The troubled consultant High-Point Rendel has finally completed a management buyout, nearly a year after it began talks to leave the stock exchange.
The firm struck the deal last month, just weeks after it was given a two-month reprieve by Barclays to repay an outstanding £2.9m loan.

The buyout was led by chairman Sir Alan Cockshaw and chief executive Kelvin Hingley, who formed a company called Charco to carry out the deal. The deal was backed by Tenon Corporate Finance.

In a statement, Cockshaw said: "I believe this solution immediately overcomes the current uncertainty in the company. It will allow management to focus solely on the development of its core activities from a platform of sustainable financial stability."

The buyout follows an uncertain year for the Birmingham-based group. The firm first revealed it was in talks with a bank to go private in October last year, as it feared a hostile takeover.

Two months later it emerged that nine directors and senior employees agreed to forgo their salaries to shore up the firm after it posted a £2.5m loss.

In the summer, the company revealed it was still owed more than £4m in unpaid fees from the Middle and Far East, which led to speculation that a buyout deal was faltering. This had stopped the firm repaying the Barclays loan.

The uncertainty over the firm's prospects led to a crash in its share price from a high of 60p last year to a low of 4.5p this year.