Elizabeth Jenkins-Smalley

Companies listed in London still trade below their global rivals, and private capital has moved fast to buy them. Intertek, the FTSE 100 testing group, agreed a takeover of around £10.6 billion by the Swedish firm EQT in June 2026, while the asset manager Schroders agreed a £9.9 billion sale to the American investor Nuveen and Bridgepoint opened the year by buying the advisory firm Interpath. Andre Lacroix, who leads Intertek, framed private ownership as a chance to invest for the long term. This piece looks at what buyers pay for, and how owners can gain on both sides of a deal

Unitree Robotics closed 460% up on its first day on the Shanghai Stock Exchange's STAR market, raising £670 million with DeepSeek and Tencent among its backers and Wang Xingxing still in control. The debut landed as the World Robot Conference opened in Beijing, a month after memory chipmaker CXMT surged 466%. Morgan Stanley has doubled its shipment forecast, Nvidia, Google and Amazon build on the machines, and Quintex Intel's Stephen Innes and Zeroth's Renjie Guo see a market waking up

Execfluence.io has completed its Series A funding round, clearing the way for the next stage of development on the world's first dedicated B2B influencer marketing platform. Onboarding for both brands and creators has run 350% ahead of target, revenue has outpaced early modelling, and a rebuilt website is now live. Co-founder Mark Mills and the wider team are preparing a further set of features as the platform builds on a cost model that undercuts Google AdWords by a considerable margin. Feedback from participants on both sides has been uniformly positive

Revolut has launched Revolut Research, a dedicated division built to advance machine learning architecture across global financial services. The unit sits behind PRAGMA, the proprietary foundation model developed in collaboration with NVIDIA to decode financial behaviour in real time. Pavel Nesterov, Head of AI at Revolut, and Anton Repushko, Head of Revolut Research, are pursuing a build, don't bolt on approach that trains native models on data drawn from 80 million customers, sharpening credit risk accuracy, fraud detection and the in-app assistant AIR

Marriott International has signed an agreement with Shanghai SIIC North Bund New Landmark Construction and Development Co., Ltd. to bring the first Ritz-Carlton Reserve to Shanghai, launching the urban Reserve concept created for the world's leading global gateway cities. Opening in 2030, the 110-key hotel will occupy a tower rising approximately 480 metres across 103 floors on the North Bund, with suites and a Presidential Suite overlooking the Huangpu River. Tina Edmundson, President of Luxury at Marriott International, calls it an incredibly exciting evolution for the brand

A new national work experience programme will create around 10,000 opportunities for young people across the UK over the next year. The initiative reflects a wider effort to connect schools, colleges and employers, particularly in communities where access to professional networks remains limited. Participants will gain practical experience alongside support with CVs, interviews and applications. For business leaders, the programme also highlights the value of structured early-career pathways in building confidence, widening access to talent and developing the skills needed across retail, logistics, technology and business.

bp has confirmed Ian Tyler as Chair with immediate effect, closing a search that weighed internal and external candidates. The former Balfour Beatty chief executive, who chairs Grafton Group plc and sits as Senior Independent Director of Anglo American plc, had held the position on an interim basis since May. Ian now works alongside chief executive Meg O'Neill as she rebuilds the company around two operating segments

In this exclusive interview with The Executive Magazine, Blair Naylor, senior VP of New Business at The Marketing Practice, explains why the modern pitch rewards understanding over presentation, and how candour with clients builds relationships that outlast any single brief. She shares the operating model behind sustained growth, the detail that makes onboarding work, and what she would tell any leader building a growth function from the ground up

Ahead of World Luxury Day this October, Alexander Chetchikov, president of the World Luxury Chamber of Commerce, makes the case that the industry needs a shared conversation about what luxury now means. In this exclusive interview for The Executive Magazine, he reflects on the digital transformation that reshaped the sector, explains why the first World Luxury Day Manifesto invites contributions from across the global community, and sets out why he believes the future lies in balancing artificial intelligence with the human qualities that technology cannot replicate

Monzo, Starling and Revolut have each delivered their strongest year to date, and the figures make the case for three quite separate opportunities. Monzo, under chief executive Diana Layfield following TS Anil's departure, grew revenue 39% to £1.71bn and has appointed Morgan Stanley. Starling, led by Raman Bhatia, held a 24.5% pre-tax margin while its Engine platform built £70m of committed recurring revenue. Revolut, backed by NVIDIA's venture arm NVentures, reached a $75bn valuation across more than 70m customers. Three strong businesses, and three distinct ways to own the sector