Bank of America Merrill Lynch returns with another bear hug

Hat tip to Bryce Elder, the stock market reporter over at the Financial Times, for landing the best M&A story of the morning and who looks to be on a bit of deals story winning streak (remember last week Bryce broke the story about the Dialog and AMS merger - time for a pay rise, Ed?).

This morning the flying scotsman revealed in his market report that Mothercare had received a £266m takeover bid from US outfit Destination Maternity Corporation. Here is a link to Bryce's market report: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/bcc5efe8-013b-11e4-9750-00144feab7de.html#axzz36INXxo2U

The interesting thing here is this looks to be another aggressive "bear hug" from a company that is advised by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, one of those super bullish Wall Street banks.

Here is a link to Destination Maternity's statement, which says the US company is "disappointed that the board of Mothercare has thus far refused to engage in any discussions": http://www.investegate.co.uk/dest-maternity-corp/rns/confirmation-of-interest-in-a-combination/201407020700141855L/

Remember Bank of America Merrill Lynch advised Pfizer on its failed £70 billion takeover bid for AstraZeneca and was also the lead adviser to Weir Group on its unsuccessful attempt to buy Finnish engineer Metso.

So, I wonder whether this latest Bank of America Merrill Lynch bear hug will actually prove to be successful? Unlikely, if the previous track record is anything to go by.