The Swedish investor was already the largest lender to the business, having loaned Polestar £90m in April. It has now put in unspecified amount of additional funding as part of the deal “to stabilise the business and secure the longer-term prospects of the Polestar group”.

It was forced to act after Polestar faced the prospect of running out of cash at Christmas, according to a Deloitte report leaked to the Sunday Times. The report said that the group needed an additional £18m to continue operating in its current form.

In a statement, Polestar said: “The terms of the transaction are, and will remain, confidential.”

And, having been in a position earlier this month where it could have potentially been taken over by the owners of rival Wyndeham Group, Polestar even went so far as to hint that it could now be in a position to engage in M&A activity itself. 

“This deal provides a solution to restore the operations to normal and protects the value of the business. This will allow Polestar to take full advantage of the inevitable continued industry consolidation,” it stated.

However, the £216.4m turnover, 1,800 employee group is still in negotiations with a number of major creditors, according to sources close to the situation.

One creditor said: “They are renegotiating payment plans and asking for extended credit terms. And the thing is, they still haven’t got an FD.

“What’s not clear to me is what the credit insurers will make of it all. How are they going to react? They need to reassure the credit market they are viable going forward,’ the creditor added.

Polestar’s chief financial officer Peter Johnston left the business in October, with group financial controller Nicky Wharton taking on the role on an interim basis.

Proventus could decide to install a financial chief of its own choosing.

It’s understood that Polestar chief executive Barry Hibbert has been striving to reassure major customers during the hiatus. It’s not yet known if any customers will choose to enact ‘change of control’ clauses in their contracts with the group. 

PrintWeek was unable to reach Hibbert for comment at the time of writing.

In a statement, he thanked customers, employees and suppliers for their support while the deal was finalised.

Also in the statement, Proventus chief executive Daniel Sachs said: “Completion of this transaction means we are able to fully support Polestar in its provision of market-leading print services and secure the value of the business for all stakeholders.”