Erinaceous has appointed turnaround specialist Tim Redburn as interim chief executive and Close Brothers as financial adviser as the troubled property services group seeks to put together a recovery plan. Financial Times, The Times, Daily Telegraph

The group said second-half trading excluding property transactions continued to be disappointing and results would be ‘significantly below the board’s earlier expectations’.

The shares fell 4.75p, or 19%, to 19.75p, giving a market capitalisation of £27.6m, down from more than £400m last year.

Without any property transactions, the company said it had not managed to reduce its debt and was ‘closely managing its liquidity position’.