Pentos plc was a British

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...

that operated between 1972 and 1995 and was best known for its ownership of the Dillons, Wilding Office Equipment, Ryman and

Athena Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretism, syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarde ...

retail brands. Pentos was established from a

shell company A shell corporation is a company or corporation with no significant assets or operations often formed to obtain financing before beginning business. Shell companies were primarily vehicles for lawfully hiding the identity of their beneficial ...

by Terry Maher in January 1972 as a vehicle for his investment in the publisher Marshall, Morgan & Scott and the joinery company Austin Hall Group. By May 1972 Pentos had acquired a listing on the

London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...

through its

reverse takeover A reverse takeover (RTO), reverse merger, or reverse IPO is the acquisition of a public company by a private company so that the private company can bypass the lengthy and complex process of going public. Sometimes, conversely, the public compa ...

of the listed Cape Town & District Gas, Light & Coke company. Pentos entered the retail trade through its purchase of the Birmingham-based Hudsons Bookshops chain by its subsidiary Marshall, Morgan & Scott in 1972. It bought Dillon's University Bookshop in London in 1977, and the Dublin-based

Hodges Figgis Hodges Figgis is a long-operating bookshop in central Dublin, Ireland. Founded in 1768, it is probably the third-oldest functioning bookshop in the world, after the Livraria Bertrand of Lisbon (1732) and Pennsylvania's Moravian Book Shop (174 ...

bookshop in 1978. Pentos' shares were suspended and the company went into

receivership In law, receivership is a situation in which an institution or enterprise is held by a receiver – a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights" – especia ...

on 1 March 1995.

References

Bibliography

*{{cite book , last=Maher , first=Terry , title=Against My Better Judgement: Adventures in the City and in the Book Trade , year=1994 , publisher= Sinclair Stevenson , location=London , isbn= 1-85619-518-X British companies established in 1972 British companies disestablished in 1995 Retail companies established in 1972 Retail companies disestablished in 1995 Conglomerate companies of the United Kingdom Companies that have entered administration in the United Kingdom