Quelle surprise: Bridgepoint sells former Government Chemist LGC

I'm glad to see Bridgepoint, the UK-based private equity firm, has finally confirmed it's sold LGC to US buy-out giant KKR.

Now, I'm not necessarily pleased for Bridgepoint, who I'm sure has made a ton of cash from its investment in LGC (from what I recall LGC was privatised for £3 million but the private equity firm was expected to sell it for between £700 million and £900 million). It's just good to see one of my stories - that was denied to me at the time of publication by the parties involved - has finally been confirmed.

Tuesday review

I thought I would do a little newspaper review on a Tuesday as there were plenty of brilliant stories knocking about in the British business sections today.

First of, I would just like to congratulate my old mate Graham "Ruddy" Ruddick - a former colleague from my time at The Daily Telegraph and one of the nicest chaps in financial journalism - for landing a story about healthcare group Four Seasons of the front page of the main book, yes the main book, of The Guardian. Here is a link to Graham's piece:

First round bids for Government's chemist expected next week...

Here's an interesting snippet regarding a takeover situation I wrote about for the Mail on Sunday in August.

I understand the £700 million auction for LGC - which acts the British Government's chemist - is about kick off in earnest.