Catena to buy Insight Capital in reverse takeover

Catena Group has agreed to buy Insight Capital in a reverse takeover of the artificial intelligence and machine learning company.

The acquisition vehicle bought a 9.1% stake in Insight in March 2020 in a shift in strategy towards technology. On Wednesday Catena said it would pay about £27.9m in cash and shares for the rest of the shares.

Catena said it would issue up to 47.3m shares at 59p a share to pay for Insight and pay as much as £1.5m in cash. The company said it would raise £6.1m before costs in a share placing at 67p a share to pay the cash element and to invest in Insight.

Catena's shares, suspended when it said it was in talks to buy all of Insight in September, jumped 37% to 80.75p at 10:57 BST after restarting trading on AIM on Wednesday.

Matthew Farnum-Schneider, Catena's chairman, said: "We are delighted to have agreed our full acquisition of Insight … The completion of the acquisition will mark the start of an exciting new chapter for the company in artificial intelligence and machine learning."

Insight's chief executive, Steve Cracknell, will run the company with Farnum-Schneider as executive chairman. Warren Pearson of Insight will be chief technology officer. The company produces machine learning and AI products for the asset management industry.

Catena will hold a general meeting of shareholders on 7 May to approve the acquisition. Its other business is Elms Sport in Schools, a school sport coaching franchise.