
UK's NCC Group explores strategic options for Escode business, including sale
April 28 (Reuters) - NCC Group (NCCG.L), opens new tab, a UK-based global cybersecurity specialist, said on Monday it is exploring various strategic options for its Escode business, including a possible sale.
The group comprises two distinct businesses — cyber security and Escode, which specializes in software escrow and verification services.
The Reuters Daily Briefing newsletter provides all the news you need to start your day. Sign up here.
Shares of NCC rose as much as 12% to 157 pence by 1530 GMT on the London bourse, reaching their highest since December 10, 2024.
The company said no proposals have been received yet and no decision has been made regarding any transaction.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Reuters
25 minutes ago
- Reuters
Moelis CEO-designate joins Wall Street in signaling dealmaking rebound after tariff pause
June 10 (Reuters) - Moelis' (MC.N), opens new tab incoming CEO Navid Mahmoodzadegan told investors on Tuesday that he is optimistic about the dealmaking environment, as confidence returns following a pause in April triggered by U.S. tariff threats. "I'm optimistic. It definitely feels better and better each day ... The announcement in April, I think set us back a little bit in terms of the M&A environment," he said at the Morgan Stanley U.S. Financials Conference. Investor sentiment soured and stock markets slid after U.S. President Donald Trump's "Liberation Day" tariff threats, stalling risk appetite and slowing deal activity. Appetite for deals has since returned, with market participants and bankers once again seeing an opening for initial public offerings and signs of a pickup in M&A activity. "Everywhere I go, people want to transact. They want to lean into transactions, whether it's companies or private equity firms or capital providers," Mahmoodzadegan said. "We're seeing our clients push us to launch transactions, even if the environment isn't crystal clear." Earlier this week, Moelis said Ken Moelis would step down as CEO of the investment bank and hand the reins to Mahmoodzadegan, its co-founder and co-president. The succession marks a major step for the bank, which has been led solely by Ken Moelis since its founding in 2007. While succession at companies closely tied to founding CEOs can be challenging due to their outsized personal influence, Mahmoodzadegan said it was part of the "natural evolution of the firm." "I think Ken felt that even though he's fully active and will continue to be fully active with clients going forward ... this was a great opportunity at a great time to give more responsibility, not just to me, but to the next generation of bankers," Mahmoodzadegan added. The bank's deal pipeline currently is up from April and is as high as "it's ever been at the firm, or close to it," the CEO-designate said. The comments echo Morgan Stanley (MS.N), opens new tab CEO Ted Pick's expectation of a strong end of the quarter for the bank as dealmaking and the calendar for equity capital markets are picking up. Last week, top executives at the New York Stock Exchange (ICE.N), opens new tab and Nasdaq (NDAQ.O), opens new tab also said the IPO market is gaining momentum despite the Trump administration's rapidly shifting tariff policy, adding to the industry's optimism about a meaningful recovery.


BBC News
35 minutes ago
- BBC News
Public toilet restoration approved by Chichester District Council
Eight public toilets in the Chichester district will be refurbished after getting council plans follow the demolition and rebuilding of the old toilet block in Tower new Tower Street toilet, which opened earlier this month, cost more than £200,000 and has been said to be inspiring "envy" in other areas after receiving positive Google reviews. The cost of the latest scheme has not yet been revealed but will be made up of money from the Asset Replacement Fund and from reserves. Chichester District Council does not legally have to provide public toilets, but leader Adrian Moss said they were important to residents, adding that the Tower Street project had been "a triumph".Councillor John Cross added: "There is a bit of toilet envy going on with other district councils because our Tower Street toilets have been given a five-star rating on Google and other district councils want the same!"The toilets set for improvement are in Bracklesham Bay in Bracklesham, Pound Road car park in Petworth, Lifeboat Way in Selsey, Northgate car park in Chichester, Avenue de Chartres car park in Chichester, Hillfield Road in Selsey, Kingfisher Parade in East Wittering and Marine Drive in West council will now look for a contractor to carry out the work, which will be a phased approach over the next two years, said the Local Democracy Reporting Service.


The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
This vision for Britain's nuclear future is to be warmly welcomed
A politician with such a long and mixed track record as energy secretary Ed Miliband should perhaps have been more wary of declaring that nuclear power will 'deliver a golden age of clean energy abundance', and that it is 'the only way to protect family finances, take back control of our energy, and tackle the climate crisis'. Such things may yet prove to be so – and indeed investment in a new generation of nuclear power may well be inevitable. However, it is equally the case that the history of nuclear power in Britain, spanning some seven decades, has been far from an unalloyed success. At home and – sadly, more dramatically – abroad, scientists and engineers overconfident in their abilities and seized by the promise of the future have found themselves all too often watching the consequences of their complacency played out with devastating effect, most infamously at Fukushima, Chernobyl and Six Mile Island, but also at many other locations. Previous visions of a golden age melted down as rapidly as the faulty reactors. If the early post-war hopes for the peaceful use of nuclear power had been well founded, just as was claimed in the 1950s, the abundant electrical power generated by nuclear fission would have been so cheap it would have been pointless to meter and charge for it, fossil fuels would have been rendered redundant, and, as it happens, the pace of climate change greatly retarded. But it was not to be. Therefore, the public is right to be sceptical now about why, in the old and dangerous phrase, 'this time it's different'. With those heavy caveats, Mr Miliband's announcements about Britain's nuclear future are to be welcomed, and his reasoning endorsed. He is right, above all, to seek a great variety and plurality in sources of the UK's long-term energy supply. As the Germans discovered when the Nord Stream pipelines and gas supplies from Vladimir Putin's Russia were cut, it is extremely unwise to become so heavily dependent on any single source of energy. Mr Miliband declares himself an enthusiast for offshore wind, onshore wind, solar, hydro, nuclear, and even fossil fuel sources where effective carbon capture can be achieved. In the nuclear sphere, he's also correct to adopt the previous government's plans for small, 'modular' reactors, which could speed up the transition from carbon and reduce costs. The only disappointment in that area is that time has already been lost, and Rolls-Royce and other private interests are not yet in a position to make any deployment pump meaningful wattage into the National Grid before the early to mid-2030s, as Mr Miliband told the House of Commons. The £14.2bn investment in the Sizewell C plant is a more traditional kind of project, and carries the familiar risks. Mr Miliband will need to be much more specific about private sector involvement, and who will bear the financial risks for such a costly programme over such a long and uncertain timeframe. Disposal of waste and decommissioning costs will also have to be fully transparent to carry public opinion, especially for the people of Suffolk, who will be hosting this latest iteration of a long-standing lodger. Of course, it all would have been better if successive governments hadn't slowed the nuclear programme in the aftermath of successive accidents, and had found the money to invest in previous decades. In fact, the Sizewell C plant is set to become Britain's first new nuclear power station since 1995. The French have long prioritised nuclear power and weathered the recent energy crisis better than the British or the Germans, more tied as they were to foreign gas and soaring world prices. The aim now is to ensure that the new generation of nuclear power doesn't turn into a costly disaster, and can indeed help the transition to renewables and lower energy bills. Cheap, plentiful power and net zero on track? Mr Miliband may yet leave a legacy more permanent than any of his colleagues. Golden, indeed.