Here’s a question for a City pub quiz: what connects the fashion retailers Monsoon and

Here’s a question for a City pub quiz: what connects the fashion retailers Monsoon and New Look, the discount sofa chain DFS, Virgin Group, the computer hardware re-seller Computacenter, the software group Misys and latterly the discount retailer Matalan?

Students of City history will know that the entrepreneurs who founded and floated them – Peter Simon, Tom Singh, Lord Kirkham, Sir Richard Branson, Mike Norris, Kevin Lomax and John Hargreaves – all later tried (not on every occasion successfully) to buy back their companies.
Matalan joined that select club only on Friday, when it revealed that its executive chairman and founder John Hargreaves is trying to put a bid together for the 47 per cent of the company’s shares that he and his family do not already own.A tersely worded statement to the London Stock Exchange confirmed an open secret among the City’s retail experts: Mr Hargreaves had been trying either to sell the company or raise the cash to take it private.With no trade buyer willing to put Matalan in its shopping trolley, its chairman is trying to secure backing from Barclays Capital, Barclays’ investment bank, for a bid of his own worth about £800m.The genesis and anatomy of Matalan’s present situation is in many ways an archetype for other public-to-private candidates. Traders said that positive news should send the shares back to the 100p level, despite continued losses and development setbacks. Traders reported widespread shorting of the shares, and expect the group to comment on the share price movement today.Sticking with widely shorted stocks, iSoft was down again on heavy volume, as talk of Accenture dropping the company from its NHS information technology contract intensified. The shares were trading at 700p as recently as 1 May, and tanked another 34p to close at 303.5p yesterday, a three-year low. The shares added 5.25p to close at 79.5p.It has been a grim year so far for shareholders of Interlink Foods, and the rumour in the market is that the group is poised to warn on earnings for the second time since May.

Even so, some traders booked profits and Enodis closed 3p worse at 213p.GW Pharmaceuticals, the developer of marijuana-based multiple sclerosis treatments, was well bid as traders speculated that the group is poised to announce a distribution partnership with an American pharmaceutical group. Manitowoc, a US heavy equipment manufacturer, last week revised its earnings guidance upwards after a strong year of trading and is thought to be flush with cash. There was also talk that the merged group will shed 400 jobs to fund the Heath Lambert acquisition. The shares closed at 400.5p, up 28.5p.Traders are still expecting another bid for the commercial oven and refrigerator manufacturer Enodis after suitors Manitowoc and Middleby were told to “put up or shut up” by 17 July by the FSA, after both had offers rejected in the last month.

A bout of profit taking saw shares in the exploration and production group close 40p worse at 2,153p after a trading update that failed to encourage buying.Coming off Goldman Sachs’s “conviction sell” list gave Unilever shares a small boost, 7p firmer at 1,223p, although the broker remains fairly downbeat on the group’s prospects, citing the cost of growth which continues to lag behind the group’s European peers Danone and Nestl?Talk of a bid to break up the food and consumer goods group continues, but traders said a private equity-backed offer is looking unlikely in the short term with a broad range of other targets thought to be further up the pecking order.The insurance broking group Jardine Lloyd Thompson was among the best performers in the FTSE 250 after the broker Morgan Stanley upgraded the stock to “equal weight” from “underweight”, citing poor share price performance, continued industry consolidation and the potential benefits of the purchase of privately-held rival Heath Lambert. London shares were boosted by strength in oils and mining, with Cairn Energy the lone faller in the sector. Even so, the shares closed 7.25p better at 201.75p.London shares continued where they left off last week, with the FTSE 100 index adding another 51 points to close at 5,884.4, edging closer to the 6,000 level and leaving the market less than 5 per cent off the year high. Trading in New York started well, with the Dow Jones index showing early gains of more than 50 points. The story has been around for a couple of months and although volume was good, with more than 42.5 million shares changing hands, there were enough sellers taking profits to suggest that not everyone in the market believes that a bid will come.

Northern Rock added 40.5p to close at 1,040.5p while Alliance & Leicester closed a penny better at 1,167p.The supermarkets group Morrison was in demand after weekend reports that a consortium of private equity groups including Permira and CVC Capital Partners is considering making an offer for the group. Talk that the group may link up with rival Bradford & Bingley, 4.5p firmer at 469.25p, was also doing the rounds.
Shares in Northern Rock topped the FTSE 100 leader board as traders decided that after a few weeks of being out of focus the banking sector was due another round of bid speculation. Once again traders pointed the finger at BSCH, the Spanish banking giant that bought Abbey in July 2004 for £8bn, and Cr?t Agricole, which until recently was thought to be in hot pursuit of Alliance & Leicester. Bid talk in the banking sector has been rife in the past six months, with hardly a week passing without talk of an offer coming in for one of the UK lenders. Yesterday, it was the turn of Northern Rock, as traders said that a bid will come in for the Newcastle-based mortgage bank. In a rapid growth market, the group expects to continue expanding.The shares trade on a fairly racy forward price-to-earnings ratio of 21 times, not expensive for the sector but expensive when compared with the rest of the market. However, the good numbers are likely to lead to increased broker estimates for the company so most of the risk is to the upside Buy..

Administering individual voluntary arrangements should also continue to deliver strong growth, with personal debt reaching record levels globally.The impressive financial performance of the insolvency specialist, which more than doubled turnover and pre-tax profits this year, was partly organic but also a result of an aggressive acquisition policy. Begbies Traynor Our view: BuyShare price: 182.5p (+3p)Just like the explosion in consumer debt, the stock market has seen an explosion in companies seeking to take advantage of a surge in bankruptcies, both personal and commercial.Around 85 per cent of Begbies Traynor’s revenues come from corporate insolvency and recovery work, where the company has invested heavily, and the corporate finance and financial investigations arms. It may be a case of “If you can’t beat them, buy them”.With a strengthened balance sheet, a key competitor removed and no acquisitions on the horizon for at least six months, investors should hang in there Hold. Torex is paying a multiple of 20.7 times full-taxed earnings and about 10 times historic sales.But Torex has admitted that Retail J’s electronic point of sales system is superior to its own and it has been grabbing market share at Torex’s expense, with an impressive list of clients including Selfridges, FCUK, Bhs and B&Q. Spun out of the merged iSoft/Torex business in 2004, the retail systems developer has made a string of purchases under the leadership of Chris Moore – so much that some analysts were starting to worry when Torex would find the time to integrate them all.Yet just when there seemed to be a lull in activity, Torex Retail has splashed out nearly £50m on its key British rival Retail J The price paid has caused consternation.