Shawbrook Bank’s backer has just raised another £400m to invest in financial services businesses February 14, 2018 Pollen Street Capital, the private equity firm which won shareholder approval to take over challenger bank Shawbrook last year, has raised a new £400m fund to invest in financial services businesses. The firm's third fund, which was initially targeting £350m, has already spend 53 per cent of the total on deals including Shawbrook, direct lending [...]
A new fintech bank led by a former hedge fund boss has just raised £70m through a float on the London Stock Exchange February 13, 2018 Trufin, a niche technology-enabled bank run by a former hedge fund boss, has just floated on the London Stock Exchange this morning to raise £70m. The fintech-focused business has three divisions including DFC, a short-term lender focusing on financing supply chains, Oxygen Finance, which helps provide early payments to the UK public sector, and Satago, [...]
Serious Fraud Office slaps Barclays with new charge over Qatar capital raising scandal February 12, 2018 The UK's fraud watchdog has today hefted a new charge onto BarclaysBank, in relation to an emergency fundraising it conducted in the summer of 2008. The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) today charged Barclays with giving "unlawful financial assistance", after it raised £4.5bn in June 2008 and £7.3bn that October from investors including Qatar Holding and [...]
UK healthcare companies are set for consolidation as private equity interest is piqued February 6, 2018 Mid-sized healthcare companies in the UK are enjoying their moment in the spotlight, according to new research, as private equity firms are jumping on them as defensive investments which can help them get cash out of the door. Mid-market private equity funds have shown increasing interest in such companies over the past year, according to [...]
Dragons’ Den star’s bust corporate finance firm owed almost £2m to employees and advisers, administrators’ report reveals February 1, 2018 The corporate finance firm of former Dragons' Den star Julie Meyer, which was put into administration at the end of last year, owes almost £2m to unpaid employees and advisers, City A.M. can reveal. Ariadne Capital, which was founded and owned by TV personality Julie Meyer, owes £530,692 to 14 current and former employees, according [...]
RBS is selling its London Bishopsgate headquarters in cost-cutting drive January 23, 2018 Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which is currently majority-owned by the UK government, is planning to flog its London headquarters post-2019 as it pushes ahead with an extreme cost-cutting drive. The bank will move out of the 280 Bishopsgate building back down the road to number 250, which it is planning to revamp later this [...]
The UK is leading the way in crowdfunding and P2P lending as the rest of Europe plays catch-up, says University of Cambridge data January 22, 2018 The UK has helped to prompt a boom in European crowdfunding and peer-to-peer (P2P) lending, according to new research from the University of Cambridge's Judge Business School. While the UK remained the largest alternative finance market in Europe by far, at €5.6bn (£4.9bn), the rest of Europe began to play catch-up as it grew its [...]
Goldman Sachs has led a $38m funding round into tech firm Visible Alpha to help battle Mifid II challenges January 18, 2018 A startup which aims to help analysts and fund managers cope with dreaded regulatory changes has grabbed $38m (£27m) of funding today, from a cohort of big banks led by Goldman Sachs. Visible Alpha was launched in the run up to the second Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (Mifid II), which is expected to radically [...]
Pinched-for-cash Poundworld in talks with TPG for more money after poor festive trading January 18, 2018 Discount retailer Poundworld is in talks with its majority owner, US private equity giant TPG Capital, for a new cash injection after a troubling festive period. Poundworld is asking for another £30m to £40m of investment, according to Sky News, after disappointing sales and one-off costs saw its debt pile up last year. Sources close [...]
Houlihan Lokey commits to London as it acquires corporate finance data and analytics specialist Quayle Munro January 16, 2018 New York-listed investment bank Houlihan Lokey has today acquired Quayle Munro, a UK advisory firm which has worked on some of the biggest recent fintech deals in the country. The boutique firm also specialises in data and analytics, to help advise businesses on their commercial and general management decisions. Houlihan believes that, with the addition [...]
