Ennstone's main debt holder still looking for a 'solvent solution'

Ennstone has confirmed that Marwyn Materials was the only offer that the UK aggregates group had received - but with that now gone, he quickly pushed aside talk of pre-pack administration being the next step for Ennstone.

Ennstone has debts of £200m, Barclays Bank accounting for £170m of that total.

Barclays is still supportive of Ennstone’s moves to find a solvent solution, said a spokesman.

The fact that talks with Marwyn rumbled on for so long – they got under way on 19 September last year – shows that the two parties valuations of assets were "never miles apart" he suggested.

“But Marwyn wasn’t the only game in town and there are still the possibilities of selling parts or the whole, it’s just that there is now one less option,” he added.

Apart from Barclays’ £170m of debt, the balance owed by Ennstone is to the Bank of Wachovia, a little-known name in the UK but once the third-largest bank in the world.