You may be right ML - however I think you need to be careful...

You may be right ML - however I think you need to be careful distinguishing between whether you think EBPE will be fronting the capital for this (which it seems doubtful they themselves will have that sort of cash), or if they are a front for an actual buyer or buyers who have a significant amount of capital, but do not want to show their faces. They may be parties that know that there will a premium cost to the business if their identities are known, or set off a stampede that pushes up the price.

There is a person of varied and "interesting" business interests who has written the letter and has put his name to the bid at this stage. We cannot gauge how well connected or how trustworthy (or how well trusted) this individual is by taking into account a possibly deliberate low profile.

The way the bid has been put forward does lend itself to speculation that an interested party (who does not want to be named) with possible synergies and expertise could take over the business, while another party interested in property would take that.

This would mean that taking control of the "business only" could require less capital than the market has been factoring in. There is now a wider range of suitors being considered as possible buyers.

I did think the media would take a different tack to this over the weekend, and today they would be examining the different possible suitors who could be behind a possible "front" bid. I was totally wrong about that. :-(