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Resignation: Darktrace boss Poppy Gustafsson has left her post
Foreign investors are taking the biggest stakes in UK companies amid a wave of private equity deals.
While less than a tenth of deals made with UK companies involved a foreign investor in the first half of 2024, they accounted for 60 per cent of the total invested, according to analysis by Barclays and data firm Beauhurst.
Some of Britain’s best-known companies have fended off private equity predators this year, including Direct Line.
US group Thoma Bravo has signed a £4.3bn deal to buy Cambridge cybersecurity firm Darktrace, whose boss Poppy Gustafsson immediately resigned.
Private equity firms invested £3.5bn in UK companies between May and July.
Barclays Private Bank’s Shenal Kakad said “companies are staying private for longer”, encouraging investors to look to private equity for funding.
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