Ovo founder Stephen Fitzpatrick cuts ties with controversial parent company
Ovo founder Stephen Fitzpatrick cuts ties with controversial parent company
Investigation: Boss Stephen Fitzpatrick
Billionaire Stephen Fitzpatrick has severed business ties between Ovo Energy and its embattled parent company Imagination Industries.
The founder and chief executive of Ovo Energy has restructured his labyrinthine empire after tightening scrutiny of his finances, including large intercompany loans.
Until spring this year, Ovo β the UK’s fourth largest energy supplier with more than four million customers β was owned by Fitzpatrick’s investment vehicle Imagination.
Imagination has dominated Ovo alongside his other ventures, including the glitzy party venue Kensington Roof Gardens in West London.
This newspaper revealed last year that Imagination had made Β£27 million in loans to its directors. It also provided nearly Β£10m in loans to Fitzpatrick’s US-listed flying taxi company Vertical Aerospace, which has warned of “material uncertainty” in its future as a going concern without new capital. There is no suggestion that the loans were illegal or violated financial regulations.
Fitzpatrick, a Belfast-born former City trader, was challenged by MPs over intercompany loans and payments early last year. MPs called on him to ‘open the books’ at Imagination. But last week, Ovo said it “is no longer affiliated” with Imagination.
The gas and electricity supplier said it is now owned by a standalone group called Energy Transition Holdings, of which Fitzpatrick is the majority shareholder.
It comes after Ovo posted an annual loss of Β£1.3bn in a ‘challenging year’. The company also confirmed that two of its shareholders, Mayfair Equity Partners and Morgan Stanley Investment Management, had invested an additional Β£200 million in the company.
A serial entrepreneur who once owned a Formula 1 team, Fitzpatrick founded Ovo in 2009. He bought Kensington Roof Gardens, once owned by Richard Branson, in 2020 and is spending millions of pounds on a luxury makeover.
Ovo said it was the right time to change ownership as Imagination is an incubator for start-ups and Ovo no longer falls into that category.