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Daisy, give me your answer do: CEO Riley in takeover approach

Matthew Riley may attempt to take comms VAR private with help from two investors

Daisy chief executive Matt Riley is weighing up a takeover bid for the comms VAR with backing from investors Toscafund and Pental Capital.

According to a stock exchange announcement this morning, Toscafund approached Daisy on behalf of the consortium on 27 July regarding a 190-pence a share offer.

Daisy said the trio's approach should not be taken as a "firm intention to make an offer", and Riley and his chums have until 10 September to make their intent clear.

"Toscafund, Penta and Matthew Riley confirm that they are currently at a preliminary stage of considering a possible cash offer for the entire issued and to be issued share capital of Daisy," the trio confirmed in a statement. "There is no certainty that any offer will be made nor of the level of consideration which might be attached to any such offer."

The identity of Riley's backers immediately sparked conjecture of what the Apprentice regular could be plotting if his plans to take Daisy private come to fruition.

While Toscafund holds a 28.1 per cent stake in infrastructure services outfit Phoenix IT Group, Pental Capital backs datacentre and hosting outfit Six Degrees.

Analyst Megabuyte noted combining the three players would fit in with Riley's ambitions to create a substantial midmarket converged telecoms and IT player. Daisy turned over £352.7m in its most recent financial year but the addition of Phoenix and Six Degrees would almost double that tally to £650m, Megabuyte said.

This morning's bombshell comes five months after talks reportedly broke down between Daisy and Virgin Media owner Liberty Group.

Toscafund already holds shares representing about 28.5 per cent of Daisy's shares, with Matthew Riley owning a 23 per cent chunk.