Following the £1 billion sale of DCC Healthcare, DCC plc is proposing to return up to £600 million to its shareholders through a tender offer process, subject to shareholder approval.

The Irish sales, marketing and support services conglomerate, founded in 1976 as a venture capital firm and listed in London, is undergoing a restructure announced last year to simplify its business.

It recently also completed the sale of its UK & Ireland tech business for £100m.

The firm intends to acquire up to 11,952,191 ordinary shares from shareholders, representing up to approximately 12.3% of its current issued share capital.

“All successfully tendered shares will be acquired at a single price which will reflect the level of demand from shareholders to sell some or all of their shares within a certain price range,” it said.

 

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Lift Global Ventures plc, an investment company focused on technology and financial media, has rebranded as Yorkshire AI PLC and appointed Dave Richards as executive chair.

The Sheffield-based firm has an ongoing working relationship with Yorkshire AI Labs and has decided to change its name – subject to shareholder approval – to reflect its sharpened focus on AI. He was previously non-executive chair at the firm.

It has also this morning announced a share exchange with IntelliAM Al PLC, a manufacturing AI firm based in Dinnington, South Yorkshire and listed on the Aquis exchange. It now holds 0.45% of the entire share capital of IntelliAM AI.

Multiple-exit entrepreneur Richards is the founder and former CEO of WANdisco. He stepped down following a fraud scandal – related to the actions of a single sales employee – and the firm rebranded to Cirata plc.

Fresh from attending Web Summit in Lisbon, Chris Maguire has come up with his 10 key takeaways from Europe’s biggest tech conference.

Last week’s four-day conference attracted  71,368 attendees; 157 countries; 1,857 investors; 2,725 startups; 869 speakers; and 1,519 publishers, CEOs, editors and reporters.

Maguire, who attended Web Summit with BusinessCloud reporter Patrick Killeen, wrote:  “It sounds like a paradox but at times the event was both overwhelming and underwhelming.

“If I’d got £1 for every time AI or AI agent was mentioned I could single-handedly settle Donald Trump’s $1bn lawsuit against the BBC – and still have change for a private jet.

“The irony for me is that although Web Summit is a tech conference, it’s fundamentally all about people.

“Why else would 70k+ people and speakers as diverse as Formula One boss Toto Wolff; five-time Grand Slam singles champion Maria Sharapova; Anton Osika, CEO of Europe’s fastest-growing AI startup Lovable; and TikTok sensation Khaby Lame, choose to attend?”

Author: Chris Maguire

Lou Cordwell OBE is stepping down from her role as the inaugural chief executive of The University of Manchester’s innovation unit – Unit M.

Described as the ‘front door’ into the university’s world famous talent, ideas and  resources, Cordwell was named as CEO in December 2024.

She’s best known as the founder of Manchester-based digital design studio magneticNorth, which merged with Fluxx in 2021.

Writing on LinkedIn, Cordwell said: “I’m coming to the end of an amazing two-year term at The University of Manchester.

“In that time, it’s been a thrill and a privilege to co-conceive and bring to life the university’s new innovation capability, Unit M.

“We’ve shaped the university’s future innovation strategy, built an outstanding team, mobilised an array of incredible innovation projects, and created a game-changing asset that will benefit the university and the region for years to come.

“Unit M is the first of its kind – a new model for how universities step up to the challenge of driving good growth – and honestly, I couldn’t be more proud.”

Unit M is designed to address all aspects of the innovation challenge – from R&D through to innovation adoption through to talent and skills – by making the university’s world-class research, innovation assets and talent more accessible to all.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

A UK social commerce platform has debuted on the Nasdaq exchange in New York ahead of a launch in the United States.

WeShop is registered in the British Virgin Islands but headquartered in London, with a base in Manchester.

It combines shopping and social interactions to drive product discovery, retailer growth and community ownership. The company has deposited over 50% of its shares into a trust to be distributed to its shoppers.

WeShop – which partners with the likes of John Lewis, eBay, Selfridges, ASOS, Expedia, British Airways, TEMU and Shein in the UK – plans to launch its app in the US with hundreds of retailers.

Author: Chris Maguire

More details have been revealed ahead of BusinessCloud’s 2025 Northern Leaders awards on November 20^th.

130+ names have been confirmed for Thursday night’s celebration of those people who make the North a better place.

For the second year running, KPMG’s Manchester office will play host to the second Northern Leaders award.

There are 17 award categories up for grabs with leaders coming from across the North West, North East and Yorkshire and Humberside.

The 17 categories are:  Outstanding Achievement Award; Champion Award; True Grit Award; Voice for Good Award; Community Award; Property Award; Sustainability Champion; People Award; Charity Award; Rising Star Award; International Award; Philanthropy Award; Education Award; Judges’ Award; Change Award; Tech Award and the overall Northern Leaders Award.

Northern Leaders is invite-only, and unlike most other award ceremonies, there are no shortlists or lengthy victory speeches.

This year’s headline sponsor is OBI, and they’re joined by J.P. Morgan Private Bank, CG, GM Business Growth Hub, Rochdale Development Agency and Lockton.

Author: Patrick Killeen

THG boss Matthew Moulding has revealed a major new partnership between Myprotein and confectionery giant Mars as it continues its rapid global expansion.

Launching on 20th November, the first products from the collaboration – Myprotein x Snickers – will hit shelves just in time for Black Friday, with further tie-ins featuring Bounty, Mars and Twix set to follow soon after.

It follows a year of rapid momentum that has seen the THG-owned business expand aggressively into offline retail and deliver double-digit growth across THG’s Nutrition division.

The collaboration also arrives just 12 months after it faced intense scrutiny over its global rebrand.

Risers:

PPHE Hotel Group – +13.87%

IP Group – +2.33%

Computacenter – +1.91%

Pantheon Infrastructure – +1.43%

DCC PLC – +1.26%

Fallers:

Ceres Power – -11.27%

Goodwin PLC – -8.04%

Qinetiq Group – -5.45%

Atalaya Mining – -5.37%

Land Securities – -5.26%

Just the one company in the FTSE 100 – DCC – has seen its share price rise as of 1:30pm today.

Champions (UK) plc has announced the appointment of Amir Qureshi as managing partner to lead both The NED Advisor and Board Champions.

He will focus on helping grow the flagship divisions which are dedicated to transform how boards and investors access, engage, and empower leadership.

With a distinguished international career spanning global corporations, private equity-backed growth firms, and entrepreneurial ventures, Qureshi will bring over two decades of executive experience to the role.

BGF has joined the Series A extension for T-Therapeutics, one of the UK’s leading innovators in immune-based drug discovery.

T-Therapeutics, which is developing T cell receptor (TCR) therapeutics for cancer and autoimmune disease, has raised a further £24m as part of the extension, taking the Series A total to date to £70m.

BGF and Tencent joined T-Therapeutics’ existing shareholders in the Series A syndicate, including Sofinnova Partners, F-Prime Capital, Digitalis Ventures, Cambridge Innovation Capital, Sanofi Ventures and the University of Cambridge Venture Fund.

Northern Irish AgriTech company farmdrive has closed a £1 million pre-seed round to accelerate the global scale-up of its livestock data and supply chain platform.

The investment – led by TechStart Ventures and Ascension Ventures, with participation from Angel Invest – will fund product development, new hires, and expansion across the UK, Ireland, and
Europe.

Founded in 2023 by two UK entrepreneurs, Gareth McDonald (CEO) and Gareth Gordon (CTO), farmdrive was built based on their own family farm experience to replace the heavy burden of
compliance paperwork with software. Today, the platform is used by over 1,000 beef and dairy farms across the UK and Ireland, tracking over 150,000 cattle, with farmers reporting they are saving at least 6 hours per week on compliance and record-keeping.

Alongside its app for farmers, ‘farmdrive enterprise’ connects meat processors and retailers to real-time supply-chain data, enabling full traceability, 12-month supply forecasting, medication monitoring, and emerging sustainability reporting. Trusted by supply-chain leaders including ABP Linden and Foyle Meats, farmdrive enterprise customers report saving at least 20 hours per week on supply-chain paperwork and movement recording.

GMB Union has signed a landmark deal with Aeralis – the company set to build next generation of Red Arrows – to create 4,000 aerospace jobs.

An agreement was signed by Aeralis chairman Robin Southwell Gary Smith, General Secretary of the GMB, this week.

The company is committed to establishing a major industrial hub in Central Ayrshire, with plans to create more than 4,000 highly skilled jobs nationwide.

In Scotland, the programme is set to generate £600 million in annual exports, among the top three in the country.

Aeralis is the front runner in the race to create the next generation of Red Arrows and is the only bidder offering a British-designed and -built aircraft.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

FRP Advisory Group plc, a national specialist business advisory firm, has acquired Arc & Co Structured Finance Limited.

The deal for the FCA-regulated provider of financial advisory services to the real estate sector is for a consideration of £6.65 million, with £4.85m in cash and shares with a value of £1.8m.

The acquisition is the group’s 15th since IPO in March 2020 and its second in 2025, as it seeks to broaden and deepen its services.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Polarean Imaging Plc intends to quit the London Stock Exchange and re-register as a private company after its share price bombed in recent months.

The commercial-stage MedTech is described as a global leader in functional lung imaging but says its current cash balance is anticipated to fund it only through the second quarter of 2026.

It explained that it needs to raise approximately £15 million from strategic or financial investors during the current cash runway to execute its business plan to achieve profitability.

It is asking shareholders to vote in favour of cancelling the admission of its shares to the junior AIM market on 23rd December 2025.

It added that the costs of being a public company, both in terms of financial and management time, are significant, and also said the public markets “are not fairly valuing the company”.

Crossbar will be bringing its world first interactive football entertainment venue to Printworks in Manchester.

Crossbar will span 25,000 sq ft and will offer fully immersive football boxes which are private tech-enabled spaces.

The  new attraction comes complete with motion tracking, reactive projections, surround sound and tactile floor vibrations.

The venue will also feature a steak led restaurant, two bars and food and drink served directly to the immersive football boxes.

Big news in Rochdale after work started on building the new Sustainable Materials and Manufacturing Centre (SMMC) in Atom Valley.

The building is the first major development in Atom Valley and has the potential to create up to 20,000 new jobs in the region.

The ground-breaking ceremony was led  by GM Mayor Andy Burnham, who said: “Today is a great day for Greater Manchester.”

The SMMC will help scale up businesses and act as a springboard for them to pioneer new technology, offering lab space, workshops and flexible workspace.

It will also provide an important link between Atom Valley and the Oxford Road Corridor, in Manchester.

 

 

Author: Chris Maguire

The founder and CEO of US-based unicorn Glean has joined the growing debate about the threat posed by a worrying trend called ‘workslop’.

While the AI revolution has been hailed for the efficiencies it can bring to virtually any business, concerns have been raised about how it could be misused.

One growing trend is called ‘workslop’, described as AI-generated work that looks polished on first viewing but lacks any substance or depth.

Last year a study of more than 1,000 full-time desk workers in the US found an estimated 40 per cent had received workslop in the last month.

Now, one of the biggest names in US tech, has entered the debate.

Serial entrepreneur Arvind Jain is the founder and CEO of Glean, which he described as ‘Google inside your company’.

Unsurprisingly, Jain is a huge advocate of AI but warned that lazy behaviour can result in workslop.

Author: Patrick Killeen

When Clare Gambardella joined Zopa in 2018, the business was at a pivotal moment in its relatively short history. 

The now-unicorn was in the process of moving from a peer-to-peer lending platform into a fully regulated digital bank.

Gambardella had joined as chief customer officer (CCO) from Virgin Active, where she had spent nearly five years and worked her way up to CMO. 

Zopa describes itself as combining the reliability of a high street bank with the ease of app-based banking.

In September the digital bank revealed its plans to build a 500-strong workforce in Manchester after opening an office in the city.

In 2021 the digital bank achieved unicorn status when a £220m funding round pushed its valuation beyond $1bn.

Gambardella, who has been speaking at Lisbon’s BusinessCloud, tells BusinessCloud about the rise ad rise of Zopa.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

FTSE 100 company 3i Group has seen its share price drop more than 16% today – wiping billions off its valuation – despite posting a positive half-year trading update.

The private equity firm reported a total return of £3.3 billion or 13% on opening shareholders’ funds for the six months to 30th September 2025, compared with £2bn/10% in the corresponding period from the prior year.

Net asset value per share was 2,857 pence, up from 2,542p in the six months to 31st March 2025.

However CEO Simon Borrows sounded a note of caution, saying that 3i “remains cautious in deployment of capital into new investment”.

Tara Askham, a finance lecturer, author and entrepreneur, has been appointed to the steering committee for the Maple Review.

The Maple Review is a government-backed independent review led by Small Business Britain and supported by Xero. It is focused on tackling the barriers that economic deprivation creates for UK entrepreneurs.

Askham, who built her career from a working-class background in Nottingham, first became involved with the Maple Review after being invited to share her experiences at the House of Lords earlier this year.