By Joey Gardiner, 21 February 2002 12:30
NEWS Shares in Energis have been cut in half after the UK business telco confirmed it is to sell its overseas operations, lose 400 staff and default on loans. Energis shares fell 51 per cent to 6.5p by 11:30(GMT), just half an hour after issuing a statement detailing the news. It also revealed it is to lose two executive directors, John Beaumont and Bob Taylor, and, more ominously still, that it could no longer count on the financial support of the privatised National Grid. Energis was born out of a scheme to send high bandwidth communications wires through the National Grid power network, and the company still owns a quarter of Energis. However, in its statement today Energis said the National Grid Group had advised the Board of Energis that it: "Should not assume that it can rely on NGG for additional financial support." Energis has been forced to renegotiate loans with its bankers, and said in the light of this it could no longer afford to bail out the loss-making European operations.
In order to post a comment you need to be registered and logged in.
Log in or create your silicon.com account below