Cosalt chairman provides £5m of working capital

David Ross provided the funding through his Oval company, which was established as a vehicle to buy the Grimsby-based business.

Cosalt said today that Mr Ross would be prepared to provide a further £5m of longer-term funding if his offer of £400,000 for the company was declared unconditional by December 22 and the facility had been repaid by that date.

However, if the offer has not been declared unconditional, the board said it will to seek Oval’s agreement to an extension of the facility’s repayment date.

The £5m is available with immediate effect.

Mr Ross already owns 15 per cent of Cosalt’s shares and Oval has also received the backing of Sovereign Holdings which owns 18 per cent.