Hughes Armstrong-backed Davy Markham goes into administration

The GP has written off its investment in the firm, ending a four-year holding period after it carved out the business from IVRCL in 2014.

Yasmin Bhikha and John Lowe of FRP Advisory were appointed joint administrators on 26 February 2018.

Davy Markham announced last week that 100 of its 140 staff would be made redundant in the process. The company recorded a loss of £2m on revenues of £8.4m for the financial year ending in June 2016.

In the latest publicly available strategic report published by Davy Markham in April 2017, it was noted that Hughes Armstrong continued to support the business and that a further £3m in loans was converted into equity on 30 March 2017.

A source close to the investment told Unquote: "Hughes Armstrong applied significant operational and financial resources to the company during its ownership. Unfortunately, headwinds in the oil & gas, steel and mining sectors, combined with challenging conditions for UK manufacturing as a whole, made the company's turnaround much tougher than expected."

Hughes Armstrong itself announced changes to its management team in December 2017, citing "excessive headwinds" in its key markets as the reason for the reorganisation.

Swiss fund-of-funds Clearsight Investments is the sole LP in Hughes Armstrong's £15m turnaround fund, according to publicly available documents.

Company
Davy Markham was incorporated in 2006 but can trace its name back as far as 1830, according to press reports. The company designs and manufactures heavy and complex components for civil engineering projects. The company recorded a loss of £2m on revenues of £8.4m for the financial year ending June 2016. It employed 140 people.

People
Davy Markham – Mark Clark, Stephen Lord, Michael Robotham, John Stewart Watson (directors).

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