News blog

Silverdell

• BY: Andrew Hore |
• POSTED: 11/12/2013 |

It is questionable whether asbestos company Silverdell will return from suspension after HSBC sold its loans to Silverdell to Rcapital Partners, which has swapped £5.5m of the debt for two businesses.

Rcapital, which is likely to have bought the debt at a discount, is still owed £10.5m. On top of this, EDS Decommissioning Canada Inc has voluntarily gone into bankruptcy, with PwC appointed as trustee in bankruptcy. The Canadian business had run up large debtors in the most recent interim figures but in the 12 months to September 2012 it generated an operating profit of £1.66m.

Rcapital has bought Silverdell’s consulting businesses, which generated operating profit of £1.54m in 2011-12, although interim margins were lower. This means that Silverdell still has businesses that generated £1.37m in 2011-12 but they had a tough six months to March 2013.

At the suspension price of 12.75p a share, Silverdell was valued at £39.9m but it is nearly six months since that suspension in trading commenced on 2 July.

Stuart Doughty, John Matthews, Mark Watts and Mark Hazlewood have decided to resign from the board even though they felt that the sale of the two businesses to Rcapital was “the only feasible option available to the group at this point”. Hazlewood only became finance director on 9 September. Sean Nutley is staying and according to the announcement he is “sharing in the investment risk and returns with Rcapital Partners”. Rcapital subsidiary Condatis will be the other director. Nominated adviser finnCap has not performed due diligence on Condatis and did not provide an opinion on the disposal.

Condatis was a diety worshipped in northern Britain who was associated with the confluences of rivers. It is not clear whether Silverdell has a paddle.

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