(Alliance News) -Â 600 Group PLC on Friday said it has secured a new UK loan, and it has seen a recovery in activity levels.
The industrial engineering firm said that, while activity is still reduced, its order backlog has returned to "acceptable levels" and is down around 15% on a year ago. All sites are operational.
The company's UK machine tool business, Colchester Machine Tools Solutions, has secured a GBP1.2 million new term loan with a 3-year bullet repayment under the coronavirus large business interruption loan scheme through HSBC Holdings PLC.
600 Group said it continues to take advantage of government stimulus packages, such as the new UK loan and loans under the US government Paycheck Protection Program.
"The de-risking of the group in the previous year with the receipt of surplus from the successful pension scheme buy out and the sale of the Gamet business and property has helped the group stabilise debt levels. Group debt, at USD14.5 million excluding the government loan assistance, remains in line with that at the end of March 2020, and the group is covenant compliant with adequate banking facilities," 600 Group said.
600 Group said that, due to delays to audit fieldwork caused by Covid-19, more time is needed to publish its annual results. It aims to file its financial statements, for the year ended in March, "as soon as possible" and no later than the end of 2020.
Executive Chair Paul Dupee said: "These are unprecedented times. We have taken decisive action to ensure our workforce and technical competencies remain intact through this period of uncertainty so that the group can react quickly as markets improve".
600 Group shares were untraded at 8.10 pence in London on Friday.
By Lucy Heming;Â lucyheming@alliancenews.com
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