Liquidators have warned unsecured creditors owed money by defunct top-100 firm Manches that they will get just a fraction of their due amount.
In a report filed this month with Companies House, liquidators from PwC said unsecured creditors are likely to receive 6.48p for every pound they are owed within three months.
The firm’s bank lender Lloyds is also expected to lose out, receiving less than a third of the money it is owed.
The London firm, which had 265 employees, was bought out of administration in October 2013 by top-100 rival Penningtons in a pre-pack deal. The firm is now called Penningtons Manches.
The liquidators’ report states that £1.53m was transferred to the liquidation following the move from administration. Total receipts from the firm are estimated at £1.8m.
Of this, the secured lender Lloyds Banking Group will receive £800,000, to be added to the £1.185m paid to the bank during administration.
The LLP’s debt to the lender at the time of administration was £6.5m, secured by a debenture from January 2005.
Unsecured creditors are expected to share around £750,000 from the money recovered.
That figure is dwarfed by the level of claims received to date, which had originally been estimated at £4.76m. It has now increased to more than £8m.
The report confirmed that the dividend will be around 6.48p in the pound – much lower than the 12p predicted in the joint administrators’ final progress report in May 2015.
For the period from 22 April 2015 to 21 April 2016, the administrator, also PwC, claimed £175,547 in fees. In total, £277,586 was paid to handle the winding down of Manches.
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