Sky Business News Articles

The owner of the events company behind the London International Horse Show is riding to its support with a $100m (£80m) financing package to help it weather the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Sky News has learnt that Blackstone, which acquired Clarion Events in 2017 in a £600m deal, has agreed in recent days to provide the additional funding.

City sources said the money would be used to support Clarion through the losses incurred by the COVID-19 crisis, which has prompted thousands of major shows and exhibitions to be postponed or cancelled since the spring.
They added, however, that part of the new financing would be made available to pursue acquisitions of digitally-led events companies, helping Clarion to reorient its business model amid uncertainty about the longer-term impact on the sector.
Clarion organises a wide array of events, including the Arts and Antiques Show, the Baby to Toddler Show, Electronic Warfare Europe, and Global Sources Fashion, which takes place annually in Hong Kong.

Advertisement

Leading events industry venues including Birmingham’s NEC – which is also owned by Blackstone – wrote to the prime minister and chancellor earlier this month to warn that the industry faced an “existential threat” without urgent government support.

The share prices of listed exhibitors such as Informa have fallen sharply during the pandemic because of its impact on sales and the lack of clarity about their outlook.

More from Covid-19

Informa raised £1bn from shareholders in April, marking the biggest coronavirus-related cash call by a UK company at that time, but there are growing expectations that a number of listed companies which raised money during the first wave of the pandemic may have to turn to investors again.
Banking sources pointed out that private equity firms which invest across a medium-term horizon can in some cases respond more quickly and more often to the refinancing requirements of their portfolio companies.
Sky News revealed last month that Blackstone, alongside the NEC’s other shareholders, had also stepped in to provide £50m of new capital to the owner of some of Britain’s biggest events venues.
Blackstone declined to comment.

Boots plans to roll out a new coronavirus testing service which it says can deliver results in just 12 minutes.
The pharmacy chain said the LumiraDX swab tests will cost £120 and will be available across selected stores in the next few weeks.

The chain has also launched a 48-hour testing service in 10 stores in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow, and it plans to extend this to more than 50 outlets nationwide.
The latest coronavirus news from the UK and around the world

Image: Boots is launching 12-minute COVID tests
Managing director of Boots UK, Seb James, said the new tests aim to “ease pressure” off the NHS and government.

Advertisement

He told Sky’s Ian King Live programme that the tests are for people who do not have symptoms.

They are not yet accepted by airlines that require a negative COVID-19 test before allowing a passenger to board.

More from Covid-19

This is because the results are processed through an in-store machine rather than a registered laboratory.
There are hopes that the coronavirus test will be accepted by airlines in time, however, Mr James added.
The accuracy of the 48-hour test is over 99% and the 12-minute test is 97 to 98%, he said, adding that this was “slightly less accurate (than the 48-hour test) but not so much that it matters”.
“It’s a miracle of technology and I think it’s just the beginning of how technology is going to help us solve this crisis.”
Mr James said he hoped the price could be lowered in future as more people get tests and as new technology makes the process cheaper.

:: Subscribe to the Daily podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker
Customers who are not displaying any COVID-19 symptoms can book an in-store test through the company’s website.
Boots is among the high street businesses to have suffered as a result of the pandemic, announcing significant restructuring plans earlier this year.
Mr James said that, with more people realising the importance of pharmacies, Boots has a “pretty rosy future”, adding: “We don’t have any plans for any further job cuts right now”.

Local lockdowns and working from home could be hampering Britain’s jobs recovery, new research suggests.
In March, the UK government announced a nationwide lockdown in an effort to limit the spread of the coronavirus, and part of that was instructing people to work at home if possible.

Seven months later, after a respite during the summer, workers have again been encouraged, if possible, to do their jobs from home.
The result is deserted high streets and city centres, leaving some service industry businesses struggling that rely on catering for office workers.
According to the Centre For Cities, job vacancies have failed to return to pre-COVID levels in 63 of the towns and cities analysed.

Advertisement

The think tank found that urban areas in Scotland and southern England are among the worst-hit.

Aberdeen recorded the steepest fall with a 75% year-on-year decline, followed by Edinburgh (57%), then Belfast and the West Sussex town of Crawley (both 55%).

More from Covid-19

London has seen the sixth biggest fall in job postings at 52%, while overall UK vacancies are 46% behind last year’s level, said the report.

Coronavirus: Which industries have been worst-hit in the UK?

Birkenhead, Chatham and Hull were among the places to have seen a faster recovery in job vacancies and they were also among those to have seen healthier levels of high street footfall.
Andrew Carter, chief executive of Centre for Cities, said: “The chancellor made welcome amendments to the Job Support Scheme which should help save jobs, but many places across the country didn’t have enough jobs before the pandemic hit so creating more will be vital to prevent long-term economic damage to their local economies.”
Pawel Adrjan, an economist at Indeed, said: “The timid recovery in job vacancies is a portent of the distress towns and cities could face if restrictions continue to spring up in parts of the country already reeling from imposed lockdowns and reduced footfall.
“With the remote work trend showing no sign of abating, and entire regions being placed under stricter control, service jobs in large towns and cities could become scarcer still and pull the UK into a jobs spiral. That could mean a very long winter ahead for the millions of people currently unemployed.”
An HM Treasury spokesperson said: “We’ve put in place a comprehensive plan to protect, support and create jobs in every region of the UK, and recently increased the generosity of our winter support schemes, including our expanded Job Support Scheme, which will protect jobs in businesses that are open or closed.
“We are also providing additional funding for local authorities and devolved administrations to support local businesses.”

The aircraft industry has pleaded for a testing regime for travellers as new figures show its third quarter was the worst on record.
There were no orders for new aircraft in the month of September and just 13 orders placed during the financial quarter, a decline of 91.4% on the same quarter last year.

July and August had four and nine orders respectively, with just three of those for wide-body aircraft.
The global figures are from ADS, the UK trade organisation representing more than 1,100 businesses across the aerospace, defence, security and space sectors.
There were 173 new aircraft delivered during the third quarter – also the worst on record but showing signs of improvement, the organisation said.

Advertisement

Most of these were single-aisle planes, with just 38 of them wide-body aircraft, showing the decline in demand for long-haul international travel.

The aviation industry has been hit by travel restrictions and a fall in journeys due to fears of the coronavirus pandemic, which began to affect the industry in the early months of this year.

More from Covid-19

Coronavirus: Which industries have been worst-hit in the UK?

Travellers, particularly in the UK, have also been reluctant to book flights due to the long wait for refunds if trips are cancelled and the requirements for quarantine on their return – measures that are regularly changed.
ADS chief executive Paul Everitt said: “The aerospace and aviation industries have invested in robust health and safety measures as part of aircraft design which makes the risk of transmission when travelling aboard an aircraft extremely low.
“We need to continue to work together internationally to improve consumer confidence and encourage a return to the skies.
“The quarantine period that passengers face when they return home is one of the main barriers to UK aviation’s recovery and testing can play a major role in reducing this.
“The government should rapidly implement a testing regime so that the 14-day quarantine period can be shortened. This will help improve confidence amongst travellers and in turn put the aviation and aerospace sectors on a path towards recovery.”
Ministers have confirmed they are looking at reducing the time that people have to quarantine at home from 14 days to between 10 days and a week.
It follows concerns some people are failing to respond when they are being contacted by the system because of fears they could face a lengthy period locked up at home if they do.

A British technology company that has helped retail investors access billions of pounds of corporate cash calls during the COVID-19 pandemic will this week unveil a fundraising of its own that will catapult it into the top echelons of UK fintech start-ups.
Sky News has learnt that PrimaryBid will announce on Monday that it has secured $50m (£38m) of new equity from new shareholders including the London Stock Exchange Group (LSE), OMERS Ventures and Fidelity International Strategic Ventures.

The deal will be a landmark one for PrimaryBid, which has become a prominent player in London’s equity markets this year as scores of listed companies have raced to shore up their balance sheets because of the coronavirus crisis.
One insider described the funding round as a major vote of confidence in PrimaryBid and its chief executive, Anand Sambasivan.
PrimaryBid, which was founded in 2016, uses an app to combine stock orders from small investors, aggregating them into one substantial application.

Advertisement

Its profile has soared during the pandemic, against a backdrop of growing corporate governance pressure on blue-chip companies to enfranchise their retail investor bases, particularly as virtual annual meetings have meant many companies have evaded the usual level of scrutiny from small shareholders this year.

The fintech’s big breakthrough came in May when Compass Group, the FTSE-100 catering giant, chose it to run the retail component of its £2bn share placing – one of the largest such equity fundraisings to have been announced this year.

More from Business

Sky News revealed the LSE’s likely participation in the funding round in June.
PrimaryBid already has a commercial agreement with the London exchange, struck last November, which involves the two businesses working together to improve the digital infrastructure required for individual investors to access public share offerings.
The LSE’s decision to become a shareholder in the company underlines the progress it has made in becoming an established part of the UK’s capital markets landscape.
PrimaryBid has also been involved in smaller capital-raisings for dozens of companies, including the online grocer Ocado and SSP Group, the transport food concessions operator behind the Ritazza brand.
The company’s explosive growth has been aided by shrewd marketing, such as an open letter it published in April – signed by leading City figures – calling for listed company bosses to accommodate retail investors when raising capital.
The letter was triggered by concerns that ordinary savers were being short-changed by being denied the chance to participate in heavily discounted share sales, with their pain compounded after seeing the value of their stock portfolios shrink during the market downturn.
It was signed by the likes of Anne Richards, Fidelity International’s chief executive, and Peter Hargreaves, a co-founder of the retail investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown.
Retail investors directly own 13.5% of the UK equity market, equating to holdings worth roughly £420bn, according to ONS data from 2018.
PrimaryBid was assisted by changes to the pre-emption rules at the start of the crisis, enabling companies to increase the amount of money they could raise without having to go through protracted shareholder approval processes.
In addition to conventional corporate fundraisings, the fintech has broadened its transactional services to include a so-called ‘chairman’s list’, which it ran to enable access to the initial public offering of The Hut Group’s parent company.
It also ran an employee enfranchisement offering for Taylor Wimpey, the housebuilder, alongside a wider fundraising.
The company is expected to use the proceeds of its Series B funding round to target selective international expansion in Europe, where it has an exclusive commercial agreement with Euronext across nine countries including France and the Netherlands.
It will also use the money to expand its team in the UK and forge closer links with other key market intermediaries.
Existing investors include Hambro Perks, while others such as Pentech and Outward VC have also backed the latest funding round, according to insiders.
PrimaryBid’s previous fundraising saw it secure £7m last year.
The company declined to comment on Sunday.

Small breweries in Britain are warning that hundreds of jobs are at risk over government plans to cut tax relief.

A £15bn National Renewal Fund targeted at more than 20,000 “growth economy” companies needs to be set up if Britain is to avert an “economic catastrophe” triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, the eminent historian Sir Anthony Seldon warns this weekend.
Sky News has seen a report produced by Sir Anthony and the Business Growth Fund, an investor backed by the UK’s biggest banks, which urges the government to provide funding and regulatory support for the new vehicle.

Describing the document as “a call to arms”, Sir Anthony said the COVID-19 crisis had stimulated a need for “a step change in equity provision for ambitious and successful growth economy companies”.
He said this was “a job for private actors – to drive private capital where it needs to go”, adding that the government “must also step up this winter, to help to crowd that capital in by convening, liberalising, incentivising and co-investing, where appropriate”.
“The UK has the time and capacity to give the growth economy the rocket boost it needs, but only if we act now, and along the lines advocated here,” Sir Anthony said.

Advertisement

“It’s time to create a £15bn fund to back the growth economy and kickstart an investment-led recovery.”

The report, which will be published in the coming days, will call for £3bn of capital to be provided from each of five principal sources:
A quoted vehicle set up to channel private investors’ money, through the stock market, in the form of an investment trust
The defined benefit pension schemes of major UK companies
Defined contribution pension schemes, which would require “a much-needed and urgent change to the charge cap situation”
Funds from large private sector investors including the insurance industry and global sovereign wealth funds
Direct funding from the government which “essentially extends the Future Fund and turns it into a long-term agent of change”
The report, From Survive To Thrive, says it has identified roughly 21,400 companies which on average are growing their revenues at twice the rate of GDP growth.
Under the proposals tabled by Sir Anthony and Stephen Welton, the BGF executive chairman, the National Renewal Fund would take equity stakes in many of these companies, on commercial terms.
Doing so would avert the “risk that viable, innovative growth economy companies will be starved of the funding they need to grow”, according to Mr Welton.
“It is a strategy that must be deployed locally, because to achieve ‘levelling up’ the funding must be dispersed across the four nations of the UK; it must be patient, taking a long-term approach to maximise the dynamism of the economy for years to come; and it must be led, and delivered, by commercial organisations,” he adds in the report.
The document underlines the widely held perception that while the economic support provided to British companies since the start of the COVID-19 crisis has been essential, it has also been indiscriminate and poorly targeted.
“We are not merely talking about plugging a few financial holes, but about making the kinds of visionary decisions that will define who we are as a country, and what our economy will look like in the coming decades,” Mr Welton said.
The Treasury’s emergency support schemes – including the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme and the Bounce Back Loan Scheme – have proven to be controversial because of their apparent vulnerability to fraud, but also because they have saddled well over a million companies with more debt.
Research by TheCityUK, the lobbying group, has concluded that tens of billions of pounds of these borrowings will prove to be unsustainable in the medium term.
Among the other ideas proposed in the report by Sir Anthony and Mr Welton is the accelerated privatisation of British Patient Capital, a commercial subsidiary of the state-owned British Business Bank.

Inspired by footballer Marcus Rashford’s campaign, businesses across the country have pledged to provide free meals for children from families struggling during the pandemic.
The Manchester United star has been pushing for the government to extend free school meals for eligible children over the school holidays until Easter next year, but MPs rejected it in a vote on Wednesday.

After a social media campaign by Rashford, more than 100 businesses have come forward to help – despite many struggling themselves.
Here are some of their stories.
Mumtaz restaurant in Leeds

Advertisement

Asad Arif knows what it is like to live in poverty.

“I’ve been there,” the co-owner of Mumtaz restaurant said. “[As a child] we had sugar water, sugar soup, if we were lucky. We obviously couldn’t afford much.
“We didn’t know because we were younger, we didn’t know the situation.
“But as you get older, you look at your mum, who is not eating herself and has to give you water with sugar, and you start realising things aren’t so good.”

Image: Asad Arif co-owns Mumtaz restaurant in Leeds. Pic: HS Lawyers
Mr Arif, who also works as a solicitor, said it was seeing MPs “bickering” on social media and “no-one actually doing anything” that pushed him to help.
In a social media post, he told children they could collect a free chicken or vegetarian biryani from his restaurant over the half-term week – and it went viral after being picked up by Marcus Rashford.
He said the offer would make a “world of a difference” to struggling families, insisting that it was not just about giving food but also “showing people that things will get better”.

Image: Mumtaz restaurant is struggling to survive but it is still helping out
Mr Arif believes his restaurant will not survive beyond January after restrictions “absolutely destroyed” business.
But he believes it is still more important to help others.
“Based on our past and how fortunate we’ve been and the fact we have a roof over our head, there are other people who take priority and we can do something right now,” he said.
“I’m not being a hero, I’ve had a good time and I know things are looking bad and I predict things will get worse, but right now I can do something.”
Baker’s tea room in Bolton

Image: Jason and Angela Baker run Baker’s tea room
Before running her tea room in Egerton, Bolton, Angela Baker worked as a teacher for 15 years.
She taught many children who received free school meals and said the issue is “close to my heart”.
“We’re in the middle of a pandemic, people are losing their jobs through no fault of their own because of this virus,” Mrs Baker told Sky News.
“Even within the affluent areas, there are a handful of people that their circumstances have changed – sometimes literally overnight – and they’re struggling to make ends meet.”
Many businesses in the hospitality sector are struggling themselves.

Image: Staff, pictured in the tea room before the pandemic, will be providing grab bags for children
Bolton has been “hit really hard” by restrictions, Mrs Baker said, with the area now under the toughest Tier 3 rules and many firms have been forced to close.
“Those businesses that are now closed are saying ‘right, we’re free next week, what can we do?'” Mrs Baker said.
Baker’s has pledged to provide grab bags of lunches for eligible children and there will be collection points across Bolton where the food can be picked up.
A JustGiving page set up to fund the meals had a target of £1,000 – but within a day, it had hit £5,000.
“Our community has supported us so much through such a difficult time in hospitality that we just wanted to give something back,” Mrs Baker said.
The Greystones pub in Sheffield

Image: John Duffy (right) says he wants to give back to the community
The Greystones has been forced to close for the time being as the area has moved into Tier 3 restrictions – but that hasn’t stopped its owners wanting to help out.
“It’s just a way for us to still be there for our community, even though we’re going to be shut as a business,” landlord John Duffy said.
“For us, it’s a cheese and ham sandwich, a bag of crisps and a drink. It’s not much for us, but for the parents that are struggling it’s just not having to worry about that.
“It’s taking that burden off a little bit.”

Image: The Greystones in Sheffield has closed after the area moved into Tier 3 restrictions
The Greystones was traditionally a live music venue, but social distancing has all but ended live shows and the venue has had to operate as a community pub instead.
“The response we’ve got since we reopened [over the summer] has been great,” Mr Duffy said.
He also praised Rashford, saying he felt “really proud” of what the footballer is doing, which is “showing the best in people”.
Preston School Yeovil in Somerset

Image: Headteacher Gregg Morrison (left) says it was ‘totally unfair’ for students not to receive meals
Headteacher Gregg Morrison said he “didn’t get much sleep” after hearing that MPs had voted to reject the extension of free school meals.
He felt it was “totally unfair” to the roughly 18% of students at his school who are eligible for the meals.
“The government ask us to talk about and teach directly British values – compassion and looking after people,” Mr Morrison said.
“They haven’t displayed that and it’s been left to people in local communities to fill the gaps.”

Image: Preston School Yeovil is providing meals for children during half-term
Preston School is providing food vouchers to eligible students over the half-term, and has already been supporting struggling families during the lockdown.
“It hurts, it feels a bit more raw than it would have done otherwise,” Mr Morrison added. “Knowing the circumstances of those families makes it even harder.”
The headteacher said he had some opposition from a local politician who thought the move was politically-motivated, but he said: “It’s absolutely not – it’s so we have people fed and continue to get fed during school holidays.”

The American buyout firm proposing a £300m cash injection into English football is lining up a former BBC executive to spearhead a revolution in the running of the lower leagues’ commercial operations.
Sky News has learnt that TPG Capital is working with Dominic Coles, who steered the corporation’s coverage of the London Olympics in 2012, on its attempt to buy a 20% stake in the English Football League (EFL)’s commercial rights arm.

Sources said this weekend that Mr Coles had been collaborating for months with the private equity firm on a plan to buy the shareholding.
The EFL’s board, led by chairman Rick Parry, rejected TPG’s initial approach amid a deepening row over the future financial structure of the English professional game.
The buyout firm’s preferred approach is understood to be to hold talks with Mr Parry and his colleagues on a friendly basis.

Advertisement

It is understood, however, that a number of clubowners and chairmen have already approached TPG directly to explore the firm’s offer.

Insiders said that TPG and Mr Coles had drawn up detailed plans to create a new operational service centre that would assist the EFL in areas such as ticketing, merchandising, security, data analytics and customer relationship management.

More from Business

A substantial part of the £300m cash infusion would be delivered in the form of upfront investment to clubs whose finances have been destroyed by the pandemic.
The remaining funds would be invested in longer-term growth initiatives aimed at improving the financial health of clubs whose ability to professionalise their back-office functions has been stymied by their size.
One area of focus would be the EFL’s streaming service, iFollow, which TPG is understood to believe would benefit from major investment.
The firm also thinks that the EFL’s broadcast rights are undervalued and that it could negotiate substantially improved domestic and international deals when they come up for renewal, according to one football source.
Mr Coles has lined up a broader team of executives to work with him at the new commercial rights holder, which would be akin to the structure put together by CVC Capital Partners at Premiership Rugby, rugby union’s top flight.
In addition to his role negotiating sports rights deals at the BBC, he worked as the corporation’s director of operations and in senior posts in its news and nations divisions.
He left in 2014 to take a senior job at Discovery Networks, the American media group.

Image: Sammy Ameobi of Nottingham Forest, right, is challenged by Tom Lawrence of Derby County during a match between the teams last night
Earlier this year, he was appointed chairman of GB Sport Media, a new digital broadcast platform owned by the UK governing bodies of the 28 summer Olympic sports.
Mr Coles and TPG are understood to believe that there is substantial scope to improve the financial outlook of the EFL’s member clubs, even amid the carnage wrought by the COVID-19 crisis.
The EFL’s three divisions range from the early-season Championship table-toppers Reading to Southend United, the bottom side in League Two.
Many clubs have warned that they face going out of business without urgent financial support, a prospect made more likely by the possibility of a protracted period running well into next year of stadia without significant numbers of fans allowed.
The government has pressed the Premier League to make a substantial financial contribution to the EFL, which some top-flight clubs have objected to on the basis that other industries affected by the pandemic have not been asked to fund similar bailouts of smaller competitors.
English football has spent recent weeks in a state of chaos over the blueprint – dubbed Project Big Picture – orchestrated by Liverpool and Manchester United, which would have delivered £250m to the lower leagues.
Their proposal would have seen the Premier League reduced from 20 to 18 clubs, and Sky News revealed this week that English football’s biggest clubs have been holding talks about joining the European Premier League, a new continent-wide format that would have the backing of FIFA, the world governing body.
JP Morgan, the Wall Street bank, is in talks about providing a $6bn (£4.6bn) debt package to support the new league’s launch.
While many EFL clubs welcomed Project Big Picture, it was rapidly abandoned amid political opposition and protests from elsewhere within the sport.
The Premier League subsequently wrote to the EFL to offer a £50m grant to Leagues One and Two.
TPG is not the only private capital provider examining plans to provide funding to the EFL.
Other private equity firms have drawn up similar proposals, although some of those involve debt, rather than equity, funding.
One football industry insider said the offer of £300m for a 20% stake in the EFL’s commercial rights “significantly undervalued” them.
TPG, which has invested in businesses such as the talent agency CAA and Goal.com, the football website, declined to comment on Saturday.

A technology company which processes data from millions of cars is in talks to raise $350m (£268m) from investors, in what would be one of the biggest-ever fundraisings targeted by a British start-up.
Sky News has learnt that Wejo, which is based in Cheshire, is close to hiring investment bankers to oversee the mammoth capital injection as it attempts to gain scale in the fast-growing “connected car” data market.

Wejo, whose existing backers are led by General Motors, collects and analyses the data from 18 million cars on its platform, selling it under licence to businesses ranging from parking app developers to local authorities.

Image: Richard Barlow is the company’s founder and CEO. Pic: Wejo
The company, which was founded six years ago by Richard Barlow, is aiming to conclude its fundraising early next year, according to insiders.
It represents one of the most ambitious efforts to secure capital by a UK tech business, and sources said it would be one of the biggest Series C rounds completed in Britain.

Advertisement

On Friday, Wejo announced that it had struck a deal with Cosworth “to identify and investigate intelligent mobility and vehicle data concepts”.

The company says that the insights provided by its data “enable smarter, safer and more efficient journeys – from real-time information on the nearest available parking space to optimising road network signalling”.

More from Business

GM invested in the company early last year, a deal that included an “in-kind” consideration worth more than $70m (£53.5m) to supply data from millions of the car-maker’s vehicles for Wejo to manage for seven years, according to insiders.
One banker said that Wejo could seek to raise its funding by combining with a special purpose acquisition vehicle (SPAC), a glut of which have listed on US stock markets this year.
Wejo declined to comment on its fundraising target.