Reaction Engines set to go into administration - reports

Reaction Engines could go into administration this week, according to reports.

The firm, which specialises in hypersonic aviation and is based at Culham Science Centre , could enter administration as early as Thursday according to Sky News reports after talks with existing and potential investors collapses.

Talks to secure roughly £20m in additional funding initially focused on the UAE's Strategic Development Fund (SDF), the investment arm of the UAE's Tawazun Council, are reported to have faltered.

Reaction Engines is now said to be engaged in the active pursuit of several other investment options.

PricewaterhouseCoopers is reportedly on standby to be appointed as administrator for several weeks.

READ MORE: Could Oxfordshire's Reaction Engines be rescued by UAE?

Its strategic shareholders, BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce Holdings, are said to be unwilling to provide enough capital to bail Reaction Engines out.

Under the earlier discussions, SDF would have emerged as the single-biggest investor in Reaction Engines, which has developed cooling technology aimed at powering aircraft to Mach 25 - or 19,000 miles per hour - outside the Earth's atmosphere.

A number of City investors have in the last two months slashed the value of their stakes in the business amid doubts about its survival.

According to Reaction Engines' most recent update to shareholders, it grew its commercial revenues by more than 400% last year and is understood to have a strong pipeline of contract and R&D opportunities.

In January last year, Reaction Engines announced that it had raised £40m of additional equity, taking the total sum it had banked from investors to roughly £150m.

Reaction Engines have been approached for comment.