At first glance, Britain’s veterinary surgeons, Royal Mail, and Thames Water might seem like disparate entities. However, they share a common thread: each leaves its customers feeling shortchanged.

Pet owners are often met with steep veterinary fees, while postal service users fork out extra for first-class deliveries that frequently miss their deadlines.

Meanwhile, Thames Water’s customers grapple with rising regulated costs, frequent pipeline bursts, and sewage leaks contaminating rivers.

These issues are partly rooted in their ownership structures. Gone are the days when vet practices were run by friendly figures reminiscent of James Herriot.

Today, the £6.7 billion veterinary industry is predominantly under the control of six major, debt-heavy private equity firms chasing substantial profits.

Similarly, Daniel Kretinsky’s International Distribution Services, the parent company of Royal Mail, is burdened with debt, while Thames Water is floundering under financial strain, urgently in need of a viable rescue strategy.

Toothless: The Competition & Markets Authority has carried out a three-year investigation into veterinary industry

After a three-year probe into vets, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has hatched a mouse in the face of soaring prices. 

It doesn’t bode well for the Chancellor’s promise of robust action against price gouging and profiteering in volatile fuel markets.

At the core of the CMA report are demands for more transparency. Vets will be required to publish a comprehensive price list for services. Without being pernickety, they should be doing so anyway.

There is also to be a price cap of £21 on prescriptions. This should end vets selling drugs at extortionate prices on their own premises, when clients could make enormous savings online.

All this is terrific, except the damage has been done. The UK, as with so many other services, has become a honeypot for ruthless financial owners. 

Private equity barons such as IVC Evidensia, which is seeking to go public, will be breathing a sigh of relief. Private equity ownership enriches executives and vets at the expense of pet owners and farmers.

It was a chance for new CMA chair, Amazon emigre Douglas Gurr, to bare his teeth. He should have demanded an end to oligopolistic ownership and sought a break-up of the plunderers.

Peltz win

Brooklyn Beckham’s father-in-law is on a good run. Nelson Peltz has been instrumental in shaking up Unilever, which is seeking to exit food to focus on wellness, beauty and personal care.

Now he is about to seize control of London fund managers Janus Henderson, listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Janus Henderson has been troubled in recent times as investors drifted away from active management to lower-cost, follow-the-crowd index-linked funds.

It reversed the process last year in an alliance with America’s Guardian Life Assurance that led to a transfer of almost £35billion of public fixed-income assets to its books, flattering performance.

That didn’t stop a crisis in its strategic bond fund, which has been plagued by outflows. None of this has deterred suitors. 

A special committee of the Janus board has been holding the ring as Peltz’s Trian, assisted by venture capital outfit General Catalyst, have slugged it out for control with Victory Capital.

An increased offer from Peltz, worth £6billion, achieved a knockout, offering investors a 25 per cent premium to the pre-bid price, taking the enterprise private.

The timing may not be ideal for the new owners. The conflagration in the Arabian Gulf is changing arithmetic, with interest rates looking stickier, if not rising.

Fissures have also developed in private credit markets and there are questions over AI valuations. 

As for the City of London – with each successive deal a famous, century-old name in UK fund management is ever more divorced from its roots.

Ashley swoop

Online fast-fashion pioneer Asos, once a big Covid winner, is showing renewed signs of life, with profits up 50 per cent in the first half and sales up in all key markets.

The big question is what the next move by its enigmatic biggest shareholder, Mike Ashley’s Frasers, which raised its stake to 29.2 per cent this week.

At this level of holding, Frasers is less than a percentage point short of being required to launch a full takeover.

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