French Connection Share Discussion Threads

[tiswas] 18/12/2018 14:15

What a difference a couple of weeks makes!

Are prospective buyers allowed to accumulate stock in the meantime or are they now classified as "insiders"?

That would be the only consolation at the moment, that lots of interested buyers cannot buy!

Paul, you know about these things?

[arthur_lame_stocks] 18/12/2018 12:51

These are now lower than they were before the announcement that they are up for sale. I guess it shows just how tough retail is at the moment.

Glad I sold into the rise now.

[ljhrunner12] 02/12/2018 20:38

Or taking a punt. Downside risk is low as business is improving so why not, that's what I have done :-)

[tiswas] 29/11/2018 09:57

My cynical head says someone has got a sniff of news!

[brucie5] 13/11/2018 12:40

Bought a few. Difficult to know how to price these, but market will presumably be trying to infer a bid vs. no bid value. So any fall will be bought into?

[whatgoesupcomesdown] 13/11/2018 12:12

Price pretty irrelevant. If Marks is not selling there will be no action.

[tiswas] 13/11/2018 11:53

Paul Scott is right many more times than I am but price action here is surely suggesting that we are going to struggle to get a bid near 75p yet alone £1+.

Hopefully a higher bidder is playing their cards very close to their chest!

[zoolook] 22/10/2018 10:01

Good thoughts simso. Could be there is bad blood between Day and Ashley which could be positive or negative in a bidding war.

[simso] 22/10/2018 09:49

zoolook, I would add Philip Day of Edinburgh Woolen Mills as a possible acquirer. They have been active in this space, and have bought brands like Austin Reed, Viyella and Jaeger in recent times. They were strongly linked with House of Fraser and lost out to Mike Ashley there. Deep pockets, and a racing certainty they will running their slide-rule over the numbers at the very least. I read some press speculation that TFG London may be interested....owners of Phase8 and Whsitles.

[zoolook] 22/10/2018 09:32

Further comment from paulypilot on Stockopedia: hxxps://www.stockopedia.com/content/small-cap-value-report-mon-22-oct-2018-fccn-sdry-410549/
He’s hoping for £1-2 take out.
He speculated that Bestseller(who bought Toast)and the unnamed US previous bidder as potentially interested parties. Obviously there’s Ashley and maybe the son of the Dunelm founder who owns a stake and used to be their CEO. Seem to recall reports of him sitting on a cash pile after selling a chunk of Dunelm.

Any other likely suitors?

[paulypilot] 19/10/2018 16:57

4+ interested parties in formal sale process / strategic review.
Sounds encouraging:

[irishlass2] 19/10/2018 16:51

Rns just out explains the rise.

[frenchfry] 19/10/2018 16:27

No but as its up for sale we just leave it to our trustworthy CEO to get us the best price, as he has always looked after PIs...

[tiswas] 19/10/2018 09:47

I hope this BB is not a reflection of the interest from prospective buyers!

[danny baker] 08/10/2018 18:32

Although Mike Ashley may refuse to sell in a bid situation as he did with House of Fraser, it would be easy to deliver 50.1% and control to a bidder. My guess is that provided the price is a full one MA will be happy with his profit. Of course he may fancy FC himself to run alongside Flannels and he knows a thing or two about brand licensing having previously owned Dunlop and Slazenger.

[arthur_lame_stocks] 08/10/2018 13:28

I just figured that MA could crash any party for the firm so unless he's offered enough to sell or wants to buy it himself it could be a difficult deal to do. And I only bought last Friday so a quick gain suits me.

[zoolook] 08/10/2018 12:55

Thanks for leaving some for the next man :-)

Fingers crossed

[arthur_lame_stocks] 08/10/2018 12:20

Well i'm out at about that price. A nice 30% over the weekend.

[zoolook] 08/10/2018 12:11

Surprised they haven’t gone higher now they are officially in play and were trading at over 60p in only May so bought in again at 55.2p

[danny baker] 08/10/2018 09:42

This article is worth a look and not just for the picture of the attractive young lady. hxxps://uk.fashionnetwork.com/news/French-Connection-for-sale-will-Ashley-step-in-,1021923.html#

[danny baker] 08/10/2018 07:58

French Connection as a brand is much bigger in Asia than it is in Europe (ex-UK). I think advertising to the world that it is for sale is the best strategy for maximising how much it goes for. Apart from Bestseller who bought Toast earlier this year and Mike Ashley, I don't think too many other European retailers would be interested. Hopefully enough potential buyers come forward to get an auction going. I'd expect a take-out price in the range 80-100p but we'll have to see.

[18bt] 08/10/2018 07:30

Now confirmed

[irishlass2] 07/10/2018 14:13

Have had these for a while, hoping the Chinese would buy in. Fingers crossed.

[arthur_lame_stocks] 07/10/2018 13:13

Well that's good news, I only bought in to these on Friday, now they're up for sale we may see a rise in the price next week.

[smicker] 06/10/2018 14:44

hxxps://news.sky.com/story/french-connection-chief-marks-to-call-time-on-high-street-career-11518926