UK Government Investments

Last updated

UK Government Investments Limited
Company type State owned holding company
Predecessors
Founded1 April 2016;9 years ago (2016-04-01)
HeadquartersLondon, England
Key people
 Vindi Banga (Chairman)
Parent HM Treasury
Website www.ukgi.org.uk OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

UK Government Investments (UKGI) is a company owned by the United Kingdom government which combines the former functions of the Shareholder Executive and UK Financial Investments. UKGI manages a portfolio of businesses, including Channel Four Television Corporation and previously NatWest Group. [1] [2]

Contents

The only shareholder is HM Treasury, and the company's board is accountable to Treasury ministers. [3]

History

The company was incorporated in 2015 and is based in London. [4] When its incorporation was announced, it was stated that it was formed as part of the government's plans to "deliver the biggest ever sale of publicly-owned corporate and financial assets in 2015–16, exceeding £23 billion in real terms". By merging the Shareholder Executive and UK Financial Investments under UKGI, whilst keeping their functions in separate divisions, the aim was to improve the collaboration needed to deliver the government's goal of selling public assets to provide value for taxpayers. [5]

The Contingent Liability Central Capability (CLCC) was established within UKGI in April 2021, with the purpose of reviewing and reporting on the government's contingency liability, to provide advice and analytics and to promote best practice within the government. [6] [7] It was later announced that the CLCC would be led by Siobhan Duffy. [8] Also in 2021, the government announced a £400 million investment in OneWeb, the satellite firm that had gone bankrupt in March, with the objective of replacing the use of the EU's Galileo system. [9] UKGI acted as an advisor to the government department responsible for the investment. [10] In the same month, a trading plan was announced by the government to sell some of the government's shares in NatWest Group plc, a plan approved by the Chancellor and based on advice provided by UKGI. [11]

After investigating a different ownership model for Channel 4, in January 2023 the government announced that the broadcaster would remain in public ownership. [12] Prior to this, Alex Mahon, CEO of the broadcaster, had said that decisions made about Channel 4's ownership would be made by the government and UKGI. [13] UKGI advised the government to re-purchase over 36,000 military homes in 2024; [14] they had been sold to a private investment firm in 1996 and were managed by Annington, in a deal that is widely considered to have been a privatisation failure for the government. [15]

At the beginning of 2025, it was announced that the Reclaim Fund Limited, managed by UKGI, had given £1 billion of dormant assets to good causes. [16] This came three years after the Dormant Assets Act 2022 [17] expanded the scheme – established to receive money from dormant bank and building society accounts – to include the investment, wealth management, securities and insurance sectors. [18] [19] On 30 May 2025, UKGI sold the last of the UK government's shares in NatWest Group. [20] Harry Hampson, originally appointed as Director of Corporate Finance in July 2025, was announced as the new CEO of UKGI in December 2025 and will commence this role at the end of January 2026. [21] [22]

List of companies

As of August 2025, the public sector and state owned enterprises, wholly or partially owned, which UKGI works with are: [23]

Senior leadership

List of former chairmen

  1. Robert Swannell (2016–2021) [29] [30]

List of former chief executives

  1. Mark Russell (2016–2019), who had been deputy chief executive at the Shareholder Executive since 2008 and chief executive of that body from 2013 until its merger into UKGI. [31]

References

  1. ↑ "Our Partner Bodies". Archived from the original on 6 October 2022. Retrieved 24 January 2019.
  2. ↑ Wearden, Graeme; Fletcher, Nick; Partington, Richard (4 June 2018). "UK government to sell £2.6bn of RBS shares, Brexit hits UK construction- as it happened". The Guardian .
  3. ↑ "About Us". UK Government Investments (UKGI). Retrieved 18 December 2025.
  4. ↑ "UK Government Investments Limited". Companies House .
  5. ↑ "Government creates new company to deliver record asset sales programme". GOV.UK. Retrieved 18 December 2025.
  6. ↑ "Introducing the UKGI Contingent Liability Central Capability". GOV.UK. Retrieved 18 December 2025.
  7. ↑ Dimbylow, Owen; Day, Jonathan; Mosquera, Gina (November 2024). "IFoA GIRO Conference 2024" (PDF). vle.actuaries.org.uk/. Retrieved 18 December 2025.
  8. ↑ Cromar, Chris (8 July 2021). "UK Government Investments appoint three new Directors". Public Sector Executive. Retrieved 18 December 2025.
  9. ↑ "UK government takes £400m stake in satellite firm OneWeb". BBC News. 3 July 2020. Retrieved 18 December 2025.
  10. ↑ "Treasury Committee, Oral evidence". committees.parliament.uk. 6 February 2024. Retrieved 18 December 2025.
  11. ↑ "Government announces trading plan to continue sell down of NatWest Group shareholding". GOV.UK. Retrieved 18 December 2025.
  12. ↑ "Channel 4: A change of ownership?". commonslibrary.parliament.uk. 20 February 2023. Retrieved 18 December 2025.
  13. ↑ Sweney, Mark (5 May 2022). "Channel 4 offers to sell London HQ under alternative plan to privatisation". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 18 December 2025.
  14. ↑ Laine, Nea (17 December 2024). "UKGI advises government on buy-back of 36,347 military homes to improve housing for forces families and save taxpayers billions". UK Government Investments (UKGI). Retrieved 18 December 2025.
  15. ↑ "Inside the government's 'disastrous' military housing deal". Inside Housing. Archived from the original on 24 April 2025. Retrieved 18 December 2025.
  16. ↑ Moss, Emily. "£1bn of dormant assets transferred to good causes around UK, fund reports". www.civilsociety.co.uk. Retrieved 18 December 2025.
  17. ↑ "Dormant Assets Act 2022". www.legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 18 December 2025.
  18. ↑ "Dormant Assets Scheme". The Investment Association. Retrieved 18 December 2025.
  19. ↑ "Dormant Assets Scheme Strategy". GOV.UK. Department for Culture, Media & Sport. 2 June 2025. Retrieved 18 December 2025.
  20. ↑ "Government completes exit from NatWest". gov.uk. 30 May 2025. Retrieved 4 June 2025.
  21. ↑ Clarke, Paul. "JPMorgan dealmaker Hampson to depart for UKGI after 40 years". www.fnlondon.com. Retrieved 18 December 2025.
  22. ↑ "Harry Hampson appointed as new CEO of UK Government Investments". GOV.UK. Retrieved 18 December 2025.
  23. ↑ "What we do - Governance". UK Government Investments.
  24. ↑ "About us | Reclaim Fund". www.reclaimfund.co.uk. Retrieved 18 December 2025.
  25. ↑ "Reclaim Fund Limited – Framework Document 2025". GOV.UK. Retrieved 18 December 2025.
  26. ↑ "Vindi Banga appointed as new Chair of UK Government Investments". UK Government Investments. 2 August 2021. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
  27. ↑ Aldrick, Philip (18 February 2020). "Banker Charles Donald's promotion hints at looming RBS stake sale". www.thetimes.com. Retrieved 18 December 2025.
  28. ↑ "Charles Donald to step down as UK Government Investments CEO next year". GOV.UK. Retrieved 18 December 2025.
  29. ↑ "Robert Swannell". GOV.UK. Retrieved 15 July 2024.
  30. ↑ "Sunak kicks off hunt for new UKGI chair as Swannell steps down". Sky News. Retrieved 18 December 2025.
  31. ↑ Johnstone, Richard (25 June 2020). "Shareholder stories: ex-UKGI chief Mark Russell on life as Whitehall's corporate governance guru". Civil Service World. Retrieved 13 July 2024.
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