'Significant interest' in Trustmarque - sources

Sources close to the company optimistic for reseller's future

Trustmarque's financial restructuring process could be resolved as soon as early next week, according to sources close to the firm, who are optimistic about its future.

On Tuesday, CRN exclusively revealed the firm was thought to be "reviewing its strategic options" and unable to pay staff after Sunday. Sources point to a funding gap appearing in the firm's accounts as being behind the search for alternative funding options.

According to one source close to events, there has been "significant interest" in the company as it works through its restructuring process and it could be business as usual as early as the beginning of next week.

Last summer, the firm's chief executive and sales director Scott Haddow and Angelo di Ventura led a £43m management buyout of the company, backed by private-equity house Dunedin.

Its finance director Victoria Godliman stepped down in the summer, according to documents recently filed with Companies House.

Ian Spence, founder of analyst Megabuyte, said he was "perplexed" that Trustmarque had run into difficulties so soon after last summer's buyout.

"Could it be... that the business was simply too highly leveraged in the first place?," he speculated.

"We expressed surprise at the price paid for the business at the time of the 2013 buyout; nearly 10 times trailing EBITDA (although it was nearer seven times if you take the company's preferred EBITDA number). And this for a business with little or no intellectual property assets or recurring revenue.

"Was the leverage pushed too hard in a debt market that was already showing signs of overheating a year ago? The reality is that we just don't know right now."