Cosalt in dire straits

Cosalt, the struggling Grimsby-based safety company for the oil and gas sector, has said that the firm's cash flow position has continued to deteriorate.

The company now has only £900,000 of bank facilities available, which represents sufficient working capital only until 30 November 2011.

"The company is therefore now in urgent discussions with its major shareholders and banking partners," the firm said.

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"The board is also in the process of appointing restructuring advisers to assist management in assessing options available to the company for realisation of assets or refinancing."

The company's independent directors and advisers are currently in discussions with non-executive chairman David Ross, whose family has been involved with Cosalt for 50 years. On the 17 November he made an offer of 0.1p per share, valuing the company at £404,000. The current market capitalisation is approximately £1.86m, so the offer is at a huge discount. Cosalt's share price at 10:45am was 0.46p, down 40% on the day, 87% on the year and 99.82% over the last five years.

The share price lost 29.41% to 0.3p by 08:26.

NR