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Administration Acquisitions News: 2010
Sat, 13 Nov 2010:
Following the fall of Pontin’s, the British ‘Hi-De-Hi’ holiday operator, into administration on Friday, one of the appointed insolvency practitioners, Jane Moriarty of KPMG, said she was confident that the business would attract plenty of interested bidders. Moriarty said, "Pontin's is an iconic British brand which forms the backdrop to thousands of treasured family holiday memories”. The Mail on Sunday said that C&C Alpha Group, the investment vehicle of Bhanu Choudhrie, has partnered with the Dubai Royal Family to make a £15 million offer to the administrators for a quick deal. Choudhrie already looked the business over several months ago, but walked away after failing to secure an agreement with the owners on the sale price. However, the administrators said on Monday morning that no approach had yet been made to them by C&C Alpha. Pontin’s was originally set up in 1946 by Fred Pontin to provide low cost self-catering holidays. In 2007, the business was bought by Ocean Parcs, a consortium headed by Graham Parr, who used to be Pontin’s CEO when it was under different ownership. Pontin’s employs 850 people across five sites in Sussex, Somerset, Merseyside, Wales and Suffolk. Another site in Blackpool was closed down by Pontin’s several months ago. One of KPMG’s first jobs is to appoint an interim leisure operator to ensure the continued operation of the firm. Earlier last year Pontin’s, announced that it would be increasing its workforce by 2,000 employees to a total of 4,000 and that £50m would be invested into refurbishing its sites. The company’s forecasts of the number of Brits opting for ‘staycation’ holidays at their holiday sites proved somewhat optimistic, as competition in the short breaks holiday sector has been fierce. Customer complaints about conditions at some of the sites surfacing on the internet have not helped matters. Nevertheless, Parr said that trading at Pontin’s remained strong, but that Santander had withdrawn its working capital support after a plan for drawing down the debt had not met the bank's ambitious expectations. The bank denies that it was responsible for pushing Pontin's over the edge, and that the responsibility fell squarely on the Pontin's directors for not having restructured the company's debts as agreed. Moriarty backed the bank's stance, saying, "The sad truth is that Pontin's has seen a drop-off in occupancy levels, which ultimately caused it to run out of cash. When a business no longer has the cash to pay bills as the...
[more: Following the fall of Pontin’s, the Br...]
Thu, 11 Nov 2010:
Earlier this week, we reported Rok’s intention to place itself into administration after its substantial losses of £3.8 million came to light. Rok plc and Rok Building Limited have both entered administration. Following the appointment of insolvency practitioners from PwC, the accounting services firm has subsequently announced it is searching for a buyer whilst assessing the building services provider’s finances. At the time, joint administrator Mike Jervis said: “Employees will naturally be concerned about their position, but they will continue to be paid if they attend work and perform their duties as normal.” The subsequent cull of 711 jobs is down to potential buyers’ disinterest in certain parts of the business and there not being enough work for staff to do, said the administrators. Around 560 of the job cuts were in the maintenance and improvements business. Over 100 parties have made their interest known in purchasing the business or its contracts. PwC is now working on reducing the numbers to a shortlist. Mr Jervis said: “We are short-listing bidders on the basis of their size, level of interest in acquiring large parts of the business and their speed of reaction.” The administrators have just revealed that another 260 jobs from the plumbing, heating and electrical (PHE) arm in Scotland have been lost after a deal to save p...
[more: Earlier this week, we reported Rok’s i...]
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