Investors Mutual’s Simon Conn displayed commendable foresight when he told Livewire (in a column re-published in this newspaper) that there was something iffy about TPG Global and Potentia’s bid for salary packaging company Smartgroup.

“Controversially, I’m a seller of this business because we have seen TPG and many other private equity firms approach companies and then not proceed with bids,” the fundie said last Friday. TPG Capital’s bid, he noted, was conditional and non-binding, raising “questions around whether they execute that”.