Private equity comes knocking

Harborne Group, the FTSE 250 precision-engineering firm whose components end up in everything from wind turbines to submarine sonar, confirmed on Friday that it has received a preliminary £2.4bn cash approach from Calloway Partners, a US private equity house. The statement came only after Harborne's shares jumped 31 per cent on rumours, forcing the board's hand.

Harborne says it is reviewing the proposal with its advisers and that there is no certainty an offer will be made. Calloway, for its part, now has a decision to make — and a deadline to make it by.

Meridian Power, a mid-sized UK energy supplier, failed on Thursday to obtain an interim injunction forcing Norwegian wholesaler Vasska Energi to keep gas flowing under a long-term supply contract. Vasska says it validly terminated for repeated late payment; Meridian says the termination was opportunistic, engineered to resell the same volumes at today's higher prices.

The judge was not persuaded that Meridian needed rescuing before trial. It can buy replacement gas on the spot market, and if it wins at trial, the difference in price is exactly the kind of loss damages are designed to cover.

The Financial Conduct Authority opened a consultation on Friday on making it cheaper and faster for already-listed companies to raise fresh equity. The headline proposal: widen the circumstances in which a company can issue new shares without producing a full prospectus, and make it easier to include retail investors in those raises.

Brokers and issuers broadly welcomed the direction. Investor-protection groups were more cautious, warning that disclosure exists for a reason and that lighter paperwork shifts risk onto shareholders.