The investors behind the deal for Eddie Stobart have revealed the key role a son of the haulier’s founder will play in it’s the troubled company’s turnaround.

Isle of Man-based international asset management firm DBAY Advisors say William Stobart – the fourth child of Eddie Stobart, who founded the company in the 1940s – will be parachuted in to boost the logistics company’s performance over the busy festive period, should investors accept its proposal.

Under its proposal, DBAY would take a 51 per cent stake in Greenwhitestar – a subsidiary which holds all of the trading entities within the Eddie Stobart group – and provide a capital injection of £55 million to provide the company “with the necessary liquidity to keep trading”.

Without the funding Eddie Stobart is expected a “significant cash shortfall” and will be unable to “comply with financial covenants in certain debt finance agreements”, said DBAY.

And is also said it was “supporting” William Stobart – who served as executive chairman of Eddie Stobart Logistics Limited until 2017 – to come back into the business as executive chairman of Greenwhitestar, pending shareholder approval.

“William’s focus will be leading the board to work with all stakeholders and ensure a strong performance is delivered over the busy “Black Friday” and Christmas period,” said DBAY, who added that Geoffrey Bicknell, former chief financial officer at TDG, and Saki Riffner, chief investment officer at DBAY and former chairman of Eddie Stobart, will also be appointed to the Greenwhitestar board.

DBAY – a long-term investor in Eddie Stobart and already holds a 10 per cent stake in the company – said its deal was a “significant investment, reflecting our belief in the company”.

“Given the difficult circumstances, our proposal is a realistic chance to secure value for all shareholders and safeguard jobs for Eddie Stobart’s employees,” it said.

“Our team has delivered this sort of turnaround before and it is vital that significant action is taken to rescue the company before the busy Christmas trading period.”

Shareholders are set to vote on the deal at a general meeting expected to take place on December 2. Should they vote it through, they would be left with the remaining 49 per cent of the company.

However, Wincanton, one of the UK's largest hauliers, has expressed a desire to takeover Eddie Stobart and, on Friday, was given until November 27 to make a move by the company’s board.

It has urged shareholders to sit tight on the DBAY deal, giving it more time to gather “critical” financial information on Eddie Stobart’s underlying profitability, balance sheet, cash flow and short- and medium-term working capital requirements before deciding whether to come forward with its own proposal.

On Friday evening it pressed the company to provide the information, along with the results of an accounting review by its auditors, as quickly as possible.

Eddie Stobart is currently looking to restructure its £155 million debts and its auditor’s undertaking a review after bosses came across a £2m accounting error. The error saw shares in Eddie Stobart, which trades on the junior AIM stock exchange, suspended at 70p.

It also warned that its losses for the first half of 2019 could be higher than £12m.

Eddie Stobart was spun out of Stobart Group in 2014 and, while it is now headquartered in Warrington, it still has a depot at Lillyhall in West Cumbria.