The takeover over Eddie Stobart has been completed.
The board of the Cumbrian-born logistics giant announced that the transaction, that sees it come under the control of international investment firm DBAY Advisors was completed on Monday (December 9).
DouglasBay Capital III Fund LP – a fund managed by DBAY – has, through Marcelos Limited, acquired a 51 per cent stake in Greenwhitestar Acquisitions Limited, which until the completion of the transaction, was the holding company for Eddie Stobart’s trading entities.
And, in a statement issued to the London Stock Exchange, Eddie Stobart confirmed DBAY has injected “approximately” £55 million worth of new financing, in the form of a high interest loan, into Greenwhitestar to keep the company on the road following an uncertain few months.
Shareholders voted through the DBAY deal at a meeting on Friday by “an overwhelming” 80.76 per cent.
They had previously been warned by both the Eddie Stobart board and DBAY that failing to back the deal ran the risk of the company going bust.
Mounting debts, a £200 million IOU to its lenders, a £2m accounting error that resulted in its shares on the junior AIM stock exchange being suspended in August, along with a warning that losses for the first half of 2019 could be higher than £12m, combined to create a bleak outlook for the company.
However, shareholder approval of the deal from Isle of Man-based DBAY, who previously owned Eddie Stobart between 2014 and 2017, was roundly welcomed for providing security to the company’s 6,500 staff and its customers, who had been facing the real prospect of being left in the lurch over the busy festive period if the worst had happened.
Eddie Stobart chief executive Sébastien Desreumaux, said approval gave the company the “opportunity to move forward and look to deliver sustainable growth and profitability from a stable footing”, while DBAY said it was “confident” it would “return to its previous strength”.
Mr Desreumaux and finance director Anoop Kang have stepped down as directors of the company to join the board of Greenwhitestar.
Philip Swatman has stepped down as chairman and a director of the company.
William Stobart – fourth child of company founder Eddie – will return to the company as executive chairman of Greenwhitestar.
Mr Stobart – who previously served as executive chairman of Eddie Stobart until 2017 – will now work with the Eddie Stobart management to boost its financial performance over the rest of the festive period, marking the first step of the haulier’s long road to recovery.
Completion of the deal also kills off any chance of the rival bid put forward by high-profile Cumbrian businessman and former Eddie Stobart chief executive, Andrew Tinkler, who had been aiming to knock DBAY’s rescue bid off the road.
Mr Tinkler had spent a frantic few weeks trying to gain support for a rival bid that would see his company TVFB inject £80m of equity funding – around £10m of which would come from his own pocket, and the rest from institutional and other investors.
Despite gathering up a 6.5 per cent stake in the company and questioning DBAY’s warning that Eddie Stobart was facing an imminent liquidity issue, Mr Tinkler failed to catch the eye of shareholders.
Speaking after the vote, a pragmatic Mr Tinkler conceded defeat but stressed that the battle for control of the company had not soured his relationship with friend, business partner and former brother-in-law William Stobart.
“If they need me, they can call on me,” he said.
“They’ll have to work hard to make it work and I wish them well. I hope they are able to get it back to where it was when I left.”
Mr Tinkler’s association with Eddie Stobart started from humble beginnings.
He was first employed to wash and maintain trucks in the early 1980s but rose to become chief executive for a decade between 2004 and 2014.
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