Wise goes to the US. Will its founder’s supercharged voting rights follow? | Nils Pratley

Back in 2021, the arrival on the London stock market of Wise, a rapidly expanding money transfer company, generated a feelgood factor at a useful moment.It came a month after overhyped Deliveroo flopped on debut. And, since Wise was a pure fintech business, as opposed to a pizza delivery outfit with an app, there was reason to think the UK might be getting its act together in the sector that politicians swoon over. Shoreditch’s finest, and its Estonian founders, would show the way in UK fintech. Wise sported a £9bn valuation

British Gas owner strikes £20bn gas deal with Norway’s state energy company

The owner of British Gas has struck a £20bn deal with Norway’s state energy company to buy enough gas to meet nearly 10% of the UK’s needs for the next decade.Under the agreement, Centrica will buy around 5bn cubic meters of gas from Equinor – enough to supply 5m UK homes – every year from this winter until 2035 at the prevailing market rate.It is the latest long-term deal between the UK and Norway, which has been one of Britain’s largest sources of imported gas for the last 50 years. But in a nod to Britain’s net zero agenda, the latest agreement will include a clause that allows the UK to swap gas imports for emissions-free hydrogen from Equinor’s UK hydrogen plant.Equinor is working with Centrica and the energy company SSE on multiple low carbon hydrogen projects on the north bank of the Humber

23andMe back on the auction block after former CEO makes 11th-hour bid

DNA testing company 23andMe is back up for sale, throwing a purchase agreement reached last month into chaos, court filings show.The board of directors of 23andMe, which filed for bankruptcy in March, had agreed to sell the company and its assets to pharmaceutical firm Regeneron for $256m after conducting an auction in April. However, the founder and former CEO of the genetics company, Anne Wojcicki, put in a $305m bid through a newly formed non-profit, TTAM Research Institute, after the auction ended and pushed the bankruptcy court to re-open the sale process. She tried to buy the company multiple times during its long decline and bankruptcy but was rejected by the board.TTAM’s offer of $305m will serve as a starting price for the secondary sale process, and Regeneron will be permitted to submit a competing bid that is at least $10m more

UK sales of new Tesla cars slump by more than a third amid Musk backlash

Sales of new Tesla cars slumped by more than a third in the UK last month as the electric carmaker lost ground to China’s BYD and other rivals, amid a political backlash against its billionaire boss, Elon Musk.Tesla sold 2,016 vehicles in the UK in May, down from 3,152 in May 2024 – a 36% drop, according to the monthly snapshot from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).The Chinese carmaker BYD’s sales in the UK jumped by 407%, from 596 in May last year to 3,025 last month. It sells hybrids as well as pure electric cars. BYD first overtook Tesla in January

Aaron Rodgers reportedly ending time in wilderness by signing with Pittsburgh Steelers

The NFL’s most nagging storylines appears to be at an end with multiple sources reporting that Aaron Rodgers is ready to sign a one-year contract with the Pittsburgh Steelers.ESPN and the NFL Network reported the news on Thursday afternoon, appearing to end a months-long saga.Rodgers has been without a team since ending an unsuccessful two-year stay with the New York Jets, and the Steelers are in need of an established starting quarterback.Full story to follow …

Appleby and Buick eye final step in rare sporting journey to complete Classics set

For both Charlie Appleby and William Buick, membership of one of Flat racing’s most exclusive clubs will be an added incentive when Desert Flower, the 1,000 Guineas winner and favourite, canters to post before the Oaks at Epsom on Friday afternoon.Since the end of the second world war, only eight jockeys and 11 trainers have managed to get their names on the roll of honour for all five English Classics, and both lists are a roll call of racing legends. Vincent O’Brien, Sir Henry Cecil and Aidan O’Brien are among the trainers to have completed the full set, while an even shorter list of riders includes Lester Piggott, Steve Cauthen and Pat Eddery, and, since the turn of the century, only Frankie Dettori and Ryan Moore.And while it is 15 years since Buick’s first Classic victory, aboard Arctic Cosmos in the 2010 St Leger, Appleby could be about to complete the set in only eight. Masar, in the 2017 Derby, was the trainer’s first Classic winner, Hurricane Lane took the St Leger in 2021 and the Guineas victories of Notable Speech, in 2024, and Desert Flower, at Newmarket last month, have now left him with only an Oaks winner to find