Stocks plunge halves Candover asset value

Private-equity group Candover Investments today said the value of its assets crashed 50% last year as stock markets tumbled.

Net asset value fell to 1026p a share on 31 December from 2065p a year earlier.

Candover, whose investments include gaming group Gala Coral, scrapped its final dividend and said it will stop putting money into the group's 2008 fund.Chairman Gerry Grimstone insisted the firm was not up for sale, but said staff cuts were on the way. He added: "We are not in a crisis but the nature of the private-equity model where you sell companies to buy companies has stopped at the moment."

"There is a lot of value locked up in our funds. If someone could buy them on the cheap, that is what they would want to do but we are not out here flogging the company."

The shares today fell 9¾p to a record low of 240p.