Betaville

City dealmakers in row with the AA over Motoriety

Some of the City's top bankers, lawyers and industry executives have emerged as investors in a company whose founder is engaged in an almighty row with London-listed AA.

According to sources familiar with the matter, Giles Fitzpatrick, Michael Symons and Kevin Gaskell were seed investors in Motoriety, an app that links motorists to repair garages that was set up by entrepreneur Lucy Burnford.

Fitzpatrick is now a partner at advisory firm Hannam & Partners and former chief executive of merchant bank Fox-Pitt Kelton; Symons is a lawyer and founder of vehicle leasing company Helphire, now called Redde; and Gaskell is a former managing director of BMW and former chief executive of Porsche.

The AA paid £400,000 for a 50pc stake in Motoreity in 2015 but quickly fell out with Burnford. She has now accused the AA of starving her company of funding so it could acquire the business once it fell into administration. Below is a link to an FT piece with the details of the legal spat:

https://www.ft.com/content/bde72da2-6045-11e8-ad91-e01af256df68

Betaville wonders if the emergence of three punchy businessmen as funders of Burnford's legal actions will raise an eyebrow at today's annual shareholding meeting?...

A spokesperson for the AA said:..