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IPA exclusive industry update from Insolvency Insider

IPA Insolvency Practitioner newsletter, May 2023

Contents

A specially curated selection of the top stories for IPA members from Insolvency Insider Editor, Henry Louis. More information on all the stories and the link to subscribe to the newsletter is here.

Recent Insolvencies

  • Ince Group PLC, a listed law and professional services firm whose 2021 revenue of £100.2 million recently put it 47th on The Lawyer UK 200 list, entered administration on 28 April. The company’s shares have been suspended since early January as a result of a delay in publishing its latest audited financial statements, which put increasing pressure on the cash flows of the business. The company held discussions with its major lender and other creditors, including HMRC, to establish their level of support. Earlier this month, a major creditor informed the firm that it was no longer willing to support the business and a decision was made to put the firm into administration. Quantuma was appointed administrator and has sold the business to national law firm Axiom DWFM Limited.
  • Planet Organic Limited, the UK’s first fully certified organic supermarket chain, entered administration on 25 April. Founded in 1995, the company operated from 14 sites across London and the South East of England. Shortly after the end of the pandemic, the company’s directors embarked on a new growth phase that required significant restructuring and changes within the business. While the underlying business was strong and the company’s stores were largely profitable, the business as a whole was lossmaking, which ultimately led to the appointment of joint administrators Will Wright and Chris Pole from Interpath. Immediately following their appointment, the joint administrators concluded the sale of the business and a majority of its assets.
  • SVB Financial Group UK Limited, a London-based company affiliated with the collapsed Silicon Valley Bank, entered administration on 2 May. Since 2004 SVB has financed some of the highest profile and fastest growing UK-based technology companies. In the wake of the bank’s March collapse, HSBC stepped in to purchase Silicon Valley Bank UK Limited for £1, protecting the UK company’s deposit base of approximately £6.7 billion. Graham Bushby and Nick Edwards of RSM were appointed joint administrators of SVB Financial Group UK Limited.

Insights

  • The team at Ashurst shares their key takeaways from the recent sanctioning of German real estate group Adler’s English restructuring plan, noting that it is one of the first plan cases involving a serious valuation dispute and increases our journey of understanding how the restructuring plan will respond in those scenarios.
  • Louise Jennings and Isabelle Moisy of Taylor Wessing report that the High Court has recently allowed a guarantee creditor’s challenge to a CVA and warn that the court can find a CVA to be unfairly prejudicial even if the proposal can be justified and offers a better return than the likely alternative. 
  • Michael Salau, Kevin Henderson and Daniela Miklova of Beale & Co use the recent Canadian law decision handed down by the Alberta Court in Qualex-Landmark Towers Inc v 12-10 Capital Corp as a case study toprovide a comparative analysis of the treatment of environmental obligations in insolvency proceedings in the UK and Canada, concluding that we may be entering a period of uncertainty for secured lenders.

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