Mon, 18 Feb 2013 | ADMINISTRATION
Offshore services group Cosalt has entered administration having buckled under the weight of its huge debts.
Cosalt asked its banks late last week to bring in the administrators after it had been unable to raise the funds necessary from its investors to address its £17 million debts and more than £9 million in pension deficits. Chairman David Ross (co-founder of Carphone Warehouse) had already injected £18.6 million of his own cash into his grandfather’s business through share purchases and loans.
One subsidiary, Cosalt Offshore, which supplies marine safety tools, lifting equipment and carries out safety checks, is in the process of being bought by NBI Private Equity. The deal will secure 250 employees’ positions.
NBI Private Equity already owns ATR Group, which operates in the same industry as Cosalt, renting tools and equipment to operators in the offshore oil and gas sector. The merged business will have a workforce of 400, and revenues of £55 million.
ATR chief executive Keith Moorhouse, who is to become head of the combined business, told the BBC: “Cosalt has an excellent technical and operational reputation and is an integral part of the supply chain of many of the energy sector’s leading oil service companies and operators.
“Cosalt and ATR will be pooling their significant resources and technical expertise to deliver a broad, integrated service offering to the oil and gas industry.”
Cosalt is also in talks to sell off another subsidiary, Cosalt Workwear, with possible buyers. It makes high visibility jackets and other safety clothing.
The group had warned last week that it faced entering an insolvency process soon if it could not come to an agreement with its banks. Though Cosalt was in talks with fundraisers, including its own investors, no alternative sources of funding came to light.
Headquartered in Grimsby, the firm started out in 1873 as a fishermen’s safety co-operative.
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