Essex firm hit by customers going under and loss-making jobs
A cladding and roofing contractor which worked on a new stand going up at Liverpool’s Anfield ground has been bought up by its directors under a pre-pack deal.
In an update filed at Companies House, Quantuma Advisory, the administrator for SD Samuels (Special Projects), said the Essex-based firm, set up in 2004 to target jobs of £750,000 or more, went into administration on 13 February but was bought up for just over £159,000 on the same day.
The new owner is called SD Samuels Ltd, three of whose directors held directorships at SD Samuels (Special Projects), while a fourth is a former director of the business. SD Samuels Ltd is part of a business set up in 1993.
In its update, signed off at the end of last month, Quantuma said the 19-strong SD Samuels (Special Projects) had a turnover of around £16m for 2021 but was hit by the impact of covid-19, Brexit and the war in Ukraine.
Quantuma added: “The business suffered losses arising out of customers going into liquidation, poorly performing projects and legal fees on unpaid works.”
Quantuma said it was called in by the firm last October, adding that by the following month the stricken company needed funding “above the level available to it by its bank and neither the company nor its investors were in a position to advance the necessary funding in order to pay wages or suppliers”.
It said the pre-pack sale was wrapped up for £159,206 with an initial payment of £20,000 made on the day of the sale with the remainder set to be paid in monthly instalments until June next year.
Explaining the reasons for the pre-pack, Quantum said there was “no prospect of persuading new funding to allow medium-term trading to continue” and added: “The benefits of achieving a pre-package sale were the transfer of employees and the absence of a break in supply of goods and services, which would enable a value to be achieved for goodwill and ensure a more effective debt collection process.”
Quantuma said the firm’s bank HSBC was owed £764,000 at the time of the administration with HMRC, owed £433,000, also listed as a creditor.
But the administrators said HMRC is unlikely to get all of its missing money back while 285 unsecured creditors, owed £5.4m between them, have also been told there is little chance of them getting any money returned either.
In all, excluding HSBC and HMRC, 11 firms are owed more than £100,000 each with the largest amount standing at £424,000.
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