ROBERT BONNIER, the co-founder of the Scoot.com online directory and recipient of the City regulator’s second-biggest personal fine, is to head an AIM-listed cash shell.

Mr Bonnier, who was fined £290,000 by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in December 2004 and censured by the Takeover Panel a year earlier, yesterday became the chief executive of Future Internet Technologies, a venture capitalist targeting telecoms companies.

Mr Bonnier accompanied his appointment with the purchase of stock worth £5.25 million in a share placing yesterday, taking his total stake to 12.7 per cent and making him Future’s biggest investor.

The AIM shell raised a total of about £50 million yesterday on top of the £8 million amassed in its first fundraising in November.

Mr Bonnier, 36, said: “We have seen how Google has changed the way we search and iPod the way we listen to music — we want to do something like that on the telecoms side.

“We may make some small additional acquisitions but the key components are in place and it is up to us to get down to business.”

In its first deal, also announced yesterday, Future has bought a 45 per cent stake in Advance Global Communications, a so-called voice-over internet protocol provider, which enables telephone calls to be made online.

Future has also bought 49 per cent of Artilium, a developer of technologies that link mobile and fixed-line phones to computers.

John Morley, former head of Investec’s smaller companies sales team and one-time employee of Collins Stewart, joined Future at the same time as Mr Bonnier.

Mr Morley, 41, has been appointed as a director and non-executive chairman of the cash shell.

Mr Bonnier held the record for the largest fine levied by the FSA on an individual until the beginning of this month when Philippe Jabre was fined £750,000 after being found guilty of market abuse for trading on inside information on behalf of GLG, the hedge fund group.

Mr Bonnier left Indigo Capital, the New York hedge fund at which he committed his offence, about three years ago. Since then he has managed his personal portfolio of five investments, which include a 6 per cent stake in SCi Entertainment, the video games company behind the Lara Croft character.

His portfolio also contains a smaller stake in Regus, the managed offices company that was the subject of his market abuse.

Future also announced yesterday that it would create a new “unified communication service”, which will enable users of the service to transfer instant messages and phone calls between mobile phones and computers.

The company also has options to buy the remainder of Advance Global Communications and Artilium within the next year.

MARKET MISLED IN REGUS SIEGE

But Mr Bonnier said that investors in Future Internet Technologies felt “comfortable with the situation in 2002”.

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