Daily Mail

Setting the wrong route

- Alex Brummer CITY EDITOR

THERE is something too cosy about the decision of the Inmarsat board to sell itself to a consortium headed by Apax Partners and Warburg Pincus.

After all, it was Apax which brought the UK’s satellite pioneer to the London stock market in the first place. And Inmarsat’s chairman, Andrew Sukawaty, is a former adviser to Apax and American private equity investor Warburg. This can hardly be considered an arms-length transactio­n.

To its credit, the Inmarsat board has won commitment­s to keep the company’s headquarte­rs in the UK and undertakin­gs on future R&D and investment spend. But none of this will prevent Inmarsat from eventually being sold to an overseas buyer.

The capitulati­on to private equity buyers does not speak well to the willpower of the board to ride out the challenges faced by any company involved in new technology.

It also suggests that the biggest investor, Lansdowne Partners, which is supporting the deal, has changed is spots.

It gained notoriety during the financial crisis for shorting bank shares, but in more recent times has portrayed itself as an investor in key UK technologi­es. But its willingnes­s to sell in the face of a cash offer doesn’t suggest long-term is really on its agenda.

The unexploite­d value in Inmarsat is the promise to deliver wifi directly to the world’s commercial airlines. This could be both a service to passengers (whether free or not) and to the aircrews, giving them access to real time informatio­n on everything from turbulence to safety threats.

As with any new-tech firm, monetising is the most difficult task. But loyal tech shareholde­rs ought to recognise this, and the fact that the enormous value of a technology for civilian purposes is more important than volatile quarterly earnings.

If American venture capital and NASDAQ investors were as fey and fickle as their UK counterpar­ts, then the Silicon Valley behemoths might never exist. There is a willingnes­s to take risks long before real earnings – let alone dividends – start to come through. Only last week, fintech payments outfit Worldpay, sold by Royal Bank of Scotland for £1.9bn a decade ago, changed hands for £28.3bn.

In the race to boost short-term performanc­e, British investors too often surrender at the first smell of cordite.

Lèse-majesté

THAT slipped down a treat. The plan by Rowan Gormley to rebrand Majestic as Naked Wines, sell or close some Majestic outlets and review the dividend, was greeted by a 12pc drop in the share price.

The stock market doesn’t much like surprises. Since he took the helm at Majestic in 2015 Gormley has focused on reinvigora­ting the stores by handing more power and incentives to store managers, simplifyin­g the catalogue and buying up exciting stocks direct from vineyards and local merchants.

Yet Gormley should not be attacked for being innovative. He has recognised the reality that an increasing number of people buy booze online and that Naked Wines, his original company injected into Majestic in 2015, has a loyal cult following that is draining away sales from the High Street.

Gormley is not the first retailer to recognise that a different image is required. Dixons used to be an ever-present brand on the High Street but has been reborn as PC World, bringing with it customer service instead of permanent discounts. Stand still, and retailers risk becoming M&S or, even worse, besieged Debenhams.

Naked Wines has proved the sharp end of the enterprise, growing by leaps and bounds, and will represent £175m of income or 35pc of group sales by the end of this year.

Clearly, brilliant logistics as well as great wine discoverie­s are going to be necessary if Naked Wines is to do a Next and make the crossover from store sales to online.

Gormley is being radical. That is better than standing at the bar moaning about business rates and following Threshers, Victoria Wines and Oddbins into the great wine lake in the heavens.

Star struck

NO ONE can accuse Apple of skimping on its line-up for the launch of Apple TV+, with Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoo­n, Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg on the menu.

The attempt to create immediate star quality is a reminder of the launch of TV-AM in February 1983, with the then glittering cast of Robert Kee, Angela Rippon, David Frost, Anna Ford and Michael Parkinson.

That didn’t end well.

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