to own the trusts.   Retail investors have demanded higher rates of return as the return from risk free, capital gains tax free government bonds has risen and it is likely that we will need lower government bond yields before the sector re-rates.   You can read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/eRv7Zpcz