New chairman hired to rescue Ennstone

Quarrying group Ennstone is attempting to dig itself out of a hole in the new year by bringing in an insolvency accountant as its new executive chairman.

Ennstone was among the most spectacular stockmarket failures of 2008 as a market capitalisation of £177 million all but disappeared as its shares fell from 35p to 0.34p.

Today it said it is bringing in Julian Cooper, a former insolvency partner at accountants Arthur Andersen and currently managing partner of corporate restructuring practice MPC Partners, to turn round the business.

Ennstone has been hobbled by the collapse of the housebuilding industry for which the Midlands-based company supplies aggregates.

The company is £200 million in debt compared to a market capitalisation of just £2 million.

Barclays is understood to be the lender of the bulk of that debt pile, though bust American bank Wachovia was also a lender.

Cooper's role will be to attempt to realise value for a business whose quarries are reckoned to have an asset value in excess of £200 million.