SIG selling interiors manufacturing to reduce its debts

INSULATION and roofing group SIG is to sell its interiors manufacturing business to Laidlaw Interiors Group for £14m in cash.

Sheffield-based SIG said the sale is backed by Rutland Partners, a UK private equity firm.

SIG’s interiors manufacturing business designs, manufactures and supplies performance door sets, partitions, washrooms and glazing products in the UK, mainly to non-residential markets.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The business trades under the Leaderflush & Shapland, Komfort Workspace, Cubicle Systems and SIG Glazing Services brand names.

The business had gross assets of £41.8m at the end of December. It made a pre-tax loss of £49.2m in 2010, after restructuring and goodwill impairment charges.

It made a pre-exceptional operating loss of £2.4m on revenues of £83.2m during the year.

The proceeds of the sale will be used to reduce SIG’s net debt.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Chris Davies, SIG’s chief executive, said: “Consistent with our key strategic initiative to improve performance by actively managing the group’s portfolio of businesses, we are pleased to announce the sale of SIG Interiors Manufacturing to Laidlaw and Rutland Partners.

“This divestment, together with the recent disposals of our scaffolding and safety and workwear businesses, enables us to better focus on our core distribution and merchanting operations and helps to rebalance the group’s exposure further towards residential markets.”

Earlier this month SIG said it expects first-half underlying pre-tax profit to almost double, helped by a strong performance in Europe and an increase in prices for its products.

The company said it expects underlying pre-tax profits for the six months to June 30 to be about £34m, up from £18.5m last year.

But trading is expected to slow down in the second half.

Related topics: