4 May 2011 – various

Shares in the company have been restored to listing following the publication of the results for the 14 months to 31 December.  These revealed a loss before tax and exceptionals of £0.8m (2009: £5.5m profit) although exceptional costs of £28.7m were incurred.  The latter include the write down of intangible assets, a stock shortfall, reorganisation costs and finance and litigation costs.  As regular readers will know, last year was very troublesome for the group and to help reduce borrowings it has sold off its marine business for net proceeds expected to be around £27m. 

Following this disposal, Cosalt will be a focused provider of specialist critical safety equipment and related services operating in the offshore oil and gas and renewables sectors.  Further cost reductions are expected and chairman David Ross is also providing additional funding to safeguard the business going forward.  In the short-term the shares are likely to mark time and so we only rate them as a HOLD.