Document verification software company Atticus has set its sights on growth in the UK with the relocation of its former head of growth, Tom Ray, from Australia to London. Ray, who now has the title of head of corporate markets for the UK and Europe, becomes the fourth Atticus team member based in the UK. He joins Patrick Skinner, general manager for UK and Europe, who started in the role in February this year. Skinner was previously with Bryter.
Atticus has had a rapid uptake in the Australian corporate market, with over 35% of the ASX 50, including Commonwealth Bank of Australia, BHP and Transurban now using the tool for verification of disclosure documents such as annual reports, investor presentations and ESG disclosures.
Atticus’ CEO Thom Mackey said: “We are grateful for our pioneering UK corporate customers, including National Grid, Coca Cola, Associated British Foods and Rio Tinto who are trusting Atticus to transform the way they conduct verification. Our team looks forward to onboarding new companies and helping them bring a level of integrity and innovation to their corporate governance processes.”
Last year, magic circle firm Linklaters and UK top 100 firm Walker Morris announced that they had rolled out Atticus.
According to Skinner, Atticus was used to verify around one third of the IPO prospectuses for listings on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) in 2022, including the recent demerger and listing of Haleon plc – the largest London listing in a decade. Slaughter and May, which advised GSK on the deal, created a useful case study of how they used Atticus on that deal here: https://www.slaughterandmay.com/our-firm/innovation/slaughter-and-may-deploy-atticus-on-largest-london-listing-in-a-decade/
Skinner said:
“Our platform has become standard practice in the capital markets teams of top tier law firms in the UK. This includes the verification of key documents across a diverse range of sectors and on a variety of deals, from mid-lower cap all the way up to top tier FTSE 100 listings.”
Misleading or uncorroborated statements can be used as a basis for shareholder class action, and Skinner added:
“Atticus helps corporate boards, company secretaries, legal counsels and investor relations professionals to better mitigate this risk. They can now conduct verification collaboratively, in real time with powerful version control and have a new method for clear dissemination of external information.”
Pictured below Patrick Skinner, left, and Tom Ray, right.
