Listed firm Big Technologies has agreed a £38.5 million settlement with former investors, leading to a 20% jump in its share price.
Big Technologies plc – trading as Buddi – is currently suing its founder Sara Murray OBE for hundreds of millions of pounds after accusing her of forgery and deliberate falsification of documents to push through the company’s £577m IPO in 2021.
Murray was dismissed as CEO of Big Technologies in March over the accusations, and her assets have been frozen amid the subsequent and ongoing £320m High Court battle. Murray – who founded and sold comparison website Confused.com earlier in her entrepreneurial career – launched people monitoring specialist Big Technologies in 2005. It provides the Buddi electronic tagging system to the prison service, among other products.
She led a management buyout for £12.3m in 2018 and the five former shareholders in the firm brought legal action against it, claiming they had been forced to sell their holding during the MBO and were therefore denied the opportunity of cashing in from the float.
Big Technologies initially denied the accusation but, following its accusations against Murray, has now accepted it. It said late last year that the potential forgery could “materially adversely impact the position of the company in the… litigation [brought against it by the former shareholders]… [we] are unlikely to be able to successfully defend material elements of the claim”.
It has agreed to pay £31.5m immediately and a further £7m in 18 monthly instalments. Its share price jumped around 20% on the news, with its market cap topping £300m.
Background
Murray has claimed that the five shareholders have been bankrolled behind the scenes by her ex-husband Michael Jackson, former chairman of software giant Sage, whom she split from in 2009. Both the former investors and Jackson denied this accusation.
The voting rights in Big Technologies of several companies with ties to Murray were suspended in June after Big served legal notices which accused her of failing to disclose interests in the entities, which collectively held 17.3% of its shares, and also of providing false information during the company’s 2021 IPO. The accusation is that she used offshore shell companies to push out minority shareholders.
Murray – who was once appointed to the technology strategy board of Gordon Brown’s Labour government – told CityAM she has legacy family connections to the offshore trusts but denied being directly involved in them. Together they controlled around two-fifths of the company’s share capital prior to the AIM flotation.
The Rickmansworth-based firm alleges that Murray also improperly diverted significant funds from the group prior to 2019.
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Twist
In a twist late last year, Murray succeeded in ousting Big Technologies chairman Alexander Brennan in a shareholder revolt and managed to get James Graham Matheson, whom she is recommending for chair, added to its board.
Sangita Shah, who took over the role on an interim basis, said yesterday that the settlement “draws a line under the significant uncertainty that the group has faced”.
Shah said Big was in “discussions directly with Sara Murray” to try to settle its claims against her.
The firm’s claims against Murray are being investigated by city regulator the Takeover Panel and the Financial Conduct Authority.