Creditors of the collapsed firm Penyards are unlikely to see their money back, according to a report in the Southern Daily Echo.
Administrators Begbies Traynor sold the group of companies – Penyard Country Properties, Penyards Country Properties (New Forest) and Penyards Country Lettings – and their assets for £180,000 to No.17 Marketing, one of whose directors is Paul Grant, managing partner of Southampton law firm Bernard Chill & Axtell.
The new owners, who have not taken on the £1m or so of debts, will trade as Penyards.
On the Penyards website, the logo of Bernard Chill & Axtell appears alongside others including OnTheMarket and Rightmove, and there is also an offer of free conveyancing.
According to the administrator’s report, it was Paul Grant who first contacted them to discuss Penyards’ finances.
Gavin Savage of Begbies Traynor said: “As it currently stands there is unlikely to be return to unsecured creditors.”
He went on: “The company had been facing tough trading conditions in a sector we all recognise has continued to struggle, so it was therefore imperative that we acted quickly in order to ensure that people’s jobs were preserved.
“It became apparent to us that the Penyards name trades on its reputation as a long-established business in the area and that a speedy sale out of administration was the best course of action.
“We had to go through quite a complicated process to get to the right end result, but we are confident that the purchaser has the skills and team in place to ensure growth for the future and to establish the basis for a prosperous long-term future for the company.”
One office at Brockenhurst in the New Forest was not part of the deal and has closed.
A business called Penyards Property Management is an entirely separate entity, and has been owned by Alan and Judith Davis since 1995. The former lettings arm of Penyards County Properties, today it trades successfully with over 300 landlords on its books.
Graham and Lisa Evans, who founded Penyards, are being retained by the new owners as consultants to the eight-branch business.
The biggest creditor is HMRC, owed £422,000.
Lloyds Bank, owed £232,00, is the only secured creditor, but will lose heavily, and is likely to get back between £65,000 and £75,000.
Other creditors include councils which are owed rates, Newsquest which publishes newspapers including the Hampshire Chronicle and Daily Echo, and the firm’s own accountants Wilkins Kennedy, owed £18,282.
http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/14522337.Collapsed_estate_agent_creditors_unlikely_to_be_paid_back/
Comments (3)
Am I missing something here?
According to Companies House, the directors of Penyards are not directors of 17 Marketing or vice versa and there’s nobody listed on Bernard Chill & Axtell’s website with the same name as the Penyards people so how is this a dodgy deal?
It’s not unusual for new owners to want to keep an established trading name.
This is just SO smelly … I’ve just been advised that this practice can be viewed as ‘passing off’ (under section 216 Insolvency Act 1986) … and can lead to criminal action against a director (or being held liable for all of the debts of the new company should it ever go into liquidation, again.)
Will HMRC (or someone else who has lost out,) look at this … probably not, as there is a ‘posh’ bunch of solicitors involved … and what happened to the investments made by the four associate directors / employees of the firm. I wonder if they lost all of their investments?
Will people believe that the directors of the business are being disingenuous by trading with the same (similar) name?
On the web, they write: “It’s simply a matter of Honour”
Total b@ll@cks!
“The new owners, who have not taken on the £1m or so of debts, will trade as Penyards”
How are they getting away with this … why are they allowed to trade as PENYARDS … why has nobody objected to this? … there is supposed to be a crackdown on this sort of thing. It’s all far too easy to wash away debts like this and leave ‘others’ to pay for everything.
As their open website says: “it’s the few who spoil it for the many!”