Labour peer plotting health firm takeover
Sensyne Health got a boost after its founder and chief executive launched plans to take it private.
Lord Drayson has approached the board with plans for a management buyout and wants approval to seek third-party investors.
The 61-year-old Labour politician and former science minister floated it in 2018 and is its largest shareholder with a 12.2pc stake. His wife, Lady Elspeth, owns around 10.6pc.
His leadership has not been without controversy, with former chief financial officer Lorimer Headley alleging last year that Drayson had created a ‘culture of fear’ at the firm.
The proposal for a buyout comes after Sensyne last month flagged up ‘material uncertainty’ around its ability to continue trading in its results.
The low market value also meant it ‘cannot execute on opportunities that may create novel treatments for patients’.
Aside from Drayson’s offer, the firm has brought in brokers JP Morgan and Peel Hunt to explore potential interest in the group from other parties, saying its current market cap ‘does not reflect’ the value of its vast trove of patient data.
‘The board is fully aligned with Lord Drayson’s proposal to explore a management buy-out as one route towards maximising value for all stakeholders’, said Sensyne chairman Bruce Keogh.
Shares jumped 6.9pc, or 6.5p, to 100.5p on the news.
The FTSE 100 dropped 0.2pc, or 13.81 points, to 7,274.81 while the FTSE 250 dipped 0.3pc, or 71.22 points, to 23,140.
Miners weighed on the blue-chip index as commodity prices weakened. Anglo American was down 3.3pc, or 92.5p, at 2720p while BHP fell 3pc, or 56.8p, to 1867.2p, Glencore slipped 3.2pc, or 11.65p, to 355.25p, and Antofagasta flopped 5.5pc, or 78.5p, to 1360p.
Banks were also on the slide, with Lloyds dipping 0.2pc, or 0.08p, to 51.03p while HSBC sank 0.4pc, or 1.95p, to 444.55p, Barclays dropped 1.2pc, or 2.39p, to 198.46p and Natwest lost 0.5p, or 1.1p, to close at 223.4p.
Traders were spooked by a decision from the Reserve Bank of Australia to tighten monetary policy to rein in inflation, raising fears that the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of England could follow suit.
Standard Chartered fell 7.9pc, or 39.7p, to 466.1p after warning of an ‘uneven’ economic recovery from the pandemic and that its profits for 2021 would be mostly flat year-on-year. This was despite posting a 44pc rise in pre-tax profits to £806m in the third quarter.
Hostmore, the owner of restaurant chain Fridays, formerly known as TGI Fridays, got off to a bleak start after completing its split from Electra Private Equity. It listed on the main market with a share price of around 150p but dropped 11pc, to 133.58p.
Revenues at stockbroker TP ICAP’s energy and commodities division jumped 16pc year-on-year to £92m in the three months to the end of September amid the global crisis in energy costs. But it fell 10.9pc, or 17.16p, to 140p as revenues from its global broking arm dropped 4pc in the first nine months of 2021, to £827m.
Cybersecurity firm Darktrace fell 7.2pc, or 49p, to 632.5p ahead of the end of a ban on insider investors selling their stakes. The expiry of the so-called ‘lock-up’ agreements today will allow prominent backers including tech investor Mike Lynch to offload their shares. Its value plunged last week after analysts at Peel Hunt said it was overvalued.
Elsewhere, office landlord IWG climbed 0.1pc, or 0.4p, to 307.4p after it said it was looking at separating its digital, technology and property assets, with a progress update expected in the first half of next year.