Styles & Wood offer of new shares oversubscribed by 43%

Bringing in fresh blood to head up Styles & Wood and save the fit-out specialist from keeling over has paid off big time.

To put the business back on an even keel it needed to issue more shares to raise fresh cash – and this morning new chief executive Ivan McKeever reported that the “open offer” for the new shares was oversubscribed by 43%.

McKeever said: “I am delighted that the open offer has been so significantly oversubscribed. The recession won’t last forever and we are now well positioned to be a beneficiary of an upturn in the market place.

 “With the refinance now behind us we very much look forward to getting on with driving the business forward from such a solid base.”

Other life-saving moves included a debt-for-equity swop and new bank facilities.

S&W made a pre-tax loss of £950,000 in the year to the end of 2008 which represents a huge collapse from the pre-tax profit figure of £12m in the previous year.

The sort-out involved the departure of Neil Davies as the former chief executive and Gerard Quiligotti, the group’s former chairman.

During 2008 Davies and Quiligotti attempted to buy the group and take it private but they got cold feet, leaving the new management team with a bill of £300,000.