Interserve: tough on tracker funds
Swapping debt for new shares seems to be the only way to rescue outsourcer Interserve. But a recovery plan will leave existing investors with just 2.5% of the company.
Interserve’s (IRV) rescue plan has left its current shareholders with just 2.5% of the beleaguered company. The outsourcer, whose shares have fallen 98% from all-time highs, will now be majority owned by the banks and other creditors which backed a £75m rights issue and have agreed to swap part of the company’s debt for shares. It’s a slightly better outcome to the Carillion debacle – which collapsed into liquidation last year, leaving investors with nothing – but only just. Stephen Rawlinson, an analyst at Applied Value, said existing shareholders, “are between a rock and a hard place”. They still get to…