Companies facing intractable pension scheme liabilities have found a new fan in Edwin Richards, recently-appointed chief executive of deal-hungry £10 million cash shell Nettec. A former private equity specialist at UBS, the 41-year-old Richards likes otherwise sound companies whose actuarial pension deficits could, under new legislation, impose an unlimited liability on private equity backers to top them up.

That could, he hopes, prompt the private equity groups to sell out at almost any price. ‘As a public company, our covenant is seen as stronger than private equity groups’ and pension fund trustees might require less from us,’ argues Richards.

His own shareholders include activist value investor Acquisitor with 28 per cent and its larger US counterpart Steel Partners with 21 per cent. Twenty-six per cent is held by Jeremy White, who originally floated Nettec as an ‘e-business solutions provider’, departed after the dotcom bubble burst, later returned as chairman and hired Richards.
Now Richards is looking for reverse takeovers. His stated goal is to take Nettec’s market value from £11.5 million to £50 million.

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