English cricket chief Tom Harrison to try Six Nations top job

Published

1 year ago

January 25, 2023

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The former boss of English cricket is poised to switch sports by landing the plum job of running the commercial operations of Six Nations rugby.

Sky News has learnt that Tom Harrison, whose departure from the England and Wales Cricket Board was announced last May, is close to being named as chief executive of Six Nations Limited, which controls the commercial rights and activities associated with the world’s most important annual rugby union competitions.

Sources said his appointment was expected to be ratified by members of the Six Nations Council at a meeting on Thursday.

It has already been approved by the commercial board comprising representatives of the six member unions – England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales – and CVC Capital Partners, the private equity firm which has become a major international investor in rugby union.

One rugby insider said Mr Harrison had been picked after a rigorous search for a candidate with extensive sporting and media rights experience, and reflected his track record after seven years running the ECB.

Six Nations Ltd manages both the Six Nations tournament and the series of autumn internationals which are being recast into a yearly northern and southern hemisphere competition called The Nations Cup.

The Six Nations, which kicks off next month, is largely broadcast on free-to-air television, while the autumn internationals are shown on pay-TV and streaming services such as Amazon.

Around 120 million viewers watch the Six Nations annually, equating to an average of about 8 million for each of the 15 matches.

Six Nations Limited is said by people close to the sport to be valued at roughly £3bn, and made approximately £150m in profit last year.

Mr Harrison will replace Ben Morel, whose departure at the end of the current season was announced in November.

Under Mr Morel’s stewardship, the Six Nations has struck a partnership with Netflix for a fly-on-the-wall series and partnerships with brands such as Tik Tok.

Mr Morel has since accepted a role running the commercial operations of France’s top-flight football league – another CVC-backed business.

CVC has become the most prolific private equity investor in sport globally, ploughing billions of pounds into football, rugby and volleyball.

Its previous ownership of Formula One motor racing was one of the most lucrative investments in the history of the private equity industry.

A rugby executive described the Six Nations role as one of the top sports commercial jobs in Europe, and said Mr Harrison was likely to have been attracted by the prospect of running a league without the responsibility of overseeing a series of national teams.

During his tenure at the ECB, Mr Harrison oversaw a near-tripling of revenue from £123m in 2014 to an expected £320m this year.

“Tom transformed the reach of English cricket by introducing a hybrid broadcast model across pay-TV and free-to-air,” an insider said.

His work overseeing the creation of The Hundred format – which is itself now drawing interest from private equity investors – and creation of a joint venture vehicle to bring third-party investment into English cricket are understood to have been of particular interest to rugby chiefs.

Mr Harrison is also credited by allies with having helped to oversee a transformation of the ECB’s culture, even as parts of the sport were engulfed in a historical racism scandal.

If confirmed, Mr Harrison’s appointment at Six Nations Rugby will see him work alongside the former O2 chief, Ronan Dunne, who was appointed as the commercial entity’s chairman in late 2021.

None of the parties contacted for comment responded on Wednesday afternoon.

Business

Marks & Spencer’s website and app go down

Published

10 hours ago

May 18, 2024

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Marks & Spencer's website and app go down

Marks & Spencer’s website and app has not been working for several hours, with a message telling shoppers “you can’t shop with us right now”.

“We’re working hard to be back online as soon as possible,” it adds.

All the menus and images have disappeared apart from one showing a model in a green jacket.

Customers trying to use the app got the message: “Sorry you can’t shop through the app right now. We’re busy making some planned changes, but will be back soon.”

The site is understood to have been down for several hours.

Replying to one customer on X, the retailer said: “We’re experiencing some technical issues but we are working on it.”

M&S is the latest high street name to have technical issues – last month some Sainsbury’s shoppers had problems with their online orders.

The outage comes a few days before M&S is expected to reveal a big jump in annual profits.

It’s been a successful year for the brand, with strong sales across the business following a turnaround plan that has included store closures and cost cutting.

Business

Employees at fintech giant Revolut to cash in with $500m share sale

Published

14 hours ago

May 18, 2024

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Employees at fintech giant Revolut to cash in with 0m share sale

Bosses at Revolut, Britain’s biggest fintech, are drawing up plans to allow employees to cash in with a sale of stock valued at hundreds of millions of pounds.

Sky News has learnt that the banking and payments services provider is lining up investment bankers to coordinate a secondary share sale worth in the region of $500m (£394m).

Morgan Stanley, the Wall Street bank, is expected to be engaged to work on the proposed stock offering, which will take place later this year.

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City sources said this weekend that Nik Storonsky, Revolut’s co-founder and chief executive, was determined to seek a valuation of at least the $33bn (£26bn) it secured in a primary funding round in 2021.

“This will not be a down-round,” said one person familiar with Revolut’s thinking.

Although the fintech, which has more than 40 million customers, is not planning to raise new capital as part of the transaction, any sizeable share sale will still be closely watched across the global fintech sector.

It is expected to be restricted to company employees.

Revolut ranks among the world’s largest financial technology businesses, with revenue virtually doubling last year to around £1.7bn, according to figures expected to be published in the coming months.

Founded in 2015, it has experienced a string of regulatory and compliance challenges, with reports last year highlighting its release of funds from accounts flagged by the National Crime Agency as suspicious.

The company’s growth has taken place at breakneck speed, with customer numbers soaring from 16.4m at the point of the Series E fundraising nearly three years ago.

Insiders argued that despite the protracted downturn in tech valuations over the last two years, Revolut’s relentless expansion would easily justify it maintaining its status as Britain’s most valuable fintech.

Monzo, the UK-based digital bank, recently confirmed a Sky News story that it had closed a funding round worth nearly £500m, including backing from an arm of Google’s owner, Alphabet, and a Singaporean sovereign wealth fund.

Elsewhere, however, the funding landscape has been bleaker, with a growing number of tech companies which had attracted unicorn valuations of more than $1bn now struggling to stay afloat.

Revolut has allotted stock options to many of its 10,000 employees as part of their compensation packages, although it was unclear how many would be eligible to dispose of equity in the transaction later this year.

A source close to the company said it had had numerous expressions of interest from prospective investors.

Revolut’s current shareholders include SoftBank’s Vision Fund and Tiger Global.

News of the proposed share sale comes as Revolut’s investors continue to await positive news about its application for a UK banking licence.

The company applied to regulators to become a bank in Britain more than three years ago, but has so far failed to secure approval.

Mr Storonsky has been publicly critical of the delay, and last year questioned the approach of British regulators and politicians, as he suggested that he would not contemplate a listing on the London Stock Exchange.

An initial public offering of Revolut appears to still be some way off, although it would not surprise investors or industry peers if it initiated a listing process in the next couple of years.

One person close to Revolut said board members were among those expected to participate in the secondary share sale, although further details were unclear this weekend.

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The company is chaired by Martin Gilbert, the City veteran who has faced governance and performance challenges at Assetco, the London-listed asset manager he runs.

Its other directors include Michael Sherwood, the former Goldman Sachs executive who was jointly responsible for its operations outside the US and who was regarded as one of the most skilled traders of his generation.

An external shareholder in the company said the exclusion of non-employees from the deal could draw criticism from some investors.

Revolut has conducted secondary share sales of this kind in the past, including after its 2021 Series E round.

This weekend, Revolut declined to comment.

Business

Ex-Post Office head of IT says Paula Vennells ‘hoped to avoid’ inquiry – and reveals she blocked her number

Published

2 days ago

May 16, 2024

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Ex-Post Office head of IT says Paula Vennells 'hoped to avoid' inquiry - and reveals she blocked her number

A former Post Office executive has said she was forced to block ex-boss Paula Vennells’ phone number after the ex-CEO called multiple times asking for help to avoid an independent inquiry into the Horizon IT scandal.

Lesley Sewell, previously the company’s head of IT, told the Post Office inquiry on Thursday that former CEO Ms Vennells had reached out to her four times between 2020 and 2021.

Ms Sewell said that she blocked Ms Vennells’ number due to discomfort with the contact.

In her witness statement to the probe, Ms Sewell said that one of Ms Vennells’ emails referenced the need to fill in memory gaps regarding Horizon and “Project Sparrow”, a committee addressing issues with forensic accountants who identified flaws in the accounting system.

“Paula contacted me on four occasions in total. I recall blocking her number after the last call as I did not feel comfortable with her contacting me,” Ms Sewell said.

“I had not spoken to Paula since I had left POL [Post Office Limited] in 2015.”

According to Ms Sewell’s testimony, former chief executive Ms Vennells said that she had “been asked at short notice” to appear before a parliamentary select committee on “all things Horizon/Sparrow and need to plug some memory gaps”.

Ms Sewell says Ms Vennells added: “My hope is this might help avoid an independent inquiry but to do so, I need to be well prepared.”

Ms Sewell, who struggled to contain her emotions and broke down in tears while giving her oath at the start of her inquiry evidence, was offered support and breaks as needed by chairman Sir Wyn Williams.

Sir Wyn told the former executive: “Ms Sewell, I appreciate this may be upsetting for you, Ms Price will ask you a number of questions in a proper and sensible manner, but if at any time you feel you need a break, just let me know, all right?”

The Post Office has faced significant scrutiny following the ITV drama Mr Bates Vs The Post Office which highlighted the Horizon IT scandal.

The faulty system led to the prosecution of more than 700 sub-postmasters between 1999 and 2015, with many still awaiting full compensation despite government announcements regarding payouts for those with quashed convictions.