Red Funnel is up for sale the Sunday Times reported today, claiming the price is in excess of £250m. The desire to sell has been confirmed by Red Funnel to OnTheWight.
The company that is selling the Isle of Wight ferry company is M&G Investment Management, trading under the name Infracapital, which has a considerable portfolio of other companies. M&G Investment Management is in turn owned by Prudential plc.
Ten years ago Red Funnel was put up for sale for £200m, ending up in Infracapital hands, who are now looking to sell it on. It took about two months from announcement of looking for a buyer to the sales being announced back then.
Red Funnel boss: “It’s normal”
Kevin George, Red Funnel CEO said responded to a query from OnTheWight News with:
“Infracapital has been a supportive owner of Red Funnel for nine years, during which time there has been significant investment and improvement in the services we provide. It is normal for an infrastructure fund manager such as Infracapital to review its investments from time to time.
“We remain totally committed to offering safe and reliable services, value for money and great customer service now and into the future.”
A twist
In a twist to today’s story, Infracapital have engaged Australian bank Macquarie to sell Red Funnel. Macquarie’s own Infrastructure fund owned Wightlink for many years until they sold it in July 2015.
As OnTheWight News reported a month ago, Wightlink has quietly changed ownership again since that sale.
The Sunday Times reported that Red Funnel made profits of £17.6m in 2015, 23% up on the previous year.
