Interior solutions provider Havelock Europa announced it had finalised an agreement to secure additional funding for the group at the same time it issued an update on its recently ended trading year on Tuesday.
Havelock reached an agreement in principle on a package of proposals, including an extension of its existing senior debt facilities of £5m for at least two more years, an additional subordinated debt financing of £3m for a committed term of six years, and a revised deficit reduction contribution payable to its pension scheme.

All of which, when executed, would negatively impact the AIM-quoted firm's profit and loss account by around £500,000 a year for the next two years, but would provide sufficient funding to support the delivery of Havelock's strategic and short-term operational plans.

Havelock highlighted the fact that although its performance in the second half of the 2017 trading year "represented a substantial improvement over the first half", it still expected that it would remain loss-making over the period.

Shaun Ormrod, chief executive, said, "2017 was a difficult year for Havelock but we have begun 2018 with the business fully aligned behind the new plan we set out on 31 October 2017. With a renewed commercial focus and with the backing of our funders, I am confident that the business can return to a position of market leadership in the medium term."

Havelock expects to announce its preliminary results for the financial year ended 31 December 2017 by mid-April 2018.

As of 1200 GMT, shares had surged 26.32% to 4.80p.

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