Mark Kleinman

Exclusive: The owners of Hovis and Kingsmill are closing in on an agreement to merge two of Britain's best-known grocery brands, with a deal possible as soon as next week; banking sources tell me ABF, Kingsmill's parent, will pay about £75m for its rival. news.sky.com/story/bread-pr…

Exclusive: Poundland’s former owner, Pepco Group, has taken the unusual step of hiring City advisers to supervise the struggling discount chain’s transition to new owner Gordon Brothers and a major restructuring that includes scores of shop closures. news.sky.com/story/former-p…

Exclusive: TalkTalk, the broadband provider, has agreed a £100m funding deal with existing backer Ares Management that will alleviate financial pressure on the company founded by Sir Charles Dunstone. An announcement could come as soon as today. Full story on @SkyNews shortly.

Revealed: North Sea oil producers including Enquest and Serica Energy have been exploring bids for the upstream assets of Prax Group, parts of which - including the Lindsey oil refinery in Lincolnshire - collapsed into insolvency proceedings last month. news.sky.com/story/north-se…

Exclusive: The investment vehicle of Wise co-founder Taavet Hinrikus has accused the £10bn London-listed fintech of "misleading" investors and warned that its move to the US and to extend its dual-class share structure could be derailed by the High Court. news.sky.com/story/wise-co-…

Revealed: Spaceflux, a British satellite tracking company which works with government and commercial customers through its provision of space situational technologies, will announce tomorrow that it has secured more than £5m from a syndicate of investors. news.sky.com/story/satellit…

Exclusive: Geoff Cooper, who chairs the online electrical goods retailer AO, is in contention to become the next chair of state-owned broadcaster Channel 4; Cooper, a former boss of builders' merchant Travis Perkins, is among those interviewed for the job. news.sky.com/story/ao-chair…

Exclusive: London-listed fashion retailer Boohoo, which owns the Debenhams brand, is to revive echoes of one of Britain’s most notorious private equity takeovers by striking a £175m refinancing deal which includes debt provided by TPG, the US buyout firm. news.sky.com/story/tpg-revi…

Revealed: Buyout firms including Cap10 and Platinum Equity are among the suitors circling Escode, the software escrow and verification arm of NCC Group, the London-listed cybersecurity company which is now in the throes of a full break-up. news.sky.com/story/buyout-f…

Exclusive: Fortress Investment Group, the owner of Majestic Wine and Poundstretcher, is among the suitors weighing offers for the Malmaison and Hotel du Vin hotel chains, which trade from nearly 40 sites across Britain and last changed hands a decade ago. news.sky.com/story/loungers…

Revealed: India's richest family and Surrey County Cricket Club, majority-owner of the Oval Invincibles Hundred franchise, are battling to resolve issues (including the team's future name) which are stalling the delivery of a £520m windfall for the sport. news.sky.com/story/oval-inv…

Exclusive: Cynergy Bank, a small business lender sold by Bank of Cyprus for £100m in 2018 and which counts Oaknorth among its peers, has appointed advisors at Perella Weinberg Partners to offload a minority stake at a valuation of between £750m and £1bn. news.sky.com/story/challeng…

Revealed: Taavet Hinrikus, the co-founder of £9bn fintech Wise, wants key proxy advisors ISS and Glass Lewis to revise their recommendations to vote in favour of the company's US listing (and a decade-long extension of its dual-class share structure). news.sky.com/story/wise-co-…

Exclusive: BT Group has begun a search to dial up a successor to Simon Lowth, its finance chief since 2016, with chief executive Allison Kirkby having begun meeting candidates to succeed him in one of the most important CFO roles in corporate Britain. news.sky.com/story/bt-in-ta…

Revealed: I understand that the board of BP is meeting this evening to finalise the appointment of a successor to chairman Helge Lund, more than three months after announcing his exit amid pressure from activist investor Elliott; an announcement may come tonight or tomorrow.

Revealed: Hilco Capital, the owner of Lakeland and a backer of high street chains including Superdry, is among the parties considering bids to acquire the British operations of struggling US-headquartered jewellery and accessories chain Claire's Stores. news.sky.com/story/lakeland…

Exclusive: CVC Capital has hired Goldman Sachs, PJT Partners and Raine Group to work on a refinancing of SportsCo, its new £9bn sports assets holding company which includes interests in Premiership Rugby, women’s tennis and French and Spanish football. news.sky.com/story/cvc-kick…

Exclusive: CVC Capital Partners, the private equity owner of stakes in Six Nations and Premiership Rugby and French and Spanish top-flight footbal, has hired banks including Goldman Sachs to plot a refinancing of a sports assets portfolio expected to be valued at £9bn. More soon.

Exclusive: Richard Monks, a financial regulation partner at EY and a long-serving executive at the City watchdog, is in talks to become the inaugural CEO of the Independent Football Regulator ahead of the legislation to establish it gaining Royal Assent. news.sky.com/story/ey-partn…

Revealed: Terra Firma, the buyout firm founded by Guy Hands, is among the remaining suitors for Boatfolk, the owner of 11 marinas across the UK, including at East Cowes on the Isle of Wight; the business is being sold by real estate investor Mansford. news.sky.com/story/private-…