Privately owned housebuilder Miller Group has revealed full details of its financial restructuring as it posted a narrowing pretax loss.
The Scottish-based group took £62.4m of writedowns related to the debt and equity deal which pushed it to a pre-tax loss of £92.8m for 2011 – an improvement on its £156.8m loss the previous year. It made an operating profit of £6m.
The restructuring was led by US private equity group Blackstone, which took a 54% slice of the firm through subsidiary GSO Capital Partners after leading a £160m equity injection into the group.
As part of the deal, which completed earlier this month, Royal Bank of Scotland took a 23% holding, while Lloyds Banking Group and National Australia Bank received a combined 10% after the three lenders exchanged £264.5m of debt for equity.
Edinburgh-based merchant bank Noble Grossart took a 5% stake in the company while existing shareholders and management were left with 8%.
Group chief executive Keith Miller said the year was one of “substantial progress” for the housebuilding, property, mining and construction group, which has been labouring under debts amassed during the boom.
All four divisions were profitable last year and Miller added that the group “is now in a position to create significant new business” in 2012.
