TheChek News Flow

Private capital group and industrial investor Tinicum in talks with FTSE 250 company

Blackstone is part of a consortium in advanced talks to take control of UK aerospace parts supplier Senior, according to people familiar with the matter.

The private capital group and industrial investor Tinicum are progressing and could propose an offer acceptable to Senior’s board in the coming weeks, the people said. They cautioned that no decisions had been taken yet and talks could still shift or fall apart.

Blackstone and Tinicum are among a number of bidders that have shown interest in Senior, alongside the private equity groups Advent International and Arcline Investment Management.

The Blackstone-Tinicum consortium had emerged as a frontrunner in recent days, according to the people, although they cautioned that the situation could still change.

Earlier on Friday, Senior said that it remained in discussions with Advent and had agreed an extension to the investment group’s deadline to make a firm offer. Advent had previously proposed £2.72 a share but its offer was rejected.

The deadlines for the other two rival parties to make firm offers are due to expire early next week.

Senior’s shares surged in late February after it disclosed that it had received multiple offers and had hired investment banks to lead talks. The stock was trading on Friday afternoon at £2.77, valuing the company at £1.16bn.

The FTSE 250 group specialises in making ducts and valves to control fuel consumption for customers in the aerospace, defence and energy markets. If acquired, it would mark the latest in a series of British industrial groups to be taken over by both industrial and private equity buyers.

Advent bought Cobham and Ultra Electronics, while Meggitt was acquired by US industrial group Parker Hannifin.

Senior and Blackstone declined to comment. Tinicum did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

KV Cache −6x Memory | 8x Attention Speedup | Zero Accuracy Loss

■ WHAT IT IS

Training-free compression algo targeting the KV cache (working memory in LLMs).

Compresses each cache value from 16 bits → 3 bits. No retraining required.

Drop-in on production models. PyTorch/MLX ports live within 24h of release.

■ HOW IT WORKS

Stage 1 – PolarQuant: rotates KV vectors into polar coords, eliminating per-block normalization overhead (the 1-2 bit tax that defeats most compression).

Stage 2 – QJL: reduces vectors to sign bits (+1/-1) via Johnson-Lindenstrauss Transform. Zero memory overhead. High-precision query estimator preserves attention accuracy.

Result: approaches information-theoretic optimum. Online, data-oblivious,

accelerator-friendly.

■ BENCHMARKS (H100)

- 4-bit impl: 8x speedup on attention logit computation vs unquantized 32-bit

- 3-bit: 6x KV cache reduction, zero degradation on LongBench / NIAH / RULER / L-Eval

Community test (MLX / Qwen3.5-35B, 8.5K–64K ctx): 100% output match at 2.5-bit

■ MARKET REACTION

SK Hynix -6.0% KRX

Kioxia -5.9% TSE

SanDisk -5.7% NASDAQ

Samsung -4.9% KRX

WDC -4.7% NASDAQ

Micron -3.0% NASDAQ

■ ANALYST SPLIT

- Wells Fargo (Rocha): "Directly attacking the cost curve. Calls into question how much memory capacity is needed." — bearish on near-term demand; adoption TBD.

- Morgan Stanley: does not touch model weights or training HBM. Bullish.

- SemiAnalysis (Wang): bottleneck relief → more capable models → more hardware.

- Quilter Cheviot: "Evolutionary, not revolutionary." Cyclical sell-off, not structural.

- Cloudflare CEO Prince: "Google's DeepSeek moment."

Overreaction. TurboQuant is inference-only — training HBM demand (the supercycle driver) is entirely unaffected. Jevons dynamics apply: 6x cheaper inference → longer contexts, more agents, more RAG pipelines deployed.

MU/SK Hynix weakness is technical/positional, not a demand inflection.

Watch Q2 datacenter capex guidance from AWS/Azure/GOOGL as the real signal.

Excellency (Palo Alto, CA) is developing a novel class called trifunctional Effector Cell Response Inhibitors (ECRIs) — lead asset Exl-111 is a trifunctional ECRI targeting the IgE axis, currently in Phase 1. Total consideration is up to $2bn in upfront + milestones; close expected H2 2026 subject to regulatory approvals.

The deal follows Novartis's agreement last week to acquire a breast-cancer candidate from Synnovation Therapeutics for up to $3bn — a clear pattern of dealmaking to fill the pipeline and offset patent expirations. The food allergy / immunology space is now a declared strategic priority for Basel.

This is unambiguously positive for DBV and here's why:

1. Strategic validation of food allergy at Phase 1 = $2bn Novartis just paid up to $2bn for a Phase 1 asset in food allergy. DBV has a Phase 3-proven asset (VITESSE positive Dec 2025) with a BLA coming in H1 2026. The implied risk-adjusted premium on DBV's VIASKIN® is enormous by comparison. This deal puts a floor — and arguably a ceiling test — on what a validated late-stage peanut allergy platform should be worth to a large pharma acquirer.

2. IgE axis = direct competitive + validation overlap Exl-111 is designed to disarm allergic effector cells at the source of activation by targeting the IgE axis. DBV's VIASKIN® patch works via epicutaneous immunotherapy and also modulates the IgE-mediated allergic response in peanut-allergic children. These are mechanistically adjacent — meaning Novartis just validated the target biology DBV is attacking.

3. Competitive landscape — important nuance Exl-111 is Phase 1 with a distinct mechanism (small molecule-like effector cell inhibition vs. DBV's antigen desensitization). They are potentially complementary rather than directly competitive — different treatment paradigms (inhibit mast cell activation vs. build tolerance). DBV retains the only late-stage patch desensitization approach.

4. M&A re-rating catalyst for DBV The Novartis move joins Sanofi/Regeneron's Dupixent (eosinophilic/atopic axis), AZ's Tezspire, and now this ECRI deal — all underscoring Big Pharma's appetite for allergy immunology. DBV is the only de-risked, BLA-ready peanut allergy asset not yet partnered. M&A optionality on DBV should re-rate after today.

Reported yesterday (March 26) — board-approved figures:

Cash trajectory: $276.2m in net financing inflows in 2025, driven by the PIPE and ATM. An additional $94m from warrant exercises landed in January 2026 — total liquidity now funds operations into Q2 2027.

The R&D step-up is strategic, not wasteful: $16.1m of the R&D increase was pre-commercial inventory build for VIASKIN® Peanut Patch ahead of a potential approval, and $6.9m went to the COMFORT Toddlers safety study enrollment. DBV is spending like a company preparing for launch — not burning capital aimlessly.

2026 Catalysts: BLA submission for 4-7 year olds H1 2026 (Priority Review eligible); BLA submission for 1-3 year olds H2 2026 under Accelerated Approval Pathway; COMFORT Toddlers topline readout expected.

The Novartis/Excellergy deal is the most important external read-across for DBV in months. A Big Pharma paying $2bn for a Phase 1 IgE-axis allergy asset on the same day DBV publishes solid balance sheet numbers ($288m effective cash runway into 2027) and confirms imminent BLA filing is close to a perfect storm of re-rating catalysts. The M&A angle in your Courchevel Fiche Biotech on DBV looks even more prescient today.

Senate Approves Funding for Most of DHS, Moving to End Airport Crisis

The measure, approved by Democrats and Republicans in the early hours of Friday, now heads to the House

WASHINGTON—Senate Republicans and Democrats agreed early Friday to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security, moving to end a standoff over immigration enforcement in Congress that had led to missed paychecks for airport security workers and long lines for travelers.

Shortly after 2 a.m., senators agreed by unanimous consent to approve legislation to fund all of DHS through the end of the fiscal year—except for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol. The measure would provide funding for an assortment of programs, including the Transportation Security Administration, the Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The legislation, which didn’t include any changes to immigration enforcement policies, now must be passed by the House, which was expected to act quickly later Friday.

The Senate action came hours after President Trump said he would sign an executive order to free up money to pay TSA workers. Trump said he was instructing Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin to pay TSA agents to address what he called an “emergency situation.” Many unpaid security workers have been calling in sick while others have quit, driving delays for airline passengers headed on spring break.

Democrats rejected funding for DHS last month as they sought to block money for ICE and impose tighter rules on immigration-enforcement tactics, such as requiring agents not to wear masks and to obtain judicial warrants before forcing entry into a home.

Senate Republicans and Democrats had worked into the night to reach a deal to fund DHS, aiming to pass legislation before leaving Capitol Hill for a two-week Easter recess. Republicans have a 53-47 majority in the Senate, but advancing legislation typically requires 60 votes in the chamber.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R., S.D.) told reporters late Thursday that Trump’s order to pay TSA agents takes “the immediate pressure off” but was a “short-term solution.” Later, he offered the unanimous consent resolution to pass most of the DHS funding after both parties agreed to move forward. No senator objected and the bill passed.

Republicans had already pumped tens of billions of dollars into ICE and border patrol in Trump’s tax package last year, money that will cushion the programs against any cuts to fiscal 2026 spending stemming from the current dispute. Senate Republicans are now expected to try to pass the immigration-enforcement funding through a process called budget reconciliation, which would allow them to pass it with a simple majority.

“We will have other options to get the rest of it done,” Thune said. He said Democrats got “zero reforms” due to the way the fight played out.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) said he would continue to seek changes to immigration enforcement practices.

“I’m very proud of my caucus,” he told reporters. “My caucus didn’t budge.” He said that Democrats would “fight hard for reforms” and “there will be opportunities.”

After DHS funding lapsed on Feb. 14 and the standoff intensified, Republicans had searched for other ways to fund DHS and pay TSA agents. Republicans said that the Trump administration had already made administrative changes aimed at satisfying Democratic demands, as well as removing Kristi Noem as DHS secretary, following the deaths of two people in encounters with immigration officials in Minnesota.

Democrats for their part argued that Republicans were ignoring their demands for policy changes. They had also put forward measures just funding TSA, which had been blocked by Republicans.

Last week, White House officials said the administration would expand the use of body cameras and limit enforcement activities at sensitive places such as hospitals and schools, and require that officers clearly identify themselves. The officials also pledged to comply with oversight laws, including congressional oversight of detention facilities.

How Italy’s oldest bank turned on its saviour CEO

Monte dei Paschi di Siena’s board stripped Luigi Lovaglio of his powers, setting up a fight for its leadership

Luigi Lovaglio helped rescue Italy’s oldest bank but he could not survive what came after.

As chief executive of Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Lovaglio steered it back to profitability and returned it to majority-private ownership after its state bailout in 2017. Then he turned predator, with an ambitious — and successful — bid for more prestigious rival Mediobanca.

Yet despite backing from his board throughout the most controversial parts of his Mediobanca takeover plan — merging the Milanese institution into a bank that had to be bailed out by the government less than a decade ago — the board has in recent weeks turned on him.

His fellow directors voted earlier this month to exclude Lovaglio from the list of candidates to serve another term. On Wednesday, they revoked his powers as chief executive with immediate effect.

Unless enough shareholders back a rival slate of candidates put forward by a small shareholder that includes Lovaglio, he will be officially ousted as the chief executive of Italy’s third-largest lender on April 15.

Lovaglio’s Mediobanca deal was the culmination of a string of manoeuvres by both Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing government in Rome and the billionaire investor Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone.

For decades, MPS was the problem child of the Italian banking system, mired in scandal and hobbled by political machinations around the foundation that once controlled the bank, with its close ties to the country’s leftwing establishment.

MPS’s re-privatisation, substantially completed in 2024, was meant to draw a line under one of Italy’s costliest banking rescues.

But the way the government engineered its return to private hands turned the bank into an instrument of power for Meloni and Caltagirone that has weakened Milan’s traditional grip on the financial establishment.

When the Italian government sold a chunk of its stake in 2024, it allowed Caltagirone and another billionaire-linked investor, Delfin, to build sizeable holdings in MPS.

Both were seen as friendly to Meloni’s government and supportive of Rome’s desire to create a third pillar of the banking system to counterbalance the country’s two largest banks, Intesa Sanpaolo and UniCredit.

The support of Caltagirone, Delfin and the Italian Treasury, which still had an 11 per cent stake in MPS before the Mediobanca deal, was key to the success of the hostile takeover. Caltagirone and Delfin were also two of the biggest shareholders in Mediobanca.

But suspicions that Caltagirone and Delfin moved in lockstep, in breach of market rules, triggered a market-manipulation investigation that drew in Lovaglio, Caltagirone and Delfin’s chief, Francesco Milleri. Lovaglio, Caltagirone and Milleri deny wrongdoing.

Board insiders said the market-manipulation probe had become too great a risk for MPS as it embarked upon the fraught integration of two lenders. Others said the inquiry merely compounded Lovaglio’s deteriorating relations with key shareholders, including Caltagirone.

Lovaglio is now locked in a battle for his job with Fabrizio Palermo, Caltagirone’s close ally, and the rest of the MPS board.

Caltagirone has denied involvement in any boardroom intrigue. (Caltagirone did not respond to a request for comment for this article.) However, insiders at both MPS and Mediobanca say he remains a key figure in shaping the group’s future.

Lovaglio and Caltagirone clashed over control of Mediobanca’s 13 per cent stake in Generali, a large investor in Italian government bonds that has long been a focus of the Roman billionaire, according to insiders. Lovaglio said last year the Generali stake was not “strategic”, and refused to rule out a potential sale.

While Mediobanca retained control of the Generali holding, that was less of a concern. Insiders say Caltagirone was instrumental in the choice of Mediobanca’s new chief executive, Alessandro Melzi d’Eril.

With the forthcoming full merger of Mediobanca into MPS, however, control of the Generali stake would pass to MPS’s board — and its chief executive.

Having Palermo as CEO would give Caltagirone another friendly bank boss.

Palermo was a key figure in Caltagirone’s failed campaign to oust Generali chief Philippe Donnet in 2022 and now sits on the insurer’s board.

Caltagirone has a son who already sits on MPS’s board, Alessandro; he is a director at the utility company Palermo currently runs. Last year, Palermo launched a consultancy with Caltagirone’s right-hand man, Fabio Corsico, although public records show it operated for only a couple of months.

Despite having limited banking experience, MPS said on Tuesday that Palermo scored highest “based on objective and pre-determined criteria, including professional experience, managerial skills and consistency with the bank’s strategic needs”.

On MPS’s ranking, Palermo beat former Intesa Sanpaolo chief executive Corrado Passera and Carlo Vivaldi, a former top executive at UniCredit.

MPS has said that the bank needs new management as its focus shifts to a different type of challenge: integrating its new purchase and forging a combined strategy as the country’s third-largest bank.

According to people with knowledge of the internal discussion, MPS has lodged a complaint with the European Central Bank against the board slate which includes Lovaglio as CEO.

“Palermo’s profile is the most suitable . . . to support the bank in its ongoing phase of industrial transformation and strategic evolution,” it said in the statement.

As well as the market manipulation probe, Lovaglio faces another legal challenge, along with the bank’s chair Nicola Maione — who is being recommended for another term.

The activist investor Bluebell, which owns 25 shares in MPS, launched a civil liability action which alleges the deal should have been treated as a reverse takeover because it handed former Mediobanca shareholders 59 per cent of the combined group and MPS’s just 41 per cent.

Determining whether a deal amounts to a reverse takeover is not just a question of mathematics. Such an assessment also takes into account who controls the combined entity, including through the composition of management bodies.

MPS told the FT that it had discussed the characterisation of the transaction with the Italian financial regulator Consob, which ruled out a reverse takeover. A regional administrative court last September ruled out blocking the tie-up from completing on the basis of the reverse takeover argument, although it did not decide on the merits.

Investors will be given the opportunity to express their views on the Bluebell action and the rival slates of directors at a shareholder meeting. Still, the tussles emphasise the struggle for influence between competing groups of shareholders in the new banking group.

“Lovaglio’s ousting risks signalling that strategy at MPS is still contingent on opaque alliances rather than on a stable mandate from investors,” said one London-based lawyer.

They added: “If the board cannot show that succession is orderly and that the bank’s strategy is not hostage to factions, the market may conclude that MPS has changed its earnings profile faster than it has changed its DNA.”

Lossmaking fintech was fined £2mn for misleading regulators about its capital position

The Bank of London has agreed with the UK financial watchdog to stop taking on new customers in the latest setback for the lossmaking fintech, which is still reeling from being fined for fabricating documents to conceal its financial health.

The lender, which received a $1.1bn valuation in 2021, said it had formalised an agreement with the Financial Conduct Authority in which it “voluntarily paused new customer onboarding to make enhancements to our financial crime prevention controls”.

The block on new clients has been in place since August 2025, the financial technology company said on its website. But it was formalised on March 18 when the watchdog published a notice on its official register saying TBOL “must not, without the prior written consent of the FCA, onboard any new clients”.

The formal restriction on signing up new clients came only days before the company was fined £2mn by the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority for breaching more than a dozen rules in its attempt to mislead regulators about its capital position.

Former senior managers of the fintech, which was licensed as a UK clearing bank in 2023, were found to have knowingly misled the regulator over its true capital position.

The PRA said on Tuesday that the breaches occurred between October 2021 and May 2024. The bank was at the time run by its founder Anthony Watson, a former Barclays executive.

TBOL aims to make money from licensing its technology to corporate clients so they can offer regulated banking services under their own brands. The bank’s net loss widened in 2024 to almost £24mn, which almost doubled from a deficit of £12.4mn the prior year, according to its latest published accounts.

FCA supervisors often use voluntary restrictions as an alternative or a precursor to enforcement action. The watchdog does not announce such voluntary restrictions, but it records them on its register, making them a more discreet tool.

The watchdog declined to comment on whether it was investigating TBOL over its financial crime controls, its capital misstatements or other matters.

The fintech’s holding company had former Goldman Sachs heavyweight Harvey Schwartz and Lord Peter Mandelson on its board during the period when its capital was misstated. The PRA did not accuse the two men of wrongdoing. 

They both stepped down in October 2024 after TBOL was thrust into the spotlight a month earlier by a winding-up order from UK tax authorities over unpaid debt, which was subsequently withdrawn. Watson also stepped down in September 2024.

The PRA said it would have fined TBOL £12mn but that such a fine would have resulted in serious financial hardship for the fintech, and so the penalty was reduced to £2mn.

EY, the bank’s auditors since 2023, said it was “wholly reliant upon financial support for funding from its parent” and there were “significant doubts about going concern”. 

The fintech’s parent company last year renamed itself from Bank of London Group Holdings to Oplyse Holdings — the first word is a Danish term meaning to enlighten. The bank’s latest accounts said Oplyse injected £24.5mn into the bank last year. 

Oplyse’s accounts for 2024 are “overdue” according to Companies House, which said they should have been filed by the end of last year. In 2023, Oplyse reported a loss of £47mn.

TBOL said in a notice posted recently on its website that the restriction agreed with the FCA to stop signing up new clients would not affect existing customer accounts. “All services continue to operate as normal,” it said.