Amber Rudd, the former cabinet minister, is joining a new special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that will float in London and target a merger in the renewable energy sector.
Sky News has learnt that Ms Rudd, who served as secretary of state for energy and climate change between May 2015 and July 2016, is to become an adviser to Energy1, one of a hotly anticipated wave of new UK SPACs.
Banking sources said that Energy1 was being established by Sanjay Mehta, a start-up investor, and David Kotler, a former Lazard and Morgan Stanley investment banker who now runs Access Corporate Finance, an energy and natural resources advisory firm.
Philip Aiken, the chairman of London-listed Aveva and former chairman of Balfour Beatty, is expected to join Energy1’s board, while Sir Peter Gershon, the former National Grid chairman, is understood to be in talks to become an adviser to the SPAC alongside Ms Rudd, according to the sources.
The new SPAC will look to raise between £250m and £300m from investors, they added.
Citi and JP Morgan are understood to have been hired to advise on the listing, with an announcement targeted by the end of the year.
Ms Rudd’s involvement will again underline the extent to which senior former politicians are capitalising on their Westminster careers.
As well as serving as energy and climate change secretary, Ms Rudd spent just under two years as home secretary, while she stepped down from her final cabinet role as work and pensions secretary in September 2019.
Since stepping down as an MP before the 2019 general election, she has landed advisory roles with Darktrace, the cybersecurity company which has enjoyed one of London’s most successful initial public offerings (IPOs) this year, and Pinwheel, a green electricity start-up.
The roles were all approved by Whitehall’s Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA), but Ms Rudd’s new posts no longer require such approval owing to the length of time since she ceased…
Source : skynews
