Latest news with #demerger
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Unilever ice cream spinoff should free up cash
Unilever is set to update investors on the listing of its ice cream business this week. The consumer goods giant spun off the division behind Magnum (advertised by actress Eva Longoria), Ben & Jerry's and Wall's at the start of this month after snubbing London for an Amsterdam listing earlier this year. The group – whose brands also include Dove, Comfort and Hellmann's – will update investors on its plans for a fourth quarter listing on Thursday. Aarin Chiekrie, from broker Hargreaves Lansdown, said the ice cream demerger should 'free up plenty of cash to pay down debts and invest in other, higher-returning areas of the business'. It is looking to save £700m by cutting 7,500 jobs.
ABC News
17-07-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Minister approves Cootamundra-Gundagai council split to undo 'disaster' merger
The New South Wales government will split a local council for the first time since dozens were controversially merged almost a decade ago. The Cootamundra Shire and Gundagai Shire Councils in southern NSW were combined by the then-Coalition government to improve efficiency and reduce administrative costs. The Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council (CGRC) was among 19 new councils created from the amalgamation of 44 existing councils, including Snowy Valleys Council, Armidale Regional Council and Central Coast Council. Announcing the planned split in Gundagai on Thursday, Local Government Minister Ron Hoenig said the forced merger was a "disaster". "Merging councils for merging's sake does not work," he said. Cr Hoenig said the policy of forced council mergers should be "dispensed with in the dustbin of history". "This has been a long fight for Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council and the people of this particular region," he said. The Coalition's planned council mergers were troubled from the outset, with the government making multiple amendments to its plan during its term. In 2017, then premier Gladys Berejiklian allowed 14 other councils, that were fighting the merger push in court, to remain separate. Then in 2022, the Coalition announced it would split CGRC, in a move local media dubbed "Independence Day". In 2024, the new Labor government introduced legislation which provided a new pathway for NSW councils seeking to demerge. Councils are now required to develop a robust business case up-front, undertake community consultation and undergo a review by the NSW Local Government Boundaries Commission. CGRC Mayor Abb McAlister became emotional as news of the demerger was announced and said the road had been challenging. "The journey we've had has been tough, but it's all-inspiring and it's one of those life experiences you have," he said. "We finally got the result we wanted." The council will now establish a transition office as work to formalise the split begins. It will oversee the division of assets, liabilities, funding, staffing, services, and determining the councils' future structure. Meanwhile, the state government will draft the legal paperwork required to re-establish the two separate councils. The Office of Local Government will also assist the council through the process, including by working to identify funding to support the transition. Cr McAlister said it could be another 12 months before the councils were completely demerged, but he expressed faith in the state government in finalising the split. "We now start another journey the minister has given us to demerge, and he will fully support us," he said.
Daily Mail
08-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Octopus Energy mulls £10bn demerger of tech arm Kraken
Octopus Energy is considering demerging its tech arm Kraken Technologies to create a separate business worth up to £10billion, according to reports. The demerger could take place within the next 12 months, with investment bankers from Citi, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley among those invited to pitch for the demerger mandate, Sky News said on Tuesday. Founded in 2015, Octopus Energy is Britain's largest residential energy supplier with a valuation of £7.2billion as of an investment round last year. Octopus reached a 23.7 per cent market share earlier this year, surpassing British Gas which had previously stood as the UK's largest energy provider for some 20 years. The group's technology arm, Kraken, has grown rapidly in recent years, with its software used by Octopus itself, as well as being licensed to other energy, water and telecoms firms around the world, particularly in the UK, Australia and Japan. In the UK, Kraken has so far been adopted by Eon and EDF Energy. Kraken's platform offers an operating system for billing, customer management, and management of energy devices. While it already serves more than 70million customers, Kraken has set its sights on further global expansion, with further contracts set to be signed in the US this year. In May, the firm signed a deal with the US National Grid to introduce Kraken to 6.5million customers in New York and Massachussetts. Kraken has targeted expansion to 100million accounts by 2027, a move that Octopus boss Greg Jackson says risks being 'embarrassingly unambitious'. Sources say a demerged Kraken would be owned by Octopus Energy shareholders, and that Octopus may keep a small stake in the business. According to Sky News, as much as 20 per cent of Kraken could be sold to external shareholders in order to validate the firm's expected £10billion valuation. A split between the two business would raise questions about a potential future IPO for Kraken, with suggestions that it could follow the likes of Flutter and Arm in shunning London in favour of a listing on the New York Stock Exchange. Earlier this year, Jackson told This is Money: 'We're big in the UK… we're currently building out our business [elsewhere] but we won't be successful at that if we're tarnished in the UK.' Octopus declined to comment on the potential demerger.
The Sun
05-07-2025
- Business
- The Sun
UK's biggest energy supplier is ‘on verge of splitting from tech arm' in £10billion demerger
OCTOPUS Energy Group has sparked a £10 billion pound demerger from tech arm Kraken. The UK's biggest energy supplier is planning to separate from its technology arm Kraken with plans to hire bankers to oversee the deal. It is expected that the demerger will take place in the next year and would see existing investors given shares in the newly independent Kraken firm. A minority stake in Kraken of up to 20% is expected to be sold to external shareholders. One banking source told Sky News that Kraken could be valued at as much as £10.25bn. It has now been revealed that Octopus is looking to hire bankers to oversee the demerger with Citi, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Stanley Morgan invited to pitch for the demerger mandate. Kraken is an operating system which is licensed to other energy providers and water companies. Octopus Energy has around 7.5 million retail customers in Britain and a further 2. million outside the Britain, in January it announced that it was the country's biggest supplier. The firm passed British Gas with a 24% market share. The £10 billion valuation of Kraken would reportedly suggest that the whole group, including the retail supply business was worth around £15 billion. 1
Sky News
05-07-2025
- Business
- Sky News
Octopus Energy sparks £10bn demerger of tech arm Kraken
Octopus Energy Group, Britain's largest residential gas and electricity supplier, is plotting a £10bn demerger of its technology arm that would reinforce its status as one of the country's most valuable private companies. Sky News can exclusively reveal that Octopus Energy is close to hiring investment bankers to help formally separate Kraken Technologies from the rest of the group. The demerger, which would be expected to take place in the next 12 months, would see Octopus Energy's existing investors given shares in the newly independent Kraken business. A minority stake in Kraken of up to 20pc is expected to be sold to external shareholders in order to help validate the technology platform's valuation, according to insiders. One banking source said that Kraken could be valued at as much as $14bn (£10.25bn) in a forthcoming demerger. Citi, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley are among the investment banks invited to pitch for the demerger mandate in recent weeks. A deal will augment Octopus Energy chief executive Greg Jackson's paper fortune, and underline his success at building a globally significant British-based company over the last decade. Octopus Energy now has 7.5m retail customers in Britain, following its 2022 rescue of the collapsed energy supplier Bulb, and the subsequent acquisition of Shell's home energy business. In January, it announced that it had become the country's biggest supplier - surpassing Centrica-owned British Gas - with a 24% market share. It also has a further 2.5m customers outside the UK. Sources said a £10bn valuation of Kraken would now imply that the whole group, including the retail supply business, was worth in the region of £15bn or more. That would be double its valuation of just over a year ago, when the company announced that it had secured new backing from funds Galvanize Climate Solutions and Lightrock. Shortly before that, the former US vice president Al Gore's firm, Generation Investment Management, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased their stakes in Octopus Energy in a transaction valuing the company at $9bn (£7.2bn). Kraken is an operating system which is licensed to other energy providers, water companies and telecoms suppliers. It connects all parts of the energy system, including customer billing and the flexible management of renewable generation and energy devices such as heat pumps and electric vehicle batteries. The business also unlocks smart grids which enable people to use more renewable energy when there is an abundant supply of it. In the UK, its platform is licensed to Octopus Energy's rivals EON and EDF Energy, as well as the water company Severn Trent and broadband provider Cuckoo. Overseas, Kraken serves Origin Energy in Australia, Japan's Tokyo Gas and Plentitude in countries including France and Greece. Its biggest coup came recently, when it struck a deal with National Grid in the US to serve 6.5m customers in New York and Massachusetts. Sources said other major licensing agreements in the US were expected to be struck in the coming months. Kraken, which is chaired by Gavin Patterson, the former BT Group chief executive, is now contracted to more than 70m customer accounts globally - putting it easily on track to hit a target of 100m by 2027. Earlier this year, Mr Jackson said that target now risked being seen as "embarrassingly unambitious". Last July, Kraken recruited Amir Orad, a former boss of NICE Actimize, a US-listed provider of enterprise software to global banks and Fortune 500 companies, as its first chief executive. A demerger of Kraken will trigger speculation about an eventual public market listing of the business. Its growth in the US, and the relative public market valuations of technology companies in New York and London, may put the UK at a disadvantage when Kraken eventually considers where to list. One key advantage of demerging Kraken from the rest of Octopus Energy Group would be to remove the perception of a conflict of interest among potential customers of the technology platform. A source said the unified corporate ownership of both businesses had acted as a deterrent to some energy suppliers. Kraken has also diversified beyond the energy sector, and earlier this year joined a consortium which was exploring a takeover bid for stricken Thames Water.
