Stake-building by an activist investor sparked a jump in blue-chip pest control firm Rentokil Initial.
A brief statement revealed that Trian Fund Management, one of whose founding partners is US billionaire Nelson Peltz, whose daughter Nicola is married to Brooklyn Beckham, recently acquired 7.5m shares in the UK company for a total of £31m.
The move comes after Brian Baldwin, head of research for Trian, was appointed a non-executive director of Rentokil at the end of September.
Earlier in that month, Rentokil shares had fallen by around 20 per cent after a profit warning and have only recovered slightly since then.
Trian could be looking to up the pressure for meaningful change at Rentokil, which has struggled since the major acquisition of US firm Terminix in 2022. Options could include shifting Rentokil’s primary listing to the US and potentially selling off under-performing parts of the business.
At the time of Baldwin’s appointment, Trian confirmed to the UK company that investment vehicles it manages owned approximately 57.1m Rentokil Initial shares, representing around a 2.26 per cent stake.
Bouncing back: Rentokil has struggled since the major acquisition of US firm Terminix in 2022
Rentokil Initial shares topped the FTSE 100 leader board, gaining 3.5 per cent, or 14p, to 412.9p.
At the end of a topsy-turvy week, the FTSE 100 index closed 0.1 per cent, or 11.43 points, lower at 8300.33, and the FTSE 250 index ended down 0.3 per cent, or 59.89 points, to 20889.15.
In the FTSE 250, Greggs rallied 1.9 per cent, or 52p, to 2834p after an initiation of coverage at ‘outperform’ by analysts at investment bank RBC Capital, who believe the shares have been oversold.
But on the downside, Tullow Oil fell 9.9 per cent, or 2.56p, to 23.44p, having jumped in the previous session after the oil and gas explorer revealed it was in preliminary takeover talks with Kosmos Energy. Kosmos lost 7.1 per cent, or 20p, to 261p.
And Ecofin US Renewables slumped 19.9 per cent, or 6.5p, to 26.2p as the infrastructure trust proposed the sale of its investments in US distributed solar assets to a subsidiary of True Green Capital.
There were mixed fortunes in the fund management sector. AIM-listed Impax Asset Management plunged 23.1 per cent, or 75.5p, to 252p after FTSE 250-listed wealth manager St James’s Place terminated the firm’s mandate to manage its Sustainable & Responsible Equity Fund.
The fund, which represents the only business Impax has with St James’s Place, totalled £5.2billion of its assets under management as of the end of November.
St James’s Place, however, gained 2 per cent, or 18p, to 914p boosted by an upgrade to ‘buy’ from analysts at Deutsche Bank. St James’s Place returns to the FTSE 100 index later this month.
Meanwhile, FTSE 100-listed asset manager Schroders inched down 0.3 per cent, or 0.8p, to 318p following a report that it is looking to sell its Indonesian business as it considers exiting some sub-scale markets under boss Richard Oldfield, who took over last month.
DIY INVESTING PLATFORMS
Affiliate links: If you take out a product This is Money may earn a commission. These deals are chosen by our editorial team, as we think they are worth highlighting. This does not affect our editorial independence.