Aviva PLC (LSE:AV.) has confirmed it is one of the cornerstone backers of Rosebank Industries PLC (AIM:ROSE), the new investment vehicle of six former Melrose executives.
A stock exchange statement today showed that insurance giant Aviva had taken a 7.7% in the business, which has rocketed in value since trading started yesterday.
Share in Rosebank started trading on AIM at 250p with a value of £50 million on Thursday but by today lunchtime were changing hands at 675p, making another paper fortune for the financial wheeler-dealers behind the group.
The Melrose band, who own 10% of Rosebank, include its co-founders Simon Peckham and Christopher Miller with former Melrose chairman Justin Dowley chairing the new group.
Reports in June said that these Melrose executives shared the bulk of a £180 million bonus after the company’s 2020 employee share scheme matured.
Melrose operated with a stated business mantra of ‘buy, improve, sell’, which it applied when it bought UK engineer GKN in 2018 for £8 billion in a fiercely contested bid battle.
GKN was then split into Dowlais Group PLC (LSE:DWL), comprising its auto parts business, and Melrose, the aerospace bits, that, combined, are currently valued at £8.5 billion.
Peckham has said Rosebank will buy industrial businesses in the UK, North America and Europe with a value of up to £2.3 billion.
Rosebank shares rose by 37.5% today to 660p with Aviva flat at 489p.