A former BT Group chief is being lined up to steer an audio technology business used by many of the world’s leading musicians through a £300m London flotation.

Sky News has learnt that Gavin Patterson, who now sits on various boards including Ocado Group, is in talks to chair Waves Audio ahead of a listing which could come as soon as next month.

City sources said an agreement between the company and Mr Patterson had yet to be finalised.

Sky News revealed several weeks ago that Waves Audio, which is headquartered in Israel, had hired bankers from Panmure Liberum to oversee an initial public offering (IPO).

The company, which is majority-owned by founders Meir Sha’ashua and Gilad Keren, is expected to raise millions of pounds from the sale of new shares, although the details have yet to be finalised.

Waves Audio makes professional digital audio signal processing technology and audio effects used in recordings, mixing, mastering, post-production, broadcasting and live sound.

It employs more than 200 people, and has a major international presence, including in Europe and the US.

A successful float on London’s main market would be a relative rarity given the depressed level of IPO activity in the last couple of years.

Data compiled by EY, the professional services firm, showed that there were just five new listings on the London market in the first quarter of the year.

Pessimism about the outlook for flotations has been compounded by a steady trickle of companies cancelling their London listings or shifting them overseas – with drugmaker Indivior the latest to abandon the City on Monday.

The UK market’s biggest hope – that Shein, the Chinese-founded online fashion retailer, would defy the impact of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and list in London – appears to have been dashed, with reports last week suggesting that it would float in Hong Kong instead.

A spokesman for Waves Audio declined to comment.

NatWest Group has picked a new head of its high street branch network in the lender’s first significant appointment since ending its 17-year tenure in partial taxpayer ownership.

Sky News has learnt that Solange Chamberlain has been chosen as NatWest’s new retail bank chief executive, nearly six months after predecessor David Lindberg’s departure was announced.

Ms Chamberlain, who has worked for NatWest since 2019, will take up her new role on 1 July, subject to regulatory approval.

A former investment banker, she will report to Paul Thwaite, the bank’s group chief executive.

Her previous roles at NatWest include chief operating officer of its commercial bank and more recently as group director of strategic development.

NatWest’s retail bank has more than 18 million customers across Britain, making it one of the industry’s four biggest retail banks alongside Barclays, HSBC and Lloyds Banking Group.

The recent acquisition of Sainsbury’s Bank added 1 million accounts to NatWest’s retail customer base.

Responding to an enquiry from Sky News, NatWest confirmed the appointment on Monday afternoon.

Mr Thwaite said in a statement that Ms Chamberlain’s “knowledge of our customers, sharp strategic thinking, and track record of transformation delivery will help us to grow our retail business and succeed with customers”.

On Friday, the Treasury sold the last of its shareholding in NatWest, having bailed out the then Royal Bank of Scotland with £45.5bn of taxpayers’ money during the 2008 financial crisis.

On Monday, shares in the bank were trading at around 524.6p, giving it a market value of more than £42bn.

Tide, the business banking services platform, is in advanced talks to raise new funding in a deal expected to make it Britain’s latest technology unicorn.

Sky News has learnt that Tide has been negotiating the terms of an investment from Apis Partners, a prolific investor in the fintech sector, for some time.

City sources cautioned that a deal between the two was not yet certain to take place, and that other investors were also in discussions.

Apis Partners has backed early-stage companies such as Moneybox, the UK-based digital wealth manager, and Thunes, a digital payments infrastructure provider.

Significantly, the firm has made a string of investments in India, which is overtaking the UK as Tide’s single-biggest geography.

Tide now has roughly 650,000 SME customers in both Britain and India, with the latter market expanding at a faster rate.

The precise terms of a deal between Apis and Tide were unclear on Monday.

Morgan Stanley, the Wall Street bank, has been advising Tide on the fundraising, which is expected to comprise a combination of primary and secondary shares.

Tide was founded in 2015 by George Bevis and Errol Damelin, before launching two years later.

It describes itself as the leading business financial platform in the UK, offering business accounts and related banking services.

The company also provides its SME ‘members’ in the UK a set of connected administrative solutions from invoicing to accounting.

It now boasts a roughly 11% SME banking market share in Britain.

Tide, which employs about 2,000 people, also launched in Germany last May.

The company’s investors include Apax Partners, Augmentum Fintech and LocalGlobe.

Chaired by the City grandee Sir Donald Brydon, Tide declined to comment on Monday.

Apis Partners also declined to comment.