The owners of Kantar Group, the global market research firm, are to explore a £5bn-plus sale of the division which supplies closely watched data on the performance of Britain’s supermarkets.

Sky News has learnt that Kantar’s Worldpanel arm could be put up for sale later this year.

The move, which has yet to be formally approved by Bain Capital and WPP Group, Kantar’s owners, would leave the company as a pureplay brand strategy consultancy.

Kantar Worldpanel is in the process of combining with Numerator, a US-based business which was acquired in 2021.

Collectively, the enlarged business provides data representing five billion consumers globally.

Read more from Money:
Two-way shootout looms for WH Smith high street chain
Football chiefs in secret summit to revive landmark financial deal

Banking sources said on Sunday night that the Worldpanel business could fetch well over £5bn in a sale.

That would leave the Kantar brand strategy business to be listed or sold separately, according to the sources.

Alternatively, Bain Capital and WPP could elect to float the entire group instead of pursuing the Worldpanel sale.

Bankers have yet to be appointed to handle any auction.

A sale at a bumper valuation would deliver a rare piece of good news to WPP, which has seen its shares hammered amid doubts about its strategy in a marketing services industry increasingly susceptible to disruption by advances in artificial intelligence.

Kantar and Bain Capital have been contacted for comment.

The bosses of the Premier League and English Football League (EFL) have held secret talks aimed at reviving an industry-wide deal ahead of the launch of the government’s new football watchdog.

Sky News has learnt that Richard Masters, the Premier League chief executive, his EFL counterpart, Trevor Birch, and executives from clubs including Arsenal, Brentford, West Ham, Lincoln City, Norwich City and Preston North End met this week to discuss a wide-ranging football industry agreement.

Sources said this weekend that the meeting represented a fresh attempt by the sport’s key players to reach a deal on financial redistribution, its annual calendar, resource-sharing and other key issues before the Independent Football Regulator (IFR) is formally established.

One said that a deal would send a powerful signal to ministers that English football was able to self-regulate in the best interests of all of its key stakeholders.

Key to any agreement between the Premier League and the EFL would be the so-called New Deal, which has been under discussion for years, but which has stalled in the last 12 months.

While no formal proposal was ever tabled by the top flight, one detailed plan involved a total of £925m of additional funding being handed by the Premier League to the EFL over a six-year period.

The most recent blueprint included provision for an immediate £44m payment to the lower leagues, followed by a further £44m within months.

This £88m, however, would have been pitched as a loan that would be repayable by the EFL over a period of more than six years.

The Premier League had decided to make the vote independent of any conditions attached to wider financial reform of English football, alarming a number of top-flight owners.

English football’s top flight already hands £1.6bn to the rest of English professional football every three years under an ‘evergreen’ deal.

Since the last detailed New Deal negotiations took place between Premier League clubs, the EFL has struck a more lucrative five-year broadcast deal with Sky Sports, which is part of the same ownership structure as Sky News.

One source suggested that meant a future offer from the top flight was unlikely to be as large as the last one mooted in 2023.

Further talks are understood to be likely following Monday’s meeting, which one insider said had been “constructive”.

Legislation to establish the IFR is progressing through parliament.

Sky News revealed earlier this month that Christian Purslow, the former Aston Villa and Liverpool chief executive, and Kick It Out chair Sanjay Bhandari, were two of the three candidates on the shortlist to chair the IFR.

The identity of the other is unclear.

Clubs from both the Premier League and EFL have argued that the watchdog will impose unnecessary and unsustainable costs on them, and that its creation comes at a time when Sir Keir Starmer’s government is trying to shrink the regulatory burden on the private sector in order to stimulate economic growth.

Football executives have also complained that national insurance hikes announced in Rachel Reeves’s Budget last October will also have a severely detrimental impact on the sport’s finances.

Clubs argue that they have also been stymied by post-Brexit immigration rules which have imposed restrictions on player trading and development.

This weekend, the Premier League and EFL declined to comment.

Fujitsu has agreed to begin talks with the UK government on contributing to compensation for victims of the Post Office scandal.

Hundreds of sub-postmasters were falsely accused of stealing from their branches between 1999 and 2015.

Fujitsu developed the faulty Horizon computer system responsible for erroneous shortfalls in accounting which led to wrongful convictions. They also supported the Post Office in its prosecutions.

More than a year ago, Fujitsu boss Paul Patterson said the company had a “moral obligation” to contribute towards redress for victims.

Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds and Mr Patterson today held a “positive and constructive” meeting in Japan – where Fujitsu agreed to begin talks on compensation.

The UK government “welcomes Fujitsu’s repeated commitment to its moral obligation to contribute” towards compensation for the Horizon scandal victims, a joint statement said.

Ahead of the completion of the inquiry into the scandal, the pair “agreed to progress discussions regarding Fujitsu’s contribution, acknowledging many parties are involved,” it added.

Officials will “continue to engage with Fujitsu”, but the UK government will not be making a “running commentary” on discussions, the statement said.

It also said the government is “grateful” for Fujitsu’s engagement with the Post Office inquiry “and its continued focus on delivering its public services commitments in the UK”.

‘Utter disgrace’

It comes as the widow of a Post Office scandal victim, who received a compensation offer days after his death, described her situation as an “utter disgrace”.

Janet Walters, 68, lost her husband Terry in February – a week before a letter arrived offering “less than half” of his original claim for financial redress.

Terry Walters was one of 555 sub-postmasters who won a legal battle against the Post Office in 2019.

Janet described the length of time many victims have had to wait for an offer of compensation as another “scandal”.

“I’ve told them I will not accept [the offer],” Janet told Sky News. “I think it’s an utter disgrace.

“It’s a scandal what they did with the Horizon system, it’s a scandal now because of the length of time it’s taken [on redress].”

Thousands waiting for compensation

New figures show more than £768m has been now paid to more than 5,100 victims across all redress schemes.

The Department for Business and Trade said this was a “more than tripling” of the total amount of redress paid since June 2024.

Read more:
Sub-postmasters still going through hell, says Alan Bates
Second Post Office IT scandal expands

There are, however, still hundreds waiting for compensation in the GLO (Group Litigation Order) scheme, with more than 200 yet to receive full redress.

There are also more than 4,000 yet to be paid in the Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS), although since last month, over 700 have received compensation.

In a separate statement after the meeting in Japan, Mr Reynolds said: “We must never forget the lives ruined by the Horizon scandal and no amount of redress can take away that pain. But justice can and must be done.

“This government is determined to hold those responsible to account and will continue to make rapid progress on compensation and redress.

“Since we took office, we have more than tripled the total amount of redress paid to victims, and today we took another significant step towards justice.”