IPA exclusive industry update from Insolvency Insider
IPA Insolvency Practitioner newsletter, March 2025
A specially curated selection of the top stories for IPA members from Insolvency Insider Editor, Dina Kovacevic. More information on all the stories and the link to subscribe to the newsletter is here.
Recent Insolvencies
Technicolor Creative Studios UK, the UK arm of the Technicolor visual effects group, has entered administration, with Nick Holloway and David Pike of Interpath Advisory appointed as joint administrators. The historic company has done post-production work on classic films such as Disney’s Pinocchio and more recent blockbusters like Emilia Pérez. According to the joint administrators, the company struggled with the headwinds affecting the creative industries, including the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, which paused production for about half a year. Unfortunately, the majority of the company’s 440 employees have already been made redundant as the administrators seek an orderly wind-down of the business. Glas Sas has a registered charge against the company, which was assisted by Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner.
Bistrot Pierre, a French restaurant group with locations across the country, had part its business bought out of pre-pack administration by Cherry Equity Partners, saving almost 400 jobs. This marks the second pre-pack sale for the company, which last exited administration in 2020 and has struggled financially since the pandemic. Shortly after the 7 March appointment of Will Wright and Ryan Grant of Interpath Advisory as joint administrators, a pre-pack sale to Cherry Equity Partners, a private equity firm led by hospitality heavyweight Ed Strandring, was completed. Ten Bistrot Pierre restaurants around the country will continue to trade, while eight will close immediately, resulting in 158 redundancies. National Westminister Bank has a registered charge against the company. Harrison Clark Rickerbys acted for the joint administrators.
JS Wright & Co, a Birmingham-headquartered mechanical and electrical contractor established in 1890, and sister company Wright Maintenance, entered administration on 10 February. JS Wright specialises in the residential, hotel, care homes, student accommodation, leisure and commercial sectors, while Wright Maintenance specialises in helping private landlords, managing agents and housing associations to safeguard their mechanical and electrical systems against failures. Raj Mittal and Ben Jones of FRP Advisory were appointed joint administrators and said that the company — a “trusted contractor” in the sector for many decades — had suffered from challenging trading conditions, resulting in the business being unable to meet its financial obligations and ceasing operations. 150 employees have reportedly been made redundant. Martin Roberts as Security Trustee and National Westminster Bank have registered charges against both companies.
Insights
Rachael Markham of Squire Patton Boggs notes that the appetite to use a restructuring plan (RP) in the mid-market appears to have quietened down following several unsuccessful attempts to cram down HMRC, though she urges readers to keep an eye on HMRC’s response to the latest mid-market RP that proposes to treat unsecured creditors and HMRC in the same way by paying both classes of creditor 5p in the £.
Jared Green, Trinh Hoang, Naomi Moore, Chris Parker and Alice Gordon of DLA Piper consider whether the Sino-Ocean decision will open the floodgates for similar applications as Sino-Ocean’s peers look to adopt a similar playbook.
Stephen Phillips of FreiLibertas speaks to David Buchler of Buchler Phillips about David’s career achievements, including leadership roles at Arthur Andersen, Kroll, and Buchler Phillips, his early career transition from selling suits to becoming a Chartered Accountant, ultimately leading to his specialization in restructuring and insolvency, and David’s experiences with restructuring different businesses, including football restructuring cases.