Unsecured creditors owed almost £21m by the defunct south east firm McMillan Williams will receive just a fraction of what they are due.

Administrators handling the affairs of the firm have indicated that the return for unsecured creditors is likely to be around 0.3% once lenders and staff are paid off. The total assets available are estimated to be just £70,447, while the total owed comes to £20.7m.

Amounts owed to unsecured creditors include £5.5m to trade creditors, £6.7m to banks/institutions, £3.6m to HM Revenue & Customs and £4.45m to founding partner John McMillan.

The firm was a regular presence on high streets across London and the south east before it went into administration in 2020. The business was sold to national firm Taylor Rose TTKW Limited and 414 employees transferred.

Initially it had been estimated that unsecured creditors might stand to claw back 3.1% of what was owed, but that has been revised downwards in the report published just before Christmas.

McMillan Williams

McMillan Williams was a regular presence on high streets across London and the south east

Joint administrators from insolvency practices Quantuma and Leonard Curtis Recovery stated that Taylor Rose has now paid £524,000 or the work in progress, the maximum  payable under the sale agreement.

As part of the sale, Taylor Rose also entered into an agreement with MW and its two lenders: VFS Legal Limited and Doorway Capital. They were classified as secured creditors and have been paid £2.2m and £1.75m respectively since the start of the administration. A third secured creditor, Barclays, is expected to receive 60% of the £446,000 owed.

Since their appointment, Quantuma Advisory has drawn £138,000 and Leonard Curtis £20,000. Legal fees are likely to come to almost £140,000.

Meanwhile, it has also emerged that a former employee of McMillan Williams has successfully sued the company for constructive unfair dismissal. Employment Judge Macey, sitting in the London South employment tribunal, awarded Loren Ringshall around £13,600 after ruling that her complaint was well-founded. Ringshall, a legal executive who was head of the residential conveyancing team in Bexleyheath, can claim the money from the government under the Employment Protection (Recoupment of Income Support and Jobseekers Allowance) Regulations 1996.

 

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