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The takeover of Clipper Ventures, the logistics company that numbers Asda, Asos, H&M, JD Sports and John Lewis among its customers, should in theory represent the latest chapter of a heart-warming rags to riches story.
The proposed £943m sale, to the US logistics giant GXO Logistics, will crystallise a further £139m for Steve Parkin, Clipper’s founder and executive chairman.
But the takeover by the Connecticut-based company also symbolises what some say is a malaise in the UK stock market.
Plenty of people will wonder why a business with such attractive growth prospects – it services the booming e-commerce and e-fulfilment sectors – was so undervalued by investors that a US buyer has been able to snap it up at a price slightly lower than where the shares were changing hands only last September.
Clipper’s story is certainly remarkable.
Mr Parkin, 61, grew up on a council estate in the Leeds suburb of Middleton and left school at the age of 16 with no qualifications.
He subsequently spent 18 months working as a coal miner before deciding against a career in the pits and obtaining a heavy goods vehicle licence.
The businessman, who has described Margaret Thatcher as a “genius”, has subsequently credited his time at the coalface for turning him into a Conservative supporter after he saw, first-hand, the militancy of the pit unions.
He told The Sunday Times in 2019: “I hated the mines. I stuck it out for 18 months. Being down there taught me about capitalism and socialism. It inspired me to better myself, to want more and to work hard to get it.”
Mr Parkin then spent several years delivering fish to customers around the north of England for a business bearing the name Clipper Seafood.
In 1992, he set up on his own as a “man and van”, taking the name Clipper with him because it conjured up an image reminiscent of the 19th century ships built…
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Source : skynews
