The government will underwrite a £1.5bn loan guarantee to Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) after a mass cyber attack forced a shutdown.

JLR suspended production at its UK factories following the attack on 31 August. The shutdown is expected to last until 1 October, leaving the largest UK carmaker’s suppliers in limbo.

The loan is expected to give suppliers some certainty amid the continued shutdown, as the £1.5bn will help bolster JLR’s cash reserves as it pays back companies in its supply chain.

The government will give its backing to the loan through the Export Development Guarantee (EDG), a financial support mechanism aimed at helping British companies that sell their goods overseas.

The £1.5bn loan, from a commercial bank, will be paid back over five years.

“Following our decisive action, this loan guarantee will help support the supply chain and protect skilled jobs in the West Midlands, Merseyside and throughout the UK,” Business Secretary Peter Kyle said.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves added: “Jaguar Land Rover is an iconic British company which employs tens of thousands of people – a jewel in the crown of our economy.

“Today we are protecting thousands of those jobs with up to £1.5bn in additional private finance, helping them support their supply chain and protect a vital part of the British car industry.”

As a result of the attack, production was halted across the car-making supply chain, with thousands of staff off work.

More than 33,000 people work directly for JLR in the UK, many of them on assembly lines in the West Midlands, the largest of which is in Solihull, and a plant at Halewood on Merseyside.

An estimated 200,000 more are employed by several hundred companies in the supply chain, who have faced business interruption with their largest client out of action.

Ministers have had daily contact with JLR and cyber experts following the attack as the company attempts to restart production at its UK factories.

Unions and politicians have warned that small suppliers producing parts for JLR could collapse as a result of the shutdown unless they receive urgent financial support.

This week, Mr Kyle met workers and bosses at Webasto, which makes sunroofs for JLR.

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The brand has the largest supply chain in the UK automotive sector, which employs around 120,000 people and is largely made up of small and medium-sized businesses.

The government’s promise of underwriting the JLR loan has been praised by the Unite union, whose general secretary Sharon Graham said the loan was “an important first step and demonstrates that the government has listened to the concerns raised in meetings with Unite over recent days”.

She added: “This is exactly what the government should be doing, taking action to protect jobs.

“The money provided must now be used to ensure job guarantees and to also protect skills and pay in JLR and its supply chain.”

The energy supplier Ovo is plotting the sale of a stake in its software arm at a ‘unicorn’ valuation as part of efforts to strengthen the balance sheet of Britain’s fourth-largest residential gas and electricity group.

Sky News has learnt that Ovo, which has just under 4m retail customers, has appointed Arma Partners, the investment bank, to explore options for Kaluza.

It replicates a move by larger rival Octopus Energy – revealed by Sky News – to hire advisers to work on a demerger of its Kraken software arm at a potential valuation of well over $10bn (£7.4bn).

Kaluza, which describes itself as an energy intelligence platform and this week announced a licensing partnership with the French-based energy group Engie, is 80%-owned by Ovo.

The remaining 20% is owned by AGL, an Australian energy company which bought a stake last year in a deal valuing Kaluza at $500m (£395m).

Industry sources said that Ovo was likely to seek a valuation for Kaluza in any new transaction of well over $1bn, although they added that there were questions about the software business’s path to sustainable profitability and its pipeline of new customers.

One analyst suggested that Kaluza’s majority-owner could pitch a valuation for Kaluza – run by chief executive Melissa Gander – of as much as $2.5bn based on annual recurring revenue (ARR).

Kaluza recently bought Beige Technologies, an Australian energy software specialist, in order to strengthen its presence in the Asia-Pacific region.

The prospective Kaluza stake sale comes amid a wider effort by Ovo to bolster its financial position.

Rothschild, the investment bank, has been orchestrating talks with potential investors about a plan to inject in the region of £300m into the company.

At one point, this is understood to have included discussions with Iberdrola, the owner of rival supplier Scottish Power.

Centrica, the owner of British Gas, may also have expressed an interest in examining a deal, according to banking sources.

A deal with another third party is said to be likely before the end of the year.

On Friday, Sky News revealed that the company – like Octopus Energy – had so far failed to meet targets imposed as part of a new capital adequacy regime overseen by Ofgem, the industry regulator.

A spokesperson for Ovo said it had “taken proactive measures to align with Ofgem’s new capital rules, working constructively to meet the requirements.”

Ovo recently named Dame Jayne-Anne Gadhia, the former boss of Virgin Money, as the independent chair of its retail arm.

Founded by Stephen Fitzpatrick, the entrepreneur who now owns London’s Kensington Roof Gardens, Ovo’s existing shareholders include the private equity firm Mayfair Equity Partners, Morgan Stanley Investment Management and Mitsubishi Corporation, the Japanese conglomerate.

Under Mr Fitzpatrick, who launched Ovo in 2009, the company positioned itself as a challenger brand offering superior service to the industry’s established players.

Ovo’s transformational moment came in 2020, when it bought the retail supply arm of SSE, transforming it overnight into one of Britain’s leading energy companies.

Its growth has not been without difficulties, however, particularly in relation to its challenged relationship with Ofgem and a torrent of customer complaints about overcharging.

The group is now run by David Buttress, who was briefly Boris Johnson’s cost-of-living tsar after leaving the top job at Just Eat, as its chief executive.

Kaluza declined to comment on the appointment of Arma Partners.

Harrods has warned its e-commerce customers that their personal data may have been taken in an IT systems breach.

Information like customers’ names and contact details was taken after one of Harrods’ third-party provider systems was compromised, the luxury London department store said.

Affected customers have been informed and reassured that the impacted data is “limited to basic personal identifiers”, a spokesperson said.

Account passwords or payment details were not affected in the breach.

“The third party has confirmed this is an isolated incident which has been contained, and we are working closely with them to ensure that all appropriate actions are being taken. We have notified all relevant authorities,” Harrods added.

“No Harrods system has been compromised and it is important to note that the data was taken from a third-party provider.”

This comes four months after the department store restricted internet access as a precautionary measure due to “attempts to gain unauthorised access” to some of its systems.

Friday’s breach is “unconnected” to the attempts in May, the spokesman said.

Two men aged 19, a 17-year-old boy and a 20-year-old woman were arrested in July over their suspected involvement in cyber attacks on Harrods, Marks & Spencer, and the Co-op.

Read more from Sky News:
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They were arrested on suspicion of blackmail, money laundering, offences linked ot the Computer Misuse Act, and participating in the activities of an organised crime group, the National Crime Agency said.

All four have been bailed pending further inquiries.

It comes as hackers claim to have stolen pictures, names and addresses of thousands of children in a cyber attack on a nursery chain in London.

The group, calling itself Radiant, has released personal information about children and staff at the Kido nursery chain on the dark web and demanded a ransom from the company.

Radiant told Sky News on Friday it intends to imminently release the profiles of more children and employees.