Shares in Erinaceous Group PLC were suspended yesterday as administrators from KPMG agreed to sell Erinaceous Insurance Services to a vehicle owned by Erinaceous’s banks.

Jim Tucker and Myles Halley of KPMG LLP have been appointed joint administrators of the group, which still has a number of operations trading as normal outside any insolvency proceedings.

Erinaceous Insurance Services, which is ring fenced from the rest of the group, continues to operate as a going concern and its sale is subject to the consent of The Financial Services Authority (FSA) and the Maltese FSA.

Erinaceous Group employs about 4000 people across 200 locations nationwide, but has debts exceeding £250m. Tucker said the group had grown rapidly through acquisition in recent years. ‘Although the insurance division continues to perform well, and we expect to announce the completion of its sale within days, the rest of the group has struggled to integrate its acquisitions and has been loss making,’ he said.

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