Outsourcery dodges knockout thanks to new Vodafone loan

Outsourcery, the cloud services company set up by former Dragons' Den investor Piers Linney, has agreed a new short-term loan facility with Vodafone in order to give it time to restructure the business.

Vodafone, which is the AIM company's principal secured lender, has agreed to provide a conditional drawdown working capital facility on top of its existing loan to the company, in exchange for key clauses that include adding a non-executive representative to Outsourcery's board.

The new facility has been designed to provide enough extra funding such to allow Outsourcery to "undertake a realisation of the principal assets of the company in the immediate term", it said.

On Monday Outsourcery revealed gross cash had dwindled to £0.9m and that it was examining the potential for a fundraising, restructuring and the disposal of non-strategic business assets.

It said it was looking to support the ongoing unified communications business, implying management's plan was to dispose of the infrastructure-as-a-service business.

Audited financial results for the calendar year will be released by 30 June, it added.

Shares in Outsourcery, which late on Tuesday hit a 3.28p low, a 97% decline since floating at 110p in May 2013, were up to 5.3p by 1030 BST on Wednesday, a 46% rally on the day.