Safety gear maker Cosalt to appoint administrators

Feb 15 (Reuters) - Safety equipment maker Cosalt Plc, which warned last week it faced insolvency, said itsbankers would appoint administrators to run the company afterfailing to reach an agreement on its debts and funding for itspension scheme.

The company said it had failed to find an alternative sourceof funding demanded by two lenders - HSBC Bank and RBS - who had threatened to enforce security on loans.

The lenders fear the company does not have enough money tosustain its operations while it seeks shareholder approval tosell its two main businesses, Cosalt Offshore and CosaltWorkwear.

Cosalt, whose products include life rafts and fire-fightingequipment, ended 2012 with 17 million pounds ($26 million) ofdebt and has been kept afloat thanks to loans from its chairman,David Ross, the co-founder of Europe's biggest independentmobile phone retailer Carphone Warehouse Group.

Cosalt has also been weighed down by the amount it owes itspension scheme, which had a deficit of about 9 million pounds atthe end of 2010, a figure the company said had since grown.

The administrators will seek to sell Cosalt Offshore andCosalt Workwear and no employees, customers or suppliers areexpected to be materially affected, Cosalt said in astatement.

An agreement to sell Cosalt Offshore has already beennegotiated, it added.