Materials firm completed £165m equity raise over summer

Materials firm SIG said it expects to stay in the red in the second half of the year after the firm slumped to a £125m pre-tax loss in the first six months.

The firm, which over the summer shored up its finances with a £165m equity raise which included £60m from New York private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, crashed to a £125.4m loss in the six months to June from a £2.2m profit last time.

Signage

Revenue was down from £1.1bn to £840m as the firm said sales had been hit by the impact of covid-19.

SIG, which earlier this year was forced to pull plans to sell its insulation panels business to Kingspan for £37.5m saying a regulatory investigation into the move had helped sink the deal, said losses in the second half would be at a lower rate. Last year, the firm fell to a £113m pre-tax loss.

The firm said furloughing 2,000 staff and other wage-saving measures had helped keep £8m of cash in the business in the period to May 2020 while a series of government deferrals on tax in the UK and Europe had helped it defer £15m of cash payments during the same period.

The majority of furloughed staff are now back at work, it added.

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