Surgical drops plan for new Leeds premises

In a statement, Surgical Innovations said: “By way of an update to shareholders, the board had explained previously that the company had secured a £5.05m Regional Growth Fund Grant as part of a project to relocate to new premises. The board can confirm that this project has now been formally terminated.”

Surgical Innovations Group has also raised approximately £1.5m from the company’s interim managing director Chris Rea and Getz Bros & Co Inc by way of subscriptions for new ordinary shares of 1p each in the company and the creation of fixed rate convertible unsecured loan notes. The proceeds from the fundraising will be used to provide additional working capital for Surgical Innovations, “while the board progresses its restructuring of the company’s activities”.

Doug Liversidge, the company’s chairman, said: “I would like to thank Chris and Getz Bros, our two largest shareholders, for providing the company with this further funding. The board’s ongoing restructuring of the company still has a long way to go before it is complete; however, the additional funds provided by Chris and Getz Bros will provide us with more flexibility to take the actions required to put the company on the road to recovery.”

Earlier this year, the group had said there was a “strong likelihood” it would shelve plans to relocate to a state-of-the-art clinical training centre in Leeds after what it described as “very disappointing” results.

The Leeds-based company was seen as a key player in the creation of a new medical park of international standing in Yorkshire, based at Thorpe Park in Leeds. The group had secured a £5m Regional Growth Fund grant to build a state-of-the-art 10,000 sq ft clinical training centre in Leeds, as part of the project to relocate to the 58,000 sq ft facility. Surgical would have been one of the first tenants at the new medical park.