BY any standards, Unilever seems to have got a good deal in its £73 million takeover of Allied Domecq's 75 per cent stake in Lyons Irish Holdings.
The question now must be what, went wrong for Allegro, the unquoted distribution group which was in exclusive discussions with Allied Domecq's for some weeks "but ended up losing out on an acquisition that would have transformed the company.
Strip out Lyons cash hoard and it emerges that Unilever is paying a multiple of 10 times profits for Lyons, a company that has a dominant market position but is also a veritable cash cow in terms of the cash flow it generates.
That sort of multiple may not be excessively cheap, but neither is it particularly expensive, and market sources find it difficult to understand why Allegro was not willing to go a little bit further to wrap up a deal.
The apparent unwillingness of Allegro to take that step further is more difficult to understand, given that a subsequent flotation of Allegro would undoubtedly be well supported.
The Irish distribution sector is under represented on the stock market and a company like Allegro with a solid profits record, well regarded management and a strong institutional presence on the share register would have been warmly welcomed, giving investors a way to buy into the distribution sector.
Allegro will undoubtedly continue to grow steadily and through small acquisitions, but the quantum leap that would have given the company the scale to go to the market has disappeared into the hands of Unilever.
For the rest of the market, it was a pretty good week with industrials, in particular, benefiting from the strength of overseas market. There was evidence of a movement of funds out of financials into some of the better quality industrials, although there must be a question mark over whether the current strength of the market can be sustained.
Certainly, developments on the interest rate front are positive for equities, with cuts in interest rates in Britain and the US, and expected cuts in rates in Germany and Ireland providing a positive backdrop.
The New York market still shows no sign of flagging, with occasional bouts of profit taking, usually being followed by renewed buying. In Dublin, the main beneficiaries of the buying - mainly out of London - have been CBH, and Greencore.
Independent benefited from its decision to pull out of a relaunch of the Irish Press titles with investors no doubt pleased that Independent will no longer act as a drip feed for Irish Press. The absence of the Press titles has also meant, of course, that Independent's own titles have been able to consolidate their positions in the daily, evening and Sunday markets.
But for all the good news in the market, there is also the bad and this week's profits warning from Jones is as bad as they come. All that the market has heard from Jones over the past two years has been profits warnings and boardroom changes, and the level of dissatisfaction with the company among institutional investors is now at an all time low.
