In 2004 the group (then called The Wigmore Group plc) experienced trading and cashflow problems and needed urgent additional investment. Between mid 2004 and early 2005 Burnbrae Ltd, a private Isle of Man based company owned by financier Jim Mellon, invested around £3 million in the group via a combination of equity and convertible loan capital.
During the first half of 2005 a new board was formed. A group restructuring programme was commenced with the disposal in May of D F Blanchard and First National Property Maintenance. Speymill Contracts was retained as the core construction and refurbishment business.
In July 2005 the AIM quoted holding company's name was changed to Speymill Group plc or Speymill plc and the ordinary share capital was consolidated on a 1 for 100 basis from shares of 0.01p to shares of 1p.
Further equity funding from new investors plus the conversion of loan capital, followed by a further share placing of £2 million in November 2005 established positive group net assets of £2 million.
Restructuring continued in September 2005 with the move into property investment management, asset management and property management via the set up of Isle of Man based Speymill Property Group Ltd plus the purchase of a 51% stake in GOAL service GmbH, an asset and property management joint venture in Berlin.
These two companies then entered an agreement to provide investment advisory, asset management and property management services for a new externally managed Berlin based property investment fund which raised €127 million of equity, leveraged to create a fund manage about €375 million of assets.
In March 2006 Speymill Deutsche Immobilien Company plc ("SDIC") an AIM quoted German focused residential investment company was launched. With £161m (€230 million) of equity capital the company was leveraged to create a total invested value of almost €1 billion in residential properties across Germany.
Our investment management business was further developed in November 2006 with the launch of a further AIM quoted company, Speymill Macau Property Company plc ("MCAU"), which raised US$80m for investments in property in Macau. Alongside this launch a new Hong Kong group subsidiary, Speymill Property Group (Far East) Limited was established to provide a base for supporting this fund and a platform for future expansion in Asia Pacific.
In May 2007 both the SDIC and MCAU investment companies raised additional equity of €250 million and US$70 million respectively, and as at May 2008 total assets under management were over US$3 billion on a fully invested and leveraged basis.
At Speymill Contracts, the experienced management team has been further strengthened and the company has widened its target customer base, focusing on hotel and leisure developments of substantial value, primarily on a design and build/turnkey solution for clients. Speymill Contracts turnover has increased from £18 million in 2006 to £41 million in 2007.
In September 2007 the holding company was reincorporated to the Isle of Man and in May 2008 the company's name was changed to Speymill plc. In May 2008, Speymill also became the sole owner of Goal service GmbH.
In June 2010, Speymill announced that it was in negotiations with the Board of SDIC in relation to the termination of the Investment Management Agreement (the "IMA") for SDIC and for the sale of Goal service GmbH.
On 23 July 2010, Speymill announced that an agreement to terminate the IMA had been signed. Speymill formally ceased to provide investment management services to SDIC on 16 August 2010. In return for the termination of the IMA, Speymill received compensation from SDIC, primarily in the form of German residential property assets through the acquisition of two special purpose vehicles from SDIC.
In November 2010 Speymill entered into an agreement for the sale of the entire issued share capital of GOAL service GmbH to Speymill Deutsche Immobilien Company plc. As part of this agreement Speymill retained the ownership of GOAL construction GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of GOAL, within the Speymill group.
