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Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Registrar Computershare among suitors for former fintech star PrimaryBid
The Australian-listed share registrar Computershare is among a pack of suitors circling PrimaryBid, one of the most prominent British fintech businesses to be established during the last decade. Sky News has learnt that Computershare has expressed an interest in acquiring PrimaryBid, which was put up for sale earlier this year. PrimaryBid, which counts London Stock Exchange Group and the SoftBank Vision Fund among its investors, has drawn interest from a large number of parties, including investment banks and market infrastructure providers, according to insiders. Money: Thousands of customers due a refund - as network apologises The company was founded with a simple vision to help ordinary investors gatecrash the closed City ranks of corporate fundraisings and flotations by aggregating demand from retail shareholders into a single, enlarged order. That mission to democratise access to public markets won support from politicians and market participants. It made significant progress towards this goal during the pandemic, notably securing a slice of a £2bn share sale announced by Compass Group, the FTSE 100 contract caterer. Since then, it has worked on hundreds of deals and helped raise roughly $2bn in equity for listed companies. However, it has been hit by a severe slowdown in equity capital markets activity, prompting it to launch a strategic review and hire US-based market infrastructure specialist Rosenblatt Securities to evaluate its strategic options. PrimaryBid has been facing into the weakest IPO market in years, which it has been attempting to mitigate by striking partnerships with the likes of US fintech group SoFi, as well as European groups. It has now reshaped its UK operations and stepped back from regulated activities, having for several months explored a deal with LSEG, one of its largest shareholders, to license its retail capital-raising technology. For some time, the company was chaired by Sir Donald Brydon, the veteran businessman who also used to chair the stock exchange's parent company. Earlier this year, LSEG wrote down the value of its 7.2% stake in PrimaryBid by 87%, implying that the business now had a valuation of just £56m. Computershare's interest in a deal is said to be exploratory, with many other prospective bidders at a similar stage. A Computershare spokesman said: "We do not comment on market speculation." PrimaryBid declined to comment.
Daily Mirror
25 minutes ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Lewis Capaldi: 'I was convulsing backstage - one big change saved me from brink'
After such a public break down in front of Glastonbury crowd and millions of TV viewers in 2023, the Someone You Loved singer's welcome return to form is down to his strict new health regime Falling apart at Glastonbury two years ago was the best and the worst of days for Lewis Capaldi, who sees his triumphant comeback performance at this year's festival as a 'mental win.' "I really wanted to come back and do Glastonbury as like a mental win – finish the thing that I couldn't finish before,' he says. Fans of the Someone You Loved singer rejoiced alongside the newly trim - two stone lighter - Lewis, who is thriving thanks to a new regime, with changed medication, daily fitness and successful talking therapy. Philosophical about his intensely worrying 2023 Glastonbury performance, which saw him retreat from the public eye, he describes it as: "The best thing that's ever happened to me.' The last time the singer played the Pyramid stage in 2023, it was his first live performance after cancelling a series of gigs. But clearly still struggling with his mental health and Tourette syndrome, Lewis's voice cracked and gave out in the middle of his performance of Someone You Loved. In a touching moment that brought tears to the eyes of anyone watching the emotional scenes, the festival audience helped the visibly upset Lewis by singing the final part of the song for him, before he walked off stage. 'When it happened, and when it was happening, it was like the lowest moment of my life. I had this moment where I was on stage two or three songs in, like 'this is the last gig I'm going to play for a long time, I need to try and get through this show, but when I come off I'm done'. "Everyone else around me was a bit like 'this is the worst thing ever', and I had this weird feeling a weight had been lifted - 'now this thing's happened and I have to get help'. I had been putting it off.' But, rather than taking immediate steps, Lewis, who has Tourette syndrome, flew back to Scotland that night and went for a boozy last hurrah with pals. He says: "I flew back to Glasgow that night and went out and had pints. I woke up and went straight to the pub. I just had to do something normal and be around mates. So I went out and kicked the arse out of it properly." After that, Lewis started making dramatic changes to his life. As well as reducing his booze intake and getting fit, he saw neurologists and swapped antidepressants for anti-psychotic meds that finally worked. He has also revealed that he had a far worse episode than the Glastonbury debacle in the US a few weeks before. He explains: "A few weeks prior to that show we were playing in Chicago and I had a very similar episode - it was probably even worse. I couldn't come back and finish a song. I was backstage convulsing and having this crazy panic attack and mental episode. Way worse than what happened at Glastonbury. "Because Glastonbury is such a big stage, it was the first time people outside my shows had seen it. At Glastonbury, when I came off stage it was weird, I had this (feeling) 'everything's alright now, I can actually go and get help and fix myself for the next two years'. "In a weird way, it's probably the best thing that's ever happened to me. I wouldn't have stopped otherwise. I was really bad for not saying no to things. Feeling like 'Oh this is going to pass me by if I don't say yes. All this amazing stuff's coming at me now and I have to catch it all and get it all done, otherwise these moments are going to pass me by and it's never going to happen again'. "So, Glastonbury 2023 was, for sure, really important - maybe the most important day in my life. Someone upstairs was like 'this has to happen now otherwise...'. I don't want to think of where I would be now if I'd continued. We were meant to go to Australia. It could have been really, really horrible. I dread to think what would have happened." Lewis also admits that, while he'd had lots of therapy before his turning point performance, he has never really opened up properly before. "I think for a long time prior to that moment in 2023 I was like 'yeah, I have panic attacks and I get anxious'. I gave people enough that sometimes they think they're getting the whole story and actually I'm holding quite a lot back,' he says, talking about therapy. "So when that happened at Glastonbury it was this real thing of like the mask had been pulled off." Speaking to Theo Von on the This Past Weekend podcast, Capaldi says his management found him a therapist who he connected with, adding: 'I do therapy every week which has been really beneficial for me. That's really maybe the biggest thing that's switched everything around. I've been to amazing therapists, but I've never really had like a connection with any of them, or sort of felt it clicked. "I was looking at the clock and being like 'Ok, what is the thing I can say to get me out of here the quickest'. I wanted them to think that I had a grasp of my mental health. This is what's great about my current therapist. He can sense when I'm being avoidant. He pulls me back in and is saying 'there's a reason you're being wishy washy here'.' As well as taking medication for his Tourettes, he says: 'We try to reduce stress as much as possible. Saying no to things - I'm realising how important that can be. It was almost like when I felt I was out of body, I would try and do this like twitch or something to sort of bring myself back in. When I was performing it was really prevalent. Any sort of extreme emotion would bring it on.' While he says his new antipsychotic meds are working, he admits coming off antidepressants was very hard. He says: 'Coming off it is really an intense experience. I was like really low." At first reluctant to switch medication, he adds: "It was really scary when they offered it. Antipsychotic? I'm like 'I'm not psychotic'. It's changed my life. Anxiety levels are so low these days. I don't feel the stress." Lewis has also realised how important his physical health is to his mental wellbeing. As well as cutting down on booze, he says: "I'm trying not to eat as much. I've lost two stones since the start of the year. I was 20 st at the start of the year. My brother's training me at the minute. He's like a qualified personal trainer. He's been coming down to London training me. I hate exercising." Talking about his return to performing Lewis, who is touring the UK and Ireland in September, says of his Glastonbury comeback: "I was really taken aback by the love and support. It was really like an emotional time coming back and seeing so many people reaching out and being kind and sharing their stories with me. It was amazing, maybe like the best day of my life to be honest. It blew my mind."
Daily Mirror
25 minutes ago
- Politics
- Daily Mirror
Fury at minister's flippant 'get on with it' comment in tense housing grilling
Housing minister Matthew Pennycook has been confronted after it emerged homes might not be brought up to a decent standard for another 10 years - despite dozens of children's deaths A housing minister has been confronted after it emerged homes might not be brought up to a decent standard for another 10 years - despite dozens of children's deaths being linked to their living conditions. Matthew Pennycook said the Government had taken "urgent action" to introduce Awaab's Law, which will force social landlords to deal with health hazards like damp and mould. But it was pointed out that an updated 'decent homes standard' may not be enforceable until 2035 at the earliest. Florence Eshalomi, a Labour MP and chair of the Commons' housing committee, hit out at Mr Pennycook after he said the last Labour government - some 15 years ago - also had a 10-year timeline, and suggested they weren't told to "get on with it". She told Mr Pennycook we "cannot compare" now to then, as she said the "situation is getting dire on a daily basis". Appearing at a committee hearing, Mr Pennycook was at first grilled by Labour MP Sarah Smith, who asked him about the slow enforcement of the decent homes standard. She said: "It's been made public that this might not be enforceable until 2035 or 2037. We have had 72 children die due to their living conditions between 2019 and 2024 so why would there be this delay. "Why are we not pushing as quickly as possible to make every landlord responsible for making sure that the homes families are living in in this country, while they await the progress of this building programme, are fit for human habitation?" Mr Pennycook said Labour was committed to "delivering the biggest increase in social and affordable house building in a generation". He said it wasn't "unusual" for the implementation of a new decent homes standard, on which is being consulted, to take time. He added that the last Labour government's decent home programme had a 10-year implementation timeline. The minister said urgent action had been taken to help people living with "acute hazards", by introducing Awaab's law, which subject to parliamentary scrutiny will come into force in October. "And that will require landlords to address significant damp and mould hazards and emergency hazards within fixed periods." He added that "there's no way" you could ask for an updated standard to be implemented within a year. But Ms Smith hit back: "Perhaps not within a year, but to be waiting 10 years seems extreme, given the money that is being made in this sector... Surely there could be greater urgency than 2035." When Mr Pennycook went to repeat his previous point on Awaab's law, chairwoman Ms Eshalomi interjected to ask him whether local authorities would have the capacity to carry out inspections to check landlords were sticking to the law. The housing minister said the law was bringing in a "significant change", with residents able to hold landlords to account by taking legal action. He added: "We're going to raise standards across the board, through an upgraded and modernised decent homes standard. On the timelines, as I said, the previous Labour government's decent homes programme... I don't think anyone at that point in time would have been saying, 'we think you just need to get on with it'." But Ms Eshalomi hit back: "We now have a situation where we have almost two million people on the housing waiting list. We've seen local authorities spend £2.29 billion. I don't need to read these figures to you. "The situation is getting dire on a daily basis. We cannot compare it to when the last Labour government (were in power). We keep saying we're in a housing crisis. There are issues with in temporary accommodation. Unless we do things differently, Minister, we're going to keep spending money as a sticking tape on this." Mr Pennycook said: "We are doing things differently. I think I've evidenced that we are doing things differently." Awaab's Law was first introduced and consulted on by the former Tory government. It is named after two-year-old Awaab Ishak, who died in 2020 from a respiratory condition caused by mould at his home in Rochdale, Greater Manchester.
Daily Mirror
25 minutes ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
MIKEY SMITH: 8 wild Donald Trump moments as he keeps World Cup Trophy and plans Brit summer
Donald Trump has decided to keep the World Cup Trophy for some reason, and he's planning a big summer of fun in the UK. Here's everything you need to know What's going on with my 'guys', and in some cases, 'gals'? (Yes, I will be starting the daily roundup in this way for as long as it continues to be funny). Well, what's been going on in the last 24 hours or so is Trump deciding to keep the World Club Cup trophy and admitting he gets heat from Melania about Putin lying to him. Meanwhile, Elmo* is still mad about the Epstein files and Elon Musk is giving everyone an anime girlfriend. Also, Trump plans to spend an awful lot of time in the UK this summer. More on all of that and more below. Everything is fine. *Not actually Elmo. 1. Come on, Football Donald Trump likes the World Club Cup trophy so much he's decided to keep it. The deeply weird finger trap of a trophy was brought to the White House in just one of a series of weird transactions between the President and FIFA. And while online rumours that Chelsea photoshopped the weirdly lurking President out of their victory photo turned out to be nonsense, the team did choose to tweet out an image with him standing right at the back, which was pretty funny. Anyway, the trophy has been on display in the Oval Office since March for no big reason, and it will apparently stay there for as long as Trump wants. "I said, When are you going to pick up the trophy? [They said] 'We're never going to pick it up. You can have it forever in the Oval Office. We're making a new one,'" Trump said in an interview with official Club World Cup broadcaster Dazn on Sunday. "And they actually made a new one. So that was quite exciting, but it is in the Oval [Office] right now." So Chelsea get a replica, it appears. That's twice as many pinkies under threat from the revolving injury waiting to happen. 2. Trump got humiliated by Putin - and even Melania was piling on Trump went some way to explaining what prompted his breakup with Vladimir Putin during a meeting with Mark Rutte, NATO's Secretary General. "My conversations with him [Putin] are always very pleasant. I say, isn't that a very lovely conversation? And then the missiles go off that night," he said. "I go home, I tell the first lady: I spoke with Vladimir today. We had a wonderful conversation. She said: Really? Another city was just hit." It's good that Melania keeps so up to date with international affairs. 3. The Epstein story isn't going away. Even Elmo is angry Elmo, whom Trump frequently threatens to defund, is super mad about the Epstein files. OK, he's not, but someone hacked his Twitter account and made it sound like he was. Sesame Workshop, Elmo's friends, said the account had been used to post "disgusting messages, including anti-Semitic and racist posts" - some of which were about the Epstein files. (Anyone who knows me at all will understand how upsetting I, personally, found this. There's a special place in hell reserved for people who mess with Elmo). Meanwhile, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino is said to have returned to work. He took a duvet day on Friday following a row with Attorney General Pam Bondi over the Epstein Files - and is still very much on resignation watch. 4. BBC man gets rude awakening Donald Trump woke the BBC's Washington Correspondent up for a semi-impromptu interview. The interview had been planned for earlier in the day and the call never came. So he took a nap, only to be awoken to Karoline Leavitt's voice saying: "Hi Gary, I'm here with the president, here you go." 5. He is supremely unbothered by not addressing Parliament Various British blowhards - including Nigel Farage - are up in arms about the timing of Trump's September state visit, which is right in the middle of Parliamentary recess. (It's also a couple of days too early for Lib Dem conference. Another snub.) Farage made a little video saying it was "shoddy" that his bezzie mate wouldn't get to speak in Parliament, and branding the timing "cowardly." He presumably found the timing particularly distasteful because French President Emmanuel Macron got to address both Houses during his state visit last week. Of course, Suella Braverman, who to many people's surprise is still a Tory MP, rowed in behind Farage. Asked about it by the BBC, Trump said he was not at all bothered, and had no interest in MPs being recalled from the summer recess to hear him speak. "Let them go and have a good time," he said. We are sure MPs are grateful. 6. Trump heads to AI summit as Elon gives Grok users an anime girlfriend Today, Trump is travelling to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to attend a summit on Artificial Intelligence. Meanwhile, his former bestie Elon Musk has been making some waves of his own in the AI space in the last day or so. Specifically, he's given paid users of his Grok chatbot an anime AI girlfriend. The new "companions" feature allows users to talk to various AI personas including Ani, a semi-goth girl who I'm reliably informed looks like a character from Death Note. She has the ability to whisper weird things and has a variety of costumes. Use your imagination. Also available to chat to is Bad Rudy, a red panda whose sole purpose, as far as I can tell, is to joylessly, aggressively insult the user. The future, ladies and gentlemen. Mostly gentlemen. 7. Trump is planning to spend a lot of his summer in the UK As well as his proper state visit in September, The White House has confirmed he's planning a quick jaunt to his two Scottish golf courses later this month. Keir Starmer will be joining him for a chat at one or other of them - it's currently unclear which. 8. Also, this is pretty yikes The Department of Homeland Security tweeted this extremely yikes post last night - urging Americans to "Remember your Homeland's Heritage", and illustrated by a couple of extremely white people, along with their white baby. As someone in the replies pointed out, the handmaid in the background is a nice touch. And they didn't mention that the subjects of the painting are, in all likelihood, immigrants holding what Republicans might call an anchor baby. But hey ho. The White House also apparently misnamed the picture, for what it's worth. The tweet says it's called New Life in a New Land, and by the acclaimed American artist Morgan Weistling. It is one of Weistling's works, but according to his website it's called Prayer for a New Life.
Wales Online
25 minutes ago
- General
- Wales Online
Health board chief holds back tears and vows not to let down mums again
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