UK Government Investments (“UKGI”), the government’s centre of excellence in corporate finance and corporate governance, has completed the integration of UK Financial Investments (“UKFI”) into UKGI. This is in line with the government’s objective, announced in May 2015, of merging UKFI and UKGI by March 2018 into a single, government-owned company with its own independent Board of Directors.
The former UKFI executive team now forms a new, specialist Financial Institutions Group within UKGI which will continue to focus on the stewardship and divestment of the government’s remaining holdings in RBS and UK Asset Resolution (UKAR), as well as enhancing UKGI’s Financial Institutions expertise for deployment on a wider range of project and transaction work for government.
Mark Russell, Chief Executive Officer of UKGI, said;
“UKFI’s integration into UKGI combines two complementary organisations with strong synergies and similar skill sets. This enhances our capabilities across each of the three core areas of our mandate; designing and running complex transactions, the stewardship and governance of public assets and supporting Government’s interventions in the private sector. We now provide a single source of expertise on corporate finance and governance issues that isn’t readily available anywhere else in government.”
James Leigh-Pemberton, Deputy Chairman of UKGI and formerly Chairman of UKFI, said;
“Since its creation in 2008, UKFI has overseen disposals realising proceeds of over £50 billion from the sale of Northern Rock to Virgin Money, the divestment of the government’s shares in Lloyds Banking Group, an initial sale of shares in RBS and a series of disposals of assets held by UKAR. Its transformation into the new FIG team within UKGI means that we will retain the skills and experience acquired by the company and apply them to the remaining RBS and UKAR divestment programmes and other Financial Institutions related work for government.”
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For further information:
UKGI: Josh Coe – 0207 215 4787
Citigate Dewe Rogerson: Andrew Hey, Toby Moore, Jos Bieneman, Elizabeth Kittle – 0207 638 9571
About UK Government Investments (‘UKGI’)
Established in 2016, UKGI is a company owned by HM Treasury and independently managed with a Board comprised predominantly of Independent Non-Executive Directors. It combines the former Shareholder Executive and UK Financial Investments (‘UKFI’). Working with a range of government departments across Whitehall and operating at the boundary of the public and private sectors, UKGI’s role is to provide government with a centre of excellence in corporate finance and corporate governance.
While broad in scope and diversity, UKGI’s work covers three principal areas:
It acts as shareholder, representing government’s interests in the stewardship of over twenty arms-length organisations and assets, ensuring their good governance, scrutinising their performance and looking to optimise their value and operational efficiency on behalf of the taxpayer. It does all of this in line with its Principles of Portfolio Governance, which set the standard for the governance of assets in the public sector;
It continuously reviews the feasibility of and alternatives for optimising the monetisation of those government assets held for disposal, going on to prepare and execute all of government’s significant corporate and financial asset sales;
It advises government on all its financial interventions into corporate structures resulting from corporate or sectoral distress and other special situations and on government’s major negotiations with corporates, responding to M&A and other potential transactions that have implications for the UK national interest.