Andre Redinger says he reduced his offer for the collapsed firm this month
The South African entrepreneur who was set to buy ISG has told 好色先生TV that the amount of money needed to put the business back on an even keel was more than he was prepared to pay.
Andre Redinger, who made his fortune from nutritional products, set up a company to buy the contractor called Antipodean Holdings with former Multiplex staffer, Australian James Peter Overton. The pair knew each other from before with Overton then working with Redinger on the ISG deal after he had left Multiplex.
The 52-year-old said he made a bid for ISG in the spring after being alerted to the possibility of a deal to buy the company from a former ISG employee and friend of Overton鈥檚.
He spoke to William Harrison, the US billionaire who runs ISG鈥檚 former owner Cathexis, a private equity firm, at the end of February and made an offer a few weeks later.
鈥淭he price agreed seemed compatible with what we knew on the surface,鈥� he said.
But he in his talks with ISG he found the finances to be in a worse state than he had believed.
好色先生TV has been told Redinger was prepared to put in 拢140m to recapitalise the company. He declined to comment on how much he had initially believed was needed but added: 鈥淚t was more than 拢140m.鈥�
He said he later made a revised, lower offer for the firm earlier this month.
He declined to comment on suggestions the offer was 拢1, as well as asking for guarantees from Cathexis to underwrite certain loss-making jobs. But he said that 鈥渋t became obvious to me and my team that we had to have some very sober conversations鈥�.
In the end the revised offer failed to be agreed between the two parties and ISG collapsed into administration last week with 2,200 jobs lost immediately. A further 200 jobs are set to go as the administration process winds down.
Both EY and former ISG chief executive Zoe Price said Redinger did not have the money in place to complete the sale.
In a letter to staff announcing the administration Price said: 鈥滻 want you to know there have been significant efforts made to secure a sale of the Group over many months. While there has been speculation for some weeks now, I can confirm that it was not possible to conclude a sale, as the purchaser could not satisfy the funding needed to recapitalise the business. Cathexis also looked at refinancing the company in recent months but has been unable to execute.
鈥淲e also looked at selling individual business units to third parties but again, we have not been able to conclude these negotiations in the timescale.
鈥淭his has left us no option but to file for administration.鈥�
EY said: 鈥淲e wish to be clear to employees, suppliers, and customers that it was not possible to conclude a sale as the potential purchaser could not, despite repeated requests of them to do so, adequately demonstrate that they had the funding needed to recapitalise the business and keep it solvent.鈥�
Redinger said: 鈥淲hat brought ISG to where it is, I wasn鈥檛 involved in that. They needed a rescue because of what they had created.鈥�
鈥淭hey said they didn鈥檛 see enough proof of funding. I did have the money. 1,000% I was ready to put money in that was needed. We had a robust turnaround strategy but I was not going to throw money into an existing business and say 鈥榗arry on鈥�.鈥�
>> See also: Potential saviour did not have enough money to buy ISG, administrator says, as 2,000 jobs lost in collapse
He added that he had sounded out others in the industry about the firm and had set up a shadow board while the sale process was ongoing.
He also said that an email sent by ISG chairman Matt Roche on 5 July, promising a deal 鈥渋n the coming days,鈥� had been brought forward from the end of that month to 鈥渃alm nerves鈥� among staff and the wider industry.
Redinger said he agreed to bring the email forward but asked for his name to be kept out of the public domain. 鈥淚 was comfortable with the announcement but didn鈥檛 sign it off,鈥� he said. 鈥淧eople were leaving. It became apparent we needed to comfort he market. There were staff resigning and we didn鈥檛 want to end up with a shell.鈥�
He said switching money from South Africa held up the sale process as did US Know Your Client regulations but added: 鈥淲e had a proper turnaround planned. It was based on reality, it wasn鈥檛 delusional. I鈥檓 very, very sad for the employees. I鈥檝e had some contact me. It could have been saved. We had the right plans and we would have saved it.鈥�
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