Restructuring given go-ahed for consultancy

The restructuring is expected to be formally completed by July 20.

The £30m fundraising will free the group of bank control and will leave it with cash to build the business.

The Leeds-based group brought onboard a range of unnamed institutional investors through the oversubscribed placing, but added the hugely dilutive capital restructure will leave existing shareholders with only 1.1 per cent of its equity.

WYG needed to raise the cash after coming close to breaching its banking covenants and struggling to achieve profitability amid deeply depressed UK and Irish markets.

It warned last month that its debt and the costs of servicing it are unsustainable.

Under the deal, the group’s lenders, Lloyds, Royal Bank of Scotland and Fortis, have accepted hefty writedowns on the £51m they are owed.

In total, they will have effectively written off about £100m of WYG’s debt over the past two years.