Mystery predator circling Stagecoach trains group

ARGO BLOCKCHAIN, the Londonlisted cryptocurrency miner, has been a roaring success. Its shares have risen nearly tenfold since it hit the stock market in 2018.

Now one of its early backers, renowned small cap investor Adrian Beeston, is rumoured to be investing in another technology flotation – Lift Global Ventures.

Lift, which is chaired by former City broker and financial commentator Zak Mir, is understood to be an investment company planning to buy financial media and technology businesses.

Word is that Lift is preparing to list on the Aquis Exchange over the next few weeks.

Other potential backers said to be getting involved in the Lift flotation include small cap lender Riverfort and other well-known City share dealers.

WHISPERS are circulating that bus and rail group Stagecoach may have caught the attention of a private equity firm after starting £2billion merger talks with its larger rival National Express.

Senior financiers said at least one buyout firm could be circling the Perthbased

company with a view to making a £500million cash offer.

Stagecoach was founded by Dame Ann Gloag and her brother Sir Brian Souter in 1976. They were selling some of their Stagecoach stock earlier this year, so may be willing to entertain a cash deal with a buyout firm. But the identity of the potential buyer is a mystery.

Dealmakers tipped Brookfield, the Canadian investment group, because it studied an acquisition of Stagecoach in the past.

Another obvious private equity predator is CVC Capital Partners. CVC was involved in a failed £700million takeover approach for National Express in 2009.

The irony of a successful CVC bid for Stagecoach would not be lost on City types with a few grey hairs.

PENSANA’S shares have been on a tear, rising 35 per cent in the last month.

In part, the rise is due to talk that a US-based activist hedge fund has been building a sizeable shareholding in the rare earth metals firm, which supplies electric car makers.

City gossips claim the fund has been building its stake through a vehicle called Pershing Nominees Limited, which now owns 15.9 per cent of Pensana.

Quite what the unnamed investment firm plans for Pensana – which aims to develop Western Europe’s first £90 million rare earth processing plant in Hull – remains to be seen.

But it could be a timely investment if fresh detail about a loan to Pensana from the Government’s Automotive Transformation Fund is announced in the coming weeks.