Author: SKYNEWS

Tide, the business banking services platform, has hired advisers to orchestrate a fresh share sale as it pursues rapid growth in the UK and overseas.Sky News understands that Tide has been holding talks with investment banks including Morgan Stanley about launching a primary fundraising worth in excess of £50m in the coming months. The share sale may include both issuing new stock and enabling existing investors to participate by offloading part of their holdings, according to insiders.It was unclear at what valuation any new funding would be raised.Tide was founded in 2015 by George Bevis and Errol Damelin, before launching…

Outside it is the bleak midwinter. We are smack bang in the middle of some of the country’s best agricultural land.But inside the cavernous warehouse where we’ve come, you wouldn’t have a clue about any of that: there is no daylight; it feels like it could be any time of the day, any season of the year. We are at Fischer Farms – Europe’s biggest vertical farm.The whole point of a vertical farm is to create an environment where you can grow plants, stacked on top of each other (hence: vertical) in high density. The idea being that you can…

Filmmaker Jeff Baena, the husband of actress Aubrey Plaza, has been found dead aged 47.The US director and writer was known for films including Life After Beth and The Little Hours, in which Plaza starred. He died on Friday, according to Los Angeles medical examiner records, viewed by E! News.According to Deadline, the filmmaker’s family “is devastated and asks for privacy at this difficult time”.The circumstances of his death are not yet clear. Plaza, 40, who is known for TV series including Parks And Recreation and The White Lotus, and films such as Emily The Criminal, had been in a…

The owners of Shawbrook Group, the mid-sized British lender, are drawing up plans to kickstart London’s moribund listings arena with a stock market flotation, valuing it at more than £2bn.Sky News has learnt that BC Partners and Pollen Street Capital, which took Shawbrook private in 2017, are close to appointing Goldman Sachs to oversee work on a potential initial public offering. Other investment banks, possibly including Barclays, are expected to be added in the near future.Shawbrook’s shareholders are said to be keen to take the company public during the first half of this year.People close to the situation cautioned that…

Drive an hour outside China’s commercial capital Shanghai, and you’ll reach Elon Musk’s Tesla gigafactory.It manufactures almost one million Tesla cars a year and produces more than half of all its cars worldwide. But with US president-elect Donald Trump preparing to move into the White House, the relationship between his new buddy Elon Musk and the leadership of China’s Communist Party is in sharp focus. Image: Tesla’s Shanghai gigafactory. Pic: Lex Ramsay Shanghai has been the key to Tesla’s success, largely thanks to the city’s former Communist Party secretary, now China’s premier, Li Qiang.Chief executive of Shanghai-based Auto Mobility Limited,…

Seventeen-year-old Luke Littler will become the youngest darts world champion of all time if he beats three-time winner Michael van Gerwen in tonight’s final.It’s no small task for the darting star – but he’ll have few doubters after a breakthrough 12 months which has seen him win 10 trophies. Despite his age, Littler, nicknamed “The Nuke”, already has valuable experience of the World Darts Championship final, having made it there last year before getting beaten by world number one Luke Humphries.The teen has fast become one of the sport’s biggest names – but how did he get here?Here’s everything you…

An outsourcing group backed by Lord Hammond, the former chancellor of the exchequer, is among the suitors circling Telent, a major provider of digital infrastructure services.Sky News has learnt that Amey, which endured years of financial difficulties before being taken over by two private equity firms in 2022, has tabled an indicative offer to buy Telent. Industry sources expect a deal to be worth more than £300m, with a next round of bids due later this month.Amey is part-owned by Buckthorn Partners, where Lord Hammond is a partner.The outsourcer was previously owned by Ferrovial, the Spanish infrastructure giant, but ran…

Former deputy prime minister Sir Nick Clegg has said he is stepping down from his role at Facebook parent firm Meta.He said it was the “right time for me to move on” from president of global affairs. With Donald Trump just weeks from being sworn in, he will be replaced by former Republican White House deputy chief of staff Joel Kaplan, who served under George W Bush from 2006 to 2009.Sir Nick said: “As a new year begins, I have come to the view that this is the right time for me to move on from my role as president,…

Neil Young has announced he will not be performing at this year’s Glastonbury, saying he believes the BBC’s involvement in the popular festival means it is “now under corporate control”.The 79-year-old musician wrote on his website that both he and his band, The Chrome Hearts, were pulling out because it was a “corporate turn-off”. Glastonbury, which takes place at Worthy Farm in Somerset in summer, has worked closely with the BBC since 1997.The BBC is the festival’s exclusive broadcast partner.Canadian-born Young had yet to be announced as an act at this year’s event. Posting on Neil Young Archives, the Rock…

The Post Office is proposing a big hike in the fees that banks pay to allow their customers to access its network as it attempts to secure additional funding to boost postmasters’ pay.Sky News understands that more than two dozen banks and building societies are considering a proposal submitted to them recently by the Post Office that would see the next banking framework costing them between £350m and £400m annually – up from about £250m-a-year under the current deal. Banking sources said the roughly 30 high street lenders were due to respond to the Post Office’s proposal in the early…