For the past number of months, the accountant Neil Hughes has been negotiating frantically to salvage Premier Periclase, a magnesium manufacturing plant in Co Louth currently in examinership that employs 94 people. Hughes, the managing partner of accountancy firm Baker Tilly, thought he had a deal to sell the plant to Calix, a publicly listed Australian energy-technology company with a market capitalisation of €933 million. However, on April 6, Calix said it was pulling out of the transaction, citing “operational uncertainty” due to fluctuating natural gas prices as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. With just weeks left to…

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