Good evening,

Nothing lights up budget afternoon like a post-market raid!

With economists and investors locked up or sitting on their hands ahead of the budget’s release, Citi’s equities desk launched an ambitious raid for 15 per cent of Costa Group.

The buyer was an unnamed financial investor “specializing in investments in the agriculture and food sectors”, according to Citi’s message to funds.

Well, it didn’t take long for Street Talk to reveal it was US private equity firm Paine Schwartz Partners, making a comeback to the company it owned prior to listing in 2015.

Costa’s in good company attracting a PE bid - a lot of the big PE-backed floats of last decade have. For numerous reasons, a lot didn’t perform well as listed companies, and have been snapped up by private capital buyers.

While there’s no bid yet, Costa fits that bill. It’s been accident-prone for the past five years - the latest blow was an earnings downgrade last week blamed on the weather.

Elsewhere, we reveal a trade at wealth management firm Mason Stevens, have a buy-side mandate at TEEG and have found some life in the IPO market.

Happy reading,

Anthony Macdonald, Sarah Thompson and Kanika Sood

Street Talk Editors