Mike Lynch-backed Darktrace sets out plans to list in London

Darktrace, the $5bn-valued cyber security technology company backed by former Autonomy boss Mike Lynch, has set out plans to float in London.

The company said that by listing on London Stock Exchange’s premium segment it intends to raise product development and marketing funds, as well as allowing sales by existing shareholders. Chief executive Polly Gustafsson said its IPO would be “a historic day for the UK’s thriving technology sector”.

Founded in 2013, Darktrace uses artificial intelligence to detect and respond to network security threats. The company reported revenue of $199m in the fiscal year ending 2020, up from $79.4m in 2018, and made a $9m profit over the former period thanks in part to a decrease in travel costs. Its customer count grew from 1,659 in 2008 to 3,858.

Briefly

Hammerson confirmed it was in talks with Canadian private equity group Brookfield on a possible sale of its retail parks portfolio. Brookfield may pay around £350m for seven shopping centre developments, the Sunday Times reported. Sites earmarked for disposal are in Falkirk, Didcot, Middlesbrough, St Helens, Telford, Merthyr Tydfil and Rugby, said the paper.

AstraZeneca said an experimental late-stage trial to use its diabetes drug Farxiga for treating Covid-19 had failed. The trial did not achieve statistical significance for the primary target of preventing organ dysfunction and all-cause mortality, the company said.

Superyacht services company GYG confirmed it has received a takeover approach from Harwood Capital, its 20.6 per cent shareholder. Harwood announced late on Friday that it had bid 92.5p a share for GYG, a 6.3 per cent premium to that day’s closing price, and had a letter of support from 26.9 per cent shareholder Lombard Odier Asset Management. GYG said the approach does not constitute a firm intention to make an offer under the terms of the Takeover Code, saying Harwood’s bid was subject to “material preconditions” and that Lombard Odier’s letter of support was not legally binding. The company said it will meet with shareholders to consider the possible offer after delivering full-year results on Wednesday.

Carpet maker Victoria said in a trading update that it will deliver record results for the fiscal year just ended. Full-year revenues will be in excess of £640m, up from £621.5m the year before, with underlying ebitda of more than £120m versus £118.1m in 2020, it said.

Pensionbee has set a price range on its planned LSE float of 155p to 175p a share, which would value the pensions provider at between £346m and £384m. The company said it plans to raise £55m to support future growth with the sale of 35.5m shares. Founders, directors and members of senior management will not be selling at the IPO, the company said.

Beyond the Square Mile 

Microsoft is nearing a deal to buy voice recognition pioneer Nuance Communications that would value the artificial intelligence company at about $16bn, according to people briefed about the matter. Nuance, based in Burlington, Massachusetts, was one of the early developers of speech recognition AI. Its technology was used to power the voice responses in Apple’s virtual assistant, Siri. 

Chinese regulators fined Alibaba a record Rmb18.2bn ($2.8bn) over the weekend after finding that the ecommerce group had abused its market dominance. The penalty, which was set at 4 per cent of Alibaba’s 2019 revenues, concludes an antitrust investigation into the company founded by Jack Ma. Employees at other technology giants like Tencent and ecommerce platform Pinduoduo are now concerned they could be targeted next by Beijing’s emboldened competition regulators

Maersk has warned that customers should not expect a quick return to normal services after the Suez Canal blockage, which the world’s largest shipping company predicts will keep disrupting global supply chains in the coming weeks. Lars Mikael Jensen, head of global ocean network at Maersk, told the Financial Times that people had been lulled into thinking that international shipping was functioning smoothly once again because the backlog of ships at the vital trade route has been cleared.

Essential comment before you go

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