黑洞社区

A government minister has branded the shareholders which voted down Interserve鈥檚 rescue plan 鈥済reedy capitalists鈥� after the decision sent it packing into administration.

Oliver Dowden, parliamentary secretary at the Cabinet Office, threw his weight behind Interserve as he responded to an urgent question tabled by the opposition in the House of Commons on Monday night.

He said Interserve had sought a refinancing to strengthen its balance sheet but 鈥渋t failed to do that because of the position taken, some might say, by some greedy capitalists, in respect of some the hedge funds that owned shares in the company and refused to consent to its restructuring鈥�.

A source close to Coltrane, which held 28% of Interserve鈥檚 shares and led a rebellion against its deleveraging plan, told 黑洞社区 on Monday the firm had taken a 鈥減rincipled stand鈥� against the 鈥減ig-headed鈥� board.

Shadow Cabinet secretary Christian Matheson had earlier asked the minister: 鈥淲ould [he] agree the company has simply been hoovering up contracts willy-nilly, regardless of expertise and clearly without regard to the financial implications of such a strategy?鈥�

Dowden (pictured) said that unlike Carillion, 鈥渨hich had problems across all its contract base and issues with its management,鈥� there is only 鈥渙ne major problem for Interserve and that is in respect of its energy for waste contracts鈥�.