Greatfleet sale 'saves 40 jobs'

City headhunting firm Greatfleet has become a victim of the crisis in the banking industry, one of its key areas. administrators say they have sold the underlying business to QPS, a job search company connected to Greatfleet director Colin Gerstein.

Terms of the deal were revealed, but one of the administrators, Michael Healy of Leonard Curtis, said it had saved 40 jobs.

The firm, with offices in London, Frankfurt, Edinburgh and Dublin, specialised in recruitment in the legal, banking, and IT industries.

It floated on AIM in 1997 as Longbridge International and was, by all accounts, growing until november last year, but by then profits were falling.

"Despite rationalisation and consolidation, problems continued however, and a fund-raising round in spring 2008 proved to be inadequate," Healy said.