Tuesday 26 February 2019 4:53 pm | Updated: Monday 03 June 2019 1:48 am

Decision time: Interserve gives shareholders date to vote on rescue plan which could decide its future

Outsourcer Interserve has announced the March date of its all-important general meeting in which it hopes shareholders will vote in favour of its divisive rescue refinancing deal.

The company announced the meeting will be on 26 March shortly before trading closed for the day, but it still saw shares plummet nearly 10 per cent in the closing minutes before the bell.

Interserve needs 50 per cent of shareholders to approve of its plan for it to go ahead – if not, it faces the possibility of going into administration. But its lead shareholder, hedge fund Coltrane Asset Management, has said it will reject the original plan, and rallied another smaller shareholder, meaning at least one-third are already set against it.

Shares had been climbing steeply today as investors continued holding their breath for a rethink of the plan, and were more than 30 per cent up before the meeting date was set.

The firm is expected to publish an updated version of the plan tomorrow morning after Coltrane demanded it make changes on Thursday night.

Coltrane, which holds 27.7 per cent of the firm, rebelled earlier this month against the outsourcing giant’s initial proposal to hand 97.5 per cent of its market value to lenders including RBS, BNP Paribas and HSBC, as well as rival hedge funds Emerald Investment and Davidson Kempner.

The hedge fund demanded the outsourcer’s entire board step down, except for chief executive Debbie White.

Then, last week, it put forward an alternative proposal that involves quadrupling existing shareholders’ stake to 10 per cent, while offering 65 per cent to the lenders and offering investors a further 25 per cent of equity via a rights issue.