IPA exclusive industry update from Insolvency Insider
IPA Insolvency Practitioner newsletter, November 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
Eastern Airways and its affiliate Air Kilroe have entered administration after the termination of a key KLM Cityhopper contract left the carrier unable to sustain its high fixed costs. Jamie Miller and Gareth Harris of RSM UK were appointed joint administrators and are seeking buyers for the fleet and related assets, following widespread redundancies across the 330-person workforce.
Sheffield Wednesday Football Club has entered administration, ending Dejphon Chansiri’s turbulent decade-long ownership and marking the latest high-profile collapse in English football’s financially strained Championship. Begbies Traynor partners Kris Wigfield, Julian Pitts, and Paul Stanley were appointed joint administrators just ahead of an HMRC winding-up petition, inheriting a club burdened by tax arrears, unpaid wages, and multiple EFL sanctions. With a 12-point deduction leaving the Owls adrift at the bottom of the table, the administrators are now racing to stabilise operations and secure a buyer capable of restoring solvency and credibility to the 158-year-old institution.
Alex Cadwallader and Dane O’Hara of Leonard Curtis have been appointed joint administrators of Waterline Limited, one of the UK’s largest independent kitchen and bathroom distributors, after an accelerated sale process failed to secure a buyer. The 78-year-old business, which traded successfully for decades, suffered from falling consumer demand and rising costs. The administration has resulted in 105 immediate redundancies, while 15 employees have been retained to support the orderly wind-down.
Insights
The team at Slaughter and May summarise recent appellate decisions and a new Practice Statement, which have reshaped how English courts assess fairness in Part 26A restructuring plans, particularly for out-of-the-money creditors, requiring plan companies to evidence good-faith engagement, transparent value allocation, and fair benefit-sharing before securing court approval, signalling a maturing but still evolving phase for cross-class cram-down practice.
James Hyne and Joseph Evans of Charles Russell Speechlys report that the High Court has just handed down judgment in the Greensill case between Credit Suisse and Softbank, finding Greensill’s $440 million transfer to Softbank to be a transaction at an undervalue but declining to grant relief because Softbank acted in good faith and the value of the asset had reduced to nil.
Lenny Brown, Peter Brown, Simon Appell, Jessica Clayton and Ben Browne of AlixPartners warn that U.K. universities are entering a period of acute financial stress as tuition income falls behind inflation, enrolment stagnates, and debt mounts, and share that, with no clear insolvency framework or policy roadmap to manage potential institutional failures, there is a limited toolkit available to manage providers facing financial distress.