Rejection of Dawson rescue plan branded short-termist

The 140-year-old Scottish firm is considering appointing administrators, threatening 200 jobs, after failing to dump its ballooning pension liabilities into the Pension Protection Fund (PPF).

Yorkshire textiles firm Leeds Group –in which Mr Gyllenhammar is a major investor – has admitted the value of its 29 per cent stake in Dawson is now “very uncertain”.

The PPF and Pensions Regulator recently rejected as insufficient Dawson’s offer of cash, a loan note and a third of the company, in return for taking on its pension liabilities. However, the PPF will end up rescuing the schemes in an administration.

Mr Gyllenhammar, a former non-executive director at Leeds Group, said there is “tremendous business value in some of the Dawson activities”, but the PPF’s rejection is “exceptionally frustrating and dangerous”.

Mr Gyllenhammar said Dawson’s offer was a “clear win-win situation”. “It is not better to get six rather than five? It’s very short-termist.”

The Swedish investor called for a radical pensions overhaul so companies are not held responsible for increased liabilities when circumstances change through no fault of their own – such as greater longevity and new tax rules.

“When these undertakings were made there were assumptions made about the future – and the future has developed very differently,” he said.

He believes company pension schemes should be “centralised and Government-backed”. Otherwise, he said, more firms will find it impossible to invest as they are burdened with growing costs.

Mr Gyllenhammar owns 21.3 per cent of Leeds Group. The company wrote down its investment in Dawson by £236,000 last month.

He also revealed his 20 per cent investment in Doncaster-based surface coal miner ATH Resources has lost him about £1.5m.

The investor has a track record of buying into undervalued companies on the stock market, particularly Yorkshire firms.

However, his ATH investment backfired when higher fuel prices and lower coal prices hammered its profits. He will wait for coal prices to firm before buying more ATH shares becomes an “attractive proposition”.

The PPF has declined to comment on Dawson.