a float that the Barclays hope
to pull off around the middle
of 2023. Very’s executives are
said to have been asked to
stay on for several years.
The reclusive Barclays,
owners of the Telegraph
newspapers, were gearing up
to float Very last year as sales
boomed in the pandemic,
only to slam on the brakes
amid nervousness over tech
company valuations. Those
fears have since been
exacerbated by soaringinflation in the wake of
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The darkening outlook for
online retailers has raised
doubts over whether Very —
which sells electrical goods,
clothes and sporting
equipment — can attain its
mooted £4 billion valuation.
Rocketing costs, a return of
shoppers to stores and a
squeeze on incomes since the
pandemic have combined to
hammer the share prices of
Very’s listed peers AO andAsos, which have declined by
about 70 per cent over the
past year.
Very Group, led by chief
executive Henry Birch,
reported pre-tax profits of
£81.7 million on sales of
£2.3 billion last year. The
retailer makes a significant
chunk of its sales on credit
and had a £1.25 billion debtor
book as of last July.
Very Group grew out of the
ailing Littlewoods business,
which the Barclay twins SirDavid and Sir Frederick
acquired in 2002, before
merging it with the home
shopping business of the
Great Universal Stores
conglomerate. The business
formed part of an empire that
took in the Ritz hotel and the
Telegraph titles.
Sir David Barclay died last
year, aged 86. His sons Aidan
and Howard are thought to
run the family’s business
interests, which include the
parcel delivery firm Yodel, ona day-to-day basis. Today, the
Barclays own a mock gothic
castle on the Channel Island
of Brecqhou that forms part
of a £6.2 billion fortune,
according to The Sunday
Times Rich List.
Internal family strife
exploded into the open two
years ago. Sir Frederick and
his daughter Amanda sued
Aidan, Howard and their
brother Alistair for bugging
the conservatory of the Ritz
to surreptitiously listen in onThe Barclay family is
resurrecting a plan to float
the e-commerce empire Very
Group next year, after having
to postpone an original
scheme for a £4 billion listing
because of worsening market
conditions.
Very, one of the UK’s
largest online retailers, has
offered incentive packages to
senior managers in return for
leading the business throughSam ChambersBUSINESS
&MONEY
May 22, 2022 · thesundaytimes.co.uk/business thesundaytimes.co.uk/money
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Barclay family revives plans for Very Group listing
more than 1,000
conversations amid
commercial disputes within
the family. Sir Frederick
withdrew the lawsuit after
reaching a settlement with his
nephews last year.
A listing of Very would
mark the first time the
Barclay family has exposed
any of its major business
interests to the glare of the
public markets.
In preparation for the float,
the group refinanced£550 million of debt last year
and appointed former
Walmart executive Dirk Van
den Berghe as chairman in
January. Sky News reported
last August that the family
had lined up Barclays,
Morgan Stanley and UBS to
lead the float.
The Barclay brothers
abandoned plans to sell
the business in 2017 after
private equity suitors were
unwilling to meet their
£3 billion asking price.Software tycoon Vin
Murria has intimated that
she is minded to accept a
£310 million takeover of
Aim-listed ad agency M&C
Saatchi that will make her
an estimated £50 million,
Jamie Nimmo writes.
Murria has told friends
she is happy with the offer
from digital marketing
company Next Fifteen,
whose cash and shares bid
trumped her own.
Next Fifteen, which is
worth £1.25 billion and is
listed on Aim, swooped on
Friday with a deal that wasrecommended by M&C’s
independent directors.
Days earlier, the board had
rejected a hostile bid from
Murria’s AdvancedAdvT
(ADV) worth £254 million.
ADV, a listed cash shell,
said on Friday it would not
raise its offer. However,
Murria controls about
22 per cent of M&C, which
means she could frustrate
the deal given it requires
75 per cent of shareholder
support to proceed. ADV
owns close to 10 per cent
of M&C while Murria has a
personal 12.5 per centstake, which gave her a
seat on the board as
deputy chairwoman.
M&C shares closed at
215p on Friday, below the
implied 247p offer,
suggesting doubts that
Murria will give the buyout
her blessing. However, she
stands to make a profit of
about £50 million on the
deal, having bought her
shares on the cheap when
an accounting scandal
rocked the firm in 2019.
A source close to Next
Fifteen, which owns ad
agency Archetype and PRfirm MHP, said it would
“practically need her” to
get a deal over the line.
The deal underlines the
change in fortunes for both
M&C and Next Fifteen in
recent years. More than a
decade ago, M&C eyed a
deal for its rival when it
was just a minnow.
Murria made her money
through the sale of two
software firms, Computer
Software Group in 2007
and Advanced Computer
Software in 2015.
All parties declined to
comment.MURRIA TO MAKE A MINT FROM SAATCHI?
Energy traders
cashed out £35m
from failed Bulb
invaded Ukraine and caused gas prices to
go haywire. Ministers hope to wrap up a
sale in the summer to avoid any further
cost to the taxpayer.
Bulb’s chief executive and co-founder
Hayden Wood, 38, was asked by MPs last
month how much wealth had been cre-
ated or “taken out of the business”, but
he did not disclose the sale of any shares.
However, The Sunday Times revealed
last month that Wood and his co-founder
Amit Gudka, also 38, had each sold
shares worth more than £4 million.
Wood continues to be paid a £250,000
salary by the state while advisers scram-
ble to find a buyer to take on Bulb’s cus-
tomers. This weekend marks six months
since the energy supplier entered the
special administration process funded by
taxpayers.
Founders and shareholders in technol-
ogy companies often “cash in” by selling
shares in a start-up when it raises money
from new investors. In 2018, loss-making
Bulb announced £60 million of funding
from DST Global and Magnetar in a deal
that valued the company at more than
£400 million.
At the time, Wood posted a blog that
said: “You may have seen press specula-
tion from some misinformed quarters
that we are ‘cashing in’ or ‘up for sale’.
Rest assured, this is not the case.”
However, it can be revealed that more
than 60 investors also sold shares in this
fundraising.
Philip Sutterby, who has run energy
trading at the hedge fund Millennium
Management and commodities giant
Mercuria Energy, sold almost £10 million
of shares. He is now a director and inves-
tor at the battery storage start-up Field,Former No 10 adviser, as well as friends and family of founders,
also sold shares in 2018 fundraising round before bailout
Sabah Meddings and Jamie Nimmo established by Gudka, a former Barclays
energy trader.
Patrick Barouki, former head of gas
trading and origination at Uniper, now at
Morgan Stanley, sold shares worth an
estimated £729,000. David Brookes, a
former head of gas trading at EDF Trad-
ing, sold an estimated £1.7 million worth,
while Tony Alt, the former deputy chair-
man at financial services firm Rothschild,
also offloaded a small number of shares.
The revelation prompted criticism
from Darren Jones MP, chairman of the
House of Commons business, energy and
industrial strategy committee. “Oil and
gas company shareholders are already
making unexpectedly large profits due to
the unfair transfer of wealth from bill pay-
ers to energy companies,” he said.
“The idea that taxpayers are now on
the hook for billions for a failed energy
company, while others have profited
handsomely and just walked away with
their money, will no doubt rile the pub-
lic,” Jones added.
Along with energy traders, other early
investors also sold shares in the fundrais-
ing, an analysis of company filings shows.
Silva, a former adviser to David Cameron
when he was prime minister, sold an esti-
mated £72,000 worth of shares.
Sammi Adhami, co-founder of the fit-
ness app Fiit, sold an estimated £1.4 mil-
lion of shares, and Jonathan Gartside,
former chief experience officer at Bulb,
sold an estimated £3.1 million. Other Bulb
staff and family members of the founders
sold stock at the same time.
The traders were contacted for com-
ment. Bulb did not comment.Energy bills crisis, page 3Vin Murria stands to bank a £50 million profit on her shares in M&C Saatchi should she bless a rival takeover bidTOM STOCKHILL FOR THE SUNDAY TIMESSome of the City’s most senior energy
traders were among dozens of investors
who cashed £35 million from collapsed
supplier Bulb before it was bailed out by
taxpayers at a cost of billions of pounds.
Executives who have run gas trading
divisions at EDF, Morgan Stanley and
hedge fund Millennium extracted mil-
lions of pounds through share sales in
2018, when Bulb raised more than
£60 million from new backers. Other
investors who offloaded shares include
former Number 10 adviser Rohan Silva.
Bulb collapsed last November as natu-
ral gas prices soared and it was unable to
raise more money, leaving the govern-
ment to step in to ensure that its 1.7 mil-
lion customers were not left without
energy. The government initially set
aside £1.7 billion, but the company’s fail-
ure is ultimately expected to cost taxpay-
ers as much as £3 billion.
Bankers at Lazard are hunting for a
buyer for the business. However, the auc-
tion is dragging on after only two compa-
nies lodged indicative bids: British Gas
owner Centrica and Abu Dhabi’s Masdar.
Centrica’s proposal involved taxpayer
support to buy the gas in advance needed
for 1.7 million customers. Others ruled
themselves out of the bidding after Russia£3bn
Atom to split as bank snubs
London for New York float
Digital bank Atom is plotting a
stock market listing in New
York through a special
purpose acquisition company
(Spac) set up by Wilbur Ross,
the former US commerce
secretary.
According to Sky News,
which first revealed the talks
with Ross, the deal for
Durham-based Atom will be
worth about £700 million.
Spacs — which are similar
to cash shells — were a craze
in New York last year as Covid
curbs eased. When they list
on the market, they do not
have any operating assets and
instead set out to find deals.
Mark Mullen, who founded
Atom in 2014, has made nosecret of his hopes to go
public, but as recently as
March he suggested that this
was unlikely until next year,
due to market volatility.
Any deal is likely to take at
least six months — but could
still see Atom beat its newer
and larger rivals, Monzo andStarling, to the stock market.
It would also be a blow for
London, which has been
battling to attract new
listings, particularly of
technology-related stocks.
Atom’s talks are with Ross
Acquisition Corp II, which
listed in New York last year. At
its last funding round in
February, Atom was valued at
£435 million — well below
Monzo and Starling, which
have both achieved “unicorn”
status of $1 billion-plus.
Atom has not disclosed
how many customers it has. It
has not launched current
accounts and instead focuses
on mortgages and savings.
Atom declined to comment
and Ross told Sky he did not
comment on rumours.Jill TreanorFatFace owners try
on a sale for size
The owners of FatFace have
hired investment bankers to
explore a sale of the fashion
retailer amid a recovery in
sales after the pandemic,
Sam Chambers writes.
FatFace has appointed
Rothschild to explore
strategic options for the
chain, which was taken over
by its lenders after Covid left
it unable to pay its debts.
The retailer, which trades
from 193 stores in the UK and
22 in America, reported sales
of £125 million in the six
months to November 27 — a
4 per cent increase on pre-
pandemic levels. More than a
third of those sales were
online; the chain’s owners
intend to increase that figure
to 70 per cent in five years.In 2007, Bridgepoint paid
£360 million for FatFace
shortly before the financial
crisis hit. The private equity
firm, which appointed Lord
(Stuart) Rose as chairman,
owned the chain until 2020,
when it was taken over by
lenders including debt
investor Alcentra, Goldman
Sachs and Lloyds Bank. The
debt-for-equity swap reduced
its debts by £146.8 million to
£25.6 million.
FatFace recently
refinanced its debts, securing
a £25 million revolving
credit facility until 2027. It
reported a pre-tax profit
of £2.96 million in the 11
months to May 2021.
The company declined to
comment on a potential sale.Don’t block takeover of Newport
chipmaker, says Chinese owner
The UK boss of the Chinese-
owned microchip company
now in control of Britain’s
largest semiconductor
factory has warned that
blocking the controversial
takeover would create
“enormous uncertainty” for
foreign investors.
Toni Versluijs, who
oversees the UK business of
Nexperia, has been meeting
ministers to convince them
not to overturn the deal for
Newport Wafer Fab (NWF).
Nexperia is a Dutch firm
but is owned by Wingtech, a
Chinese company. Critics of
the sale have argued that it
creates a national security
risk and would undermineBritain’s attempts to build a
self-sufficient semiconductor
industry at a time when other
countries are spending
billions to become less reliant
on production in Asia.
The pandemic and other
supply chain bottlenecks
have created a global
shortage of semiconductors,
which are used in everything
from cars to consumer
electronics, as well as key
industries such as defence.
NWF was an “open access”
factory providing services to
other companies for
production. Nexperia is
honouring existing contracts
but will focus on production
for its own clients, which
include Apple and Dyson.
The company was a customerof NWF and took control last
year after it encountered
financial difficulty and failed
to deliver enough chips.
“It’s so hard to imagine
[that the sale would be
blocked] — I’m thinking of all
the uncertainties it would
bring, the risk it would bring,
the complexities it would
bring,” said Versluijs. “And
also the message it would
send to investors in sound,
traditional businesses.
Nexperia was the only one
able and willing [to invest in
the factory].”
Business secretary Kwasi
Kwarteng has until the end of
next month to intervene,
under new foreign takeover
rules that came into force at
the start of the year.Jamie NimmoAtom founder Mark MullenCost to taxpayers for Bulb’s collapse