BUSINESS LIVE: Rightmove ups guidance; Aviva buys Optiom; Revolution Beauty nears Minto settlement

The founder of Revolution Beauty Adam Minto is in advanced talks to repay nearly £3million to settle allegations that he breached his fiduciary duties to the company, according to Sky News.

Responding to what it called ‘press speculation’, the cosmetics group said: ‘As previously announced on 20 June 2023, the Group announced potential legal proceedings against Mr Minto regarding the events that led to a delay in the audit of the FY22 results and the suspension of the Company’s shares from trading on AIM.

‘Separately, and as previously announced on 31 August 2023, the Board is negotiating with Tom Allsworth, the previous owner of Medichem, to reach a revised agreement on the terms of its acquisition.

‘Revolution Beauty remains in negotiation on both these issues. There is no guarantee that agreements will be reached. Should agreements be reached, they would likely be treated as related party transactions and an appropriate announcement made at that time.’

The Apprentice star Lord Alan Sugar’s holding company fell into the red this year.

Amshold – the group through which Sugar holds his property investments – clocked a £29m loss for the year to June 30. This compared with a £15.2m pre-tax in 2022.

Aviva has agreed to buy Canadian vehicle replacement insurance group Optiom from Novacap and other minority shareholders for around £100million.

The acquisition of Optiom expands Aviva’s capital-light businesses, which make up over half of the group’s portfolio, and grows Aviva Canada’s presence in a profitable segment of the country’s insurance market.

CEO of Aviva Canada Tracy Garrad said:

‘The acquisition strengthens our offering and distribution capabilities in a highly attractive segment of the Canadian insurance market.

‘We know Optiom well through our existing relationship and are excited about what we can do together to better serve our brokers and customers.’

Rightmove has lifted full-year revenue growth guidance as the property portal’s average revenue per advertiser continues to perform ahead of expectations, thanks to increased listings.

It comes despite a slowdown in the UK housing market but Rightmove is benefiting from steady demand from homebuilders and agents looking for buyers and renters.

‘The majority of the (ARPA) growth has been driven by new homes developers, who have extended their usage of our Native Search Adverts and Advanced Development Listing products to sell their developments,’ the company said in a statement.

Rightmove said its overall 2023 outlook remained at least in line with its previous forecast, adding that both estate agent subscriptions and new homes development listings were stable in the last four months or so.

Wall Street bosses including Blackstone and Goldman Sachs have flown in to hear Rishi Sunak set out £29.5billion in new UK investments.

Last night the Prime Minister said some of the world’s top bosses had committed billions to new UK projects, ahead of today’s Global Investment Summit.