A former Virgin Cash finance chief has been picked as the next chairman of Atom Financial institution as a result of the digital lender heads in path of a long-awaited stock market itemizing.
Sky Information has learnt that Lee Rochford, who moreover ran the debt assortment group Arrow International Group, is being lined up as a result of the successor to Bridget Rosewell.
One insider said an announcement about Mr Rochford’s appointment was anticipated imminently.
His arrival will come as Atom works with advisers to raise as a lot as £150m in capital in what’s anticipated to be its final share sale sooner than an attempt to float.
The Durham-based agency is working with bankers at Jefferies on the fundraising.
The plans observe a £30m cash title last November which was funded by current merchants, BBVA, Toscafund and Infinity Funding Companions.
Mark Mullen, Atom’s chief authorities, said last November that Atom had surpassed £4.5bn in retail deposits “having made waves with the pricing of our fastened and instantaneous savers, opening up a void between banks similar to Atom that pay a good return on financial savings and people which might be merely unresponsive to the market”.
The appointment of Mr Rochford comes shortly after Atom moreover modified its finance chief, with Andrew Marshall altering David McCarthy.
Final yr, talks a number of £700m merger involving a car prepare by Donald Trump’s former commerce secretary fell apart.
Atom had been in talks with a specific goal acquisition agency (SPAC) prepare by Wilbur Ross, the billionaire Wall Road financier.
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Mr Ross had been a backer of Virgin Cash, serving to it uncover the financial firepower to buy Northern Rock after its nationalisation.
Established in 2014, Atom Financial institution has raised roughly £500m in equity from merchants along with BBVA, Toscafund and the now-dissolved Woodford Funding Administration.
In 2021, it attracted headlines by turning into considered one of many first substantial employers to vary to a four-day week.
It said the switch, which included a reduction in working hours from 37 to 34 with no impression on salaries, was designed to assist employees’ psychological and bodily wellbeing, along with to boost productiveness.
Atom Financial institution declined to comment.