FTSE LIVE: Breaking news and analysis from UK markets – Evening Standard

Manchester-headquartered Begbies Traynor has splashed out nearly £21 million on a new insolvency company, adding its first offshore offices.

The corporate restructuring specialist said it would pay a consideration of up to £20.8 million for CVR Global, an insolvency practitioner focused in the south of England.

“The acquisition of CVR is our largest insolvency acquisition to date and is expected to be immediately earnings-enhancing,” said Ric Traynor, Begbies Traynor’s executive chairman

“The increase in scale and capabilities leaves the group well-positioned to increase its market share and continue to grow its business recovery and financial advisory revenues.”

The deal will add Begbies’ first ever overseas offices, as it gains access to CVR’s offshore sites in Gibraltar, Jersey, Cyprus and the British Virgin Islands.

CVR also has significant insolvency practice, and a strong forensic accounting side, Babies said in a statement to the London Stock Exchange on Monday.

The company’s 90 partners and employees will join Begbies’ offices and teams in the south of England and will operate under the Begbies Traynor and BTG Advisory brands.

In its most recent financial year, CVR made revenue of £9.5 million and normalised pre-tax profit hit £1.2 million. The acquisition is expected to bring operating synergies of at least £750,000 every year

Cosmetics company Warpaint is on track to record better than expected full-year sales, it said today.  

The AIM-listed firm, which owns the W7 brand which is stocked by retailers including Wilko, expects 2020 sales to not be less than £40 million. It had previously guided at least £37 million.  

It had better than anticipated trading in the second half.

Warpaint added that following successful initial sales of a range of 15 W7 cosmetics products in 209 Tesco Express stores from November, these products will now be stocked in a further 469 Tesco Express stores starting at the end of February 2021.

Dr Martens could be listed on the Stock Exchange in London by the start of next month and hopes to be included in a FTSE index, the business said on Monday.

The footwear firm confirmed its intention to launch an initial public offering (IPO), a process companies go through when their shares first start trading.

Dr Martens’ current private equity owner will be selling off some of its shares in the IPO.

Around a quarter of the company’s shares are expected to be traded publicly after the float, and Dr Martens “expects that it would be eligible for inclusion in the FTSE UK indices”.

It said: “The final offer price in respect of the offer will be determined following a book-building process, with admission currently expected to occur in early February 2021.”

Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Barclays, HSBC, BofA Securities, RBC Capital Markets and Lazard have all been hired to help with the floatation.

AIM-listed video gaming services company Keywords Studios has appointed Sonia Lashand Sedler to the board as chief operating officer.  

She will work alongside the boss and finance chief and take responsibility for the day to day operational running of the business. The appointment comes at a busy time for the firm: it has recently made two acquisitions.

Keywords said Lashand Sedler has 20 years of experience in scaling up businesses internationally through senior roles, most recently as global head of managed services and banking strategy at Diebold Nixdorf, a retail and banking technology group.

Keywords provides a range of services, such as testing and marketing.

Rutherford Health, the cancer treatment business which was the biggest investment in Neil Woodford’s ill-fated Patient Capital fund said it would need to raise more funding in the current quarter.

Formerly known as Proton Partners, Rutherford raised £100 million from Woodford after being floated on the NEX exchange in 2019.

Its shares are illiquid and remain mainly held by the Patient Capital Trust, now known as the Schroder UK Public Trust since Woodford was stripped of the management contract and Schroders took it over.

It said today that Covid 19 had made for growing waiting lists for cancer biopsies, diagnostics and surgery.

“The Company expects a significant increase in revenue and patient numbers over the coming months following the contracts awarded by the NHS and a strong pipeline for recruitment of oncologists trained in proton beam therapy.”

But it needs new sources of funding “to support the company’s rapid growth”, it admitted, “and expects that it will need to do so in Q1”.

“These include but are not limited to debt refinancing, sale and leaseback agreements and an equity fundraise potentially in conjunction with an admission to AIM.  The Company will update shareholders in due course as appropriate.”

HEAT hire firm the Andrews Sykes Group today said managing director Paul Wood is taking a leave of absence due to ill health.

Carl Webb has been appointed to assume Wood’s day-to-day responsibilities.

Jean-Jacques Murray, Vice- Chairman of Andrews Sykes, said:

“The Board and all his colleagues wish Paul a speedy and full recovery and look forward to welcoming him back to the business. The group is strong and the Board has every confidence in the strength of the senior management team under the direction of Carl Webb.”

Andrews Sykes has been around since 1857, headquartered in Wolverhampton.

It supplies heat and cooling equipment hire and was involved in the construction of the Millennium Dome in 1999.