Landowners Thanks: Scottish Estates and Aston Martin

landowners thanks: Aston Martin unveils London Stock Exchange flotation Read more The firm has already secured backing from Heartland, the investment vehicle of the Danish multibillionaire Anders Holch Povlsen, who is the largest shareholder in the online retailer Asos, according to The Guardian. Povlsen, also one of the UK's largest landowners thanks to successive purchases of sprawling Scottish estates, has pledged to take a 10% stake. Funding Circle, which allows small firms to tap into a pool of money provided by thousands of investors, aims to raise 300m in a stock market float valuing the company at up to 1.95bn. The chief executive, Samir Desai, said he and his two co-founders, who met at Oxford University, were inspired by tough lending conditions amid the credit crunch. It's a small part of what banks do, but actually quite a big thing for society. In 2008 we were seeing small businesses struggling to get access to finance, said Desai, whose 7.6% stake is worth up to 125m. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.