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^{Not for publication, distribution or release directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, in or into the United States of America, Australia, Canada or Japan, or in any other jurisdiction in which offers or sales would be prohibited by applicable law.}

^{This announcement is not an offer of securities for sale in any jurisdiction, including the United States, Canada, Australia or Japan. Neither this announcement nor anything contained herein shall form the basis of, or be relied upon in connection with, any offer or commitment whatsoever in any jurisdiction.}

 

Following what was previously announced yesterday, Leonardo S.p.A. (“Leonardo”) has successfully completed the sale of approximately c. 2.6 million shares in Avio S.p.A. (“Avio”) equivalent to c. 9.4% of its share capital (the “Placement” or the “Transaction”). 

Following the Placement, Leonardo holds approximately 19.0% of the share capital of Avio. 

The Placement, carried out through an accelerated bookbuilding procedure, was priced at Euro 37.50 per share and will be settled by delivery of shares and payment of the consideration on 31st October 2025. 

In the context of the Transaction, Leonardo has agreed to a 90-day lock-up period on its remaining shares in Avio, in line with market practice. 

In connection with the Transaction, Intesa Sanpaolo, Jefferies and Morgan Stanley acted as Joint Global Coordinators and Joint Bookrunners.

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IMPORTANT INFORMATION
The distribution of this announcement and the offer and sale of the Placing Shares in certain jurisdictions may be restricted by law. The Placing Shares may not be offered to the public in any jurisdiction in circumstances which would require the preparation or registration of any prospectus or offering document relating to the Placing Shares in such jurisdiction. No action has been taken by Leonardo, the Joint Global Coordinators  and Joint Bookrunners or any of their respective affiliates that would permit an offering of the Placing Shares or possession or distribution of this announcement or any other offering or publicity material relating to such securities in any jurisdiction where action for that purpose is required.

This announcement is not for publication, distribution or release, directly or indirectly, in or into the United States of America (including its territories and dependencies, any State of the United States and the District of Columbia), Australia, Canada or Japan or any other jurisdiction where such an announcement would be unlawful. The distribution of this announcement may be restricted by law in certain jurisdictions and persons into whose possession this document or other information referred to herein comes should inform themselves about and observe any such restriction. Any failure to comply with these restrictions may constitute a violation of the securities laws of any such jurisdiction.

No prospectus or offering document has been or will be prepared in connection with the Placing. Any investment decision to buy securities in the Placing must be made solely on the basis of publicly available information. Such information is not the responsibility of and has not been independently verified by Leonardo, the Joint Global Coordinators and Joint Bookrunners or any of their respective affiliates.

The securities referred to herein have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and may not be offered or sold in the United States except pursuant to an exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act. Neither this document nor the information contained herein constitutes or forms part of an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy securities in the United States. There will be no public offer of any securities in the United States. No action has been taken that would permit an offering of the securities or possession or distribution of this announcement in any jurisdiction where action for that purpose is required. Persons into whose possession this announcement comes are required to inform themselves about and to observe any such restrictions.

In the EEA member states (each such EEA member state a “Relevant State”), this press release and the information contained herein is intended only for and directed only to “qualified investors” as defined in Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2017 on the prospectus to be published when securities are offered to the public or admitted to trading on a regulated market, and repealing Directive 2003/71/EC (together with any related implementing and delegated regulations, the “Prospectus Regulation”). The securities mentioned in this press release are not intended to be offered to the public in any Relevant State and are only available to qualified investors. Persons in any Relevant State who are not qualified investors should not take any actions based on this press release, nor rely on it. 

In the United Kingdom, this announcement and any other materials in relation to the securities described herein are only being distributed to, and are only directed at, and any investment or investment activity to which this document relates is available only to, and will be engaged in only with, “qualified investors” (within the meaning of assimilated Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 as it forms part of the law of the United Kingdom by virtue of the EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018) who (i) have professional experience in matters relating to investments which fall within Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 (as amended, the “Order”), (ii) are persons falling within Article 49(2)(a) to (d) of the Order, (iii) are outside the United Kingdom, or (iv) are persons to whom an invitation or inducement to engage in investment activity (within the meaning of section 21 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000) in connection with the issue or sale of any securities may otherwise lawfully be communicated or caused to be communicated (all such persons together being referred to as “relevant persons”). This announcement is directed only at relevant persons and must not be acted on or relied on by persons who are not relevant persons. Any investment or investment activity to which this announcement relates is available only to relevant persons and will be engaged in only with relevant persons.

Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A., Jefferies GmbH and Morgan Stanley & Co. International plc are acting for Leonardo only in connection with the Placing and will not be responsible to anyone other than Leonardo for providing the protections offered to the respective clients of the Joint Global Coordinators and Joint Bookrunners, nor for providing advice in relation to the Placing or any matters referred to in this announcement.

In London’s gleaming Docklands, developers stare at rolling lines of code as their models devour new data sets. Forty miles northwest in Milton Keynes, a procurement team watches a first-draft bid spring to life in seconds. And somewhere in the Midlands, a customer-experience manager gets an instant alert that prevents a six-figure product recall.

All of these moments share a common thread: Microsoft’s GenAI Accelerator.

A launch-pad built for AI

When Microsoft announced the GenAI Accelerator in November 2024, it set out to fix a specific problem: Britain is teeming with artificial-intelligence talent, but founders struggle to access the compute power, sales channels, and technical expertise needed to grow. By teaming with NVIDIA and GitHub, Microsoft promised to remove road-blocks and help “create the tech powerhouses of tomorrow”.

Across a six-week programme the cohort received free Azure credits, membership of NVIDIA’s Inception programme, and support from Microsoft’s AI ‘Black Belt’ engineers. The result, participants say, is a step-change in speed.

Two of the companies already turning that support into visible impact are SentiSum, an AI-native customer feedback platform, and AutogenAI, the bid-writing engine that’s changing how billions of pounds of contracts are won.

“The GenAI Accelerator provided invaluable access to technical advisors, partner managers, and experts at Microsoft,” says Sharad Khandelwal, cofounder and CEO of SentiSum.

“We gained visibility in critical AI and SaaS [Software as a Service] communities, and it gave us the credibility to partner with enterprise customers who value Microsoft’s stamp of quality.”

SentiSum: Feedback into insight

Legacy ‘Voice of the Customer’ (VoC) feedback tools rely on old-fashioned surveys and dashboards all too often siloed from each other. SentiSum’s Kyo assistant analyses every chat, email, call and review in real time, telling brands not just what went wrong, but why.

“We’ve built it specifically for the voice of the customer, fine-tuned on millions of real customer experience interactions,” explains Khandelwal. “This gives it a deep understanding of customer language, intent, and context off-the-shelf models can’t match.”

That precision recently saved a global food brand from disaster.

“Our AI flagged a packaging error within hours of the first complaints, helping the team avoid a £250,000 recall,” he says.

Other wins include a 30% drop in escalations – issues serious enough to be bumped up to managers – for a transport client, and six months of manual analysis replaced by automated insights at a national retailer. The common theme, Khandelwal argues, is trust.

“Customers care less about flashy AI and more about answers they genuinely believe and rely on under pressure,” he says. “The most effective AI feels invisible to the user.”

With fresh Azure cloud capacity to power these AI options, along with new Marketplace exposure, SentiSum is now scaling Kyo as a “Customer Second Brain” across EMEA and the US, while adding executive-ready reporting and deeper workflow integrations.

“Our ambition is to become the intelligence layer that powers how businesses understand and act on the voice of the customer,” Khandelwal says.

AutogenAI: Winning at warp speed

Procurement specialists, who vet purchasing deals and pricing, live in a world of red lines and tight deadlines. AutogenAI exists to flip that stress on its head.

“We help organisations win more work by transforming how they write bids, proposals and grant applications,” explains Sean Williams, founder and CEO of AutogenAI.

Rather than rely on a single model, AutogenAI combines multiple Large Language Models (LLMs) to pick and choose from, so that “every output reflects a client’s tone, terminology, and best practice,” Williams says.

The impact has been seismic.

Public-services giant Serco reports an 85% uplift in efficiency and a 5% rise in global revenue after integrating AutogenAI.

“The first of our Impact Pilots has already seen us use its functionality more than 6,000 times, generating significant knowledge content,” says Serco CEO Mark Irwin.

And inside AutogenAI, the team is ‘dogfooding’ the product with great success. This means using and testing a brand’s services in its own workflows.

“Our sales teams use AutogenAI to personalise outreach at scale, while our customer success team drafts tailored documentation and proposal templates faster than ever. Employees consistently say it reduces time spent on repetitive tasks, improves quality, and gives them space to focus on strategic, high-impact work,” Williams notes.

The GenAI Accelerator, Williams stresses, was a key catalyst. It has “provided us with valuable tools and resources to accelerate the delivery of our Azure platform integration, as well as direct access to key Microsoft stakeholders.”

Both founders highlight three features that set the GenAI programme apart: computing power at scale; embedded experts; and a ready-made sales channel. With a Marketplace listing, Microsoft field-seller briefings, and a venture-capitalist-packed Demo Day, the programme puts start-ups in front of the customers and capital they need.

Looking ahead

SentiSum’s ambition is to become the intelligence layer that powers how businesses understand and act on the voice of the customer. AutogenAI is adding multilingual engines and deeper compliance checks so clients can compete across regions and sectors.

Their advice to other start-ups is refreshingly pragmatic.

“Build a product that solves a real-world problem that you understand. Ship the product as soon as possible. Iterate quickly,” says Williams.

Khandelwal offers a similar mantra: “Stay opinionated. Keep it simple. The companies that win are the ones that stay close to their customers and solve problems that matter.”

Less than a year after launch, the GenAI Accelerator is proving that when founders are armed with world-class tools and mentorship, they are empowered to convert bold ideas into solutions that make life better for their customers.