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A British fraud detection company backed by Mike Lynch, the technology entrepreneur who died this week, is in talks about a sale to Visa, the American payments giant, worth hundreds of millions of pounds.

Sky News has learnt that Featurespace, which was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Cambridge, is in advanced negotiations about a deal.

Estimates of its potential value varied this weekend, but one insider said it could be worth more than £700m, while another said it could ultimately be worth less than that.

Sources cautioned, however, that a deal had yet to be formally agreed and could still fall apart.

News of the prospective deal comes just days after Mr Lynch’s death on Bayesian, the superyacht he owned, alongside his daughter Hannah and five others, including the former Prudential chief executive, Jonathan Bloomer.

One investor said the sale to Featurespace would highlight again the role that Mr Lynch had played in backing successful British start-ups.

Mr Lynch’s investment firm, Invoke Capital, owns a small stake in Featurespace, while he served as a non-executive director of the company for 11 years.

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It is said to have reduced its interest in recent years to help fund the legal case which ultimately saw him acquitted of fraud over the $11bn sale of Autonomy, the software company he founded, to Hewlett-Packard in 2011.

In a tribute to Mr Lynch published on the company’s website this week, Featurespace said it was “devastated by the loss of Mike Lynch”.

“It is a high statistical probability that Featurespace wouldn’t be a thriving technology company without Mike.

“Our co-founders, Professor Bill Fitzgerald and Dave Excell, were inspired by Mike’s combination of intellect and commercial acumen.

“They benefitted from his friendship and guidance.

“Mike’s personal investment in Featurespace supported the development of an invention that has proved fundamental in the progress of AI [artificial intelligence] and he served as a non-executive director for over 10 years from 2008 – 2019.

“Mike was a true champion of the UK technology sector, including the need for greater diversity, and advocated for many female leaders – including our CEO Martina King.”

Featurespace specialises in fraud detection and counts HSBC, NatWest Group and Worldpay among its customers.

Clients outside the banking sector include Betfair, which is owned by Flutter Entertainment.

Demand for its services has grown amid an explosion in financial scams, which have become increasingly sophisticated in recent years, costing banks billions of pounds to refund customers.

It makes Adaptive Behavioural Analytics software, which uses machine learning to detect and prevent fraud in more than 180 countries.

Featurespace, which is run by former Yahoo! And Guardian Media Group executive Martina King, has raised in the region of £100m from investors in a series of funding rounds.

Among its other shareholders are Insight Venture Partners, IP Group, Chrysalis, Mission OG and Highland Europe, some of which rank among the world’s most prominent early-stage investors.

Mr Lynch also played a key role in setting up Darktrace, the cybersecurity company which recently agreed to be taken over by Thoma Bravo, the private equity firm, in a £4.25bn deal.

This weekend, Italian prosecutors said they would consider manslaughter charges as part of their investigation into the sinking of the Bayesian.

Visa said it did not comment on speculation, while Invoke declined to comment and Featurespace did not respond to a request for comment.

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WH Smith buyer ‘faces 12-month ban’ on mass shop closures

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WH Smith buyer 'faces 12-month ban' on mass shop closures

The new owner of WH Smith’s high street chain has effectively been barred from launching a wave of mass store closures for at least 12 months amid plans for rapid restructurings at two other retailers it owns.

Sky News has learnt that WH Smith would have the right to cancel a year-long transitional services agreement (TSA) put in place with Modella Capital – which struck a deal to acquire the business in March – if it launched a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) before the first anniversary of the transaction’s completion.

The clause in the TSA, which enables Modella Capital to continue using WH Smith’s systems after it takes ownership, is significant, according to retail insiders.

WH Smith agreed to sell its 480 high street shops to Modella in a £76m deal, ending 233 years of high street history.

Modella plans to rebrand the chain under the name TG Jones after it takes control.

In recent weeks, Sky News has revealed plans drawn up by Modella to launch CVAs at both Hobbycraft and The Original Factory Shop, which it has owned for nine and three months respectively.

Both of those restructuring processes have put significant numbers of stores at risk, and industry executives say that, over time, a sizeable part of the WH Smith high street estate could also be at risk.

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A spokesman for Modella said: “We have a number of exciting plans for the future of TGJones.

“A CVA is not on the agenda, as it is a solvent business.”

WH Smith, which will become a pure-play travel retailer once the Modella deal completes, declined to comment further ahead of the completion of the sale.

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Hovis and Kingsmill-owners in talks about historic bread merger

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Hovis and Kingsmill-owners in talks about historic bread merger

The owners of Hovis and Kingsmill, two of Britain’s leading bread producers, are in talks about a historic merger amid a decades-long decline in the sale of supermarket loaves.

Sky News has learnt that Associated British Foods (ABF), the London-listed company which owns Kingsmill’s immediate parent, Allied Bakeries, and Hovis, which is owned by investment firm Endless, have been involved in prolonged discussions about a combination of the two businesses.

City sources said this weekend that the talks were ongoing, but that there was no certainty that a deal would be finalised.

Bankers are said to be working with both sides on the talks about a transaction.

A deal could be structured as an acquisition of Hovis by ABF, according to analysts, although details about the mechanics of a merger or the valuations attached to the two businesses were unclear this weekend.

ABF is also said to be exploring other options for the future of Allied Bakeries which do not include a deal with Hovis.

If completed, a merger would unite two of Britain’s best-known ambient food brands, with Allied Bakeries having been founded in 1935 by Willard Garfield Weston, part of the family which continues to control ABF.

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Hovis traces its history back even further, having been created in 1890 when Herbert Grime scooped a £25 prize for coming up with the name Hovis, which was derived from the Latin ‘Hominis Vis’ – meaning strength of man.

Persistent inflation, competition from speciality bread producers and shifting consumer habits towards lower-carb diets have combined to impair the bread industry’s financial health in recent decades.

The impact of the war in Ukraine on wheat and flour prices has been among the factors increasing inflationary pressures on bread producers, according to the most recent set of accounts for Hovis filed at Companies House last year.

The overall UK bakery market is said to be worth about £5bn in annual sales, with the equivalent of 11m loaves being sold each day.

The principal obstacle facing a merger of Allied Bakeries, which also owns the Sunblest and Allinson’s bread brands, and Hovis would reside in its consequences for competition in the UK market.

Warburtons, the family-owned business which is the largest bakery group in Britain, is estimated to have a 34% share of the branded wrapped sliced bread sector in the UK, with Hovis on 24% and Allied on 17%, according to industry insiders.

A merger of Hovis and Kingsmill would give the combined group a larger share of that segment of the market, although one source said Warburtons’ overall turnover would remain larger because of the breadth of its product range.

Nevertheless, reducing the number of major supermarket bread suppliers from three to two would be a test of the Competition and Markets Authority’s approach to such industry-reshaping mergers at a time when the watchdog is under intense government scrutiny.

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In January, the government removed the CMA chairman, Marcus Bokkerink, as part of a push to reorient Britain’s economic regulators around growth-focused objectives.

An industry insider suggested that a joint venture involving the distribution networks of Hovis and Kingsmill was a possible, although less likely, alternative to a full-blown merger of the companies.

They added that a combined group could benefit from up to £50m of cost savings from such a tie-up.

In its interim results announcement this week, ABF said the performance of Allied Bakeries had continued to struggle.

“Allied Bakeries continues to face a very challenging market,” it said.

“We are evaluating strategic options for Allied Bakeries against this backdrop and we expect to provide an update in [the second half of] 2025.”

In a separate presentation to analysts, ABF described the losses at Allied as unsustainable.

The company does not disclose details of Allied Bakeries’ financial performance.

Allied also owns Speedibake, an own-label bread manufacturer.

Hovis has been owned by Endless, a prominent investor in British businesses, since 2020, having previously been owned by Mr Kipling-maker Premier Foods and the Gores family.

At the time of the most recent takeover, High Wycombe-based Hovis employed about 2,700 people and operated eight bakery sites and its own flour mill.

Hovis’s current chief executive, Jon Jenkins, is a former boss of Allied Milling and Baking.

This weekend, ABF and Endless both declined to comment.

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Struggling Aston Martin steers into fresh pay controversy

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Struggling Aston Martin steers into fresh pay controversy

Aston Martin is steering a path towards a twin-pronged pay row with shareholders as it grapples with the impact of President Trump’s tariffs on car manufacturers.

Sky News can reveal that the influential proxy voting adviser ISS is urging investors to vote against both of Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings’ remuneration votes at next week’s annual general meeting.

The pay policy vote, which is binding on the company, has attracted opposition from ISS because it proposes significant increases to potential bonus awards to Adrian Hallmark, the company’s new chief executive.

“Concerns are raised regarding the increased bonus maximums, which are built upon competitively[1]positioned salary levels and do not appear appropriate given the company’s recent performance,” ISS said in a report to clients.

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Aston Martin is also facing a meaningful vote against its pay report for last year – which is on an advisory basis only – because of the salaries awarded to Mr Hallmark and other executive directors.

The company’s shares have nearly halved in the last year, and it now has a market value of little more than £660m.

Despite the ISS recommendation, Aston Martin will win the vote by virtue of chairman Lawrence Stroll’s 33% shareholding.

The luxury car manufacturer has had a torrid time as a public company and now faces the headwinds of President Trump’s tariffs blitz.

This week it said it would limit exports to the US to offset the impact of the policy.

Aston Martin did not respond to a request for comment ahead of next Wednesday’s AGM.

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