Administrators announced £4.6m shortfall at Honisters
Grant Thornton administrators have revealed a £4.6m shortfall in payment to creditors following the collapse of financial advisory business Honisters Capital
A £4.6m SHORTFALL TO CREDITORS has been discovered by Grant Thornton administrators working on the collapse of financial advisory business Honisters Capital.
The company entered administration on 3 July with Grant Thornton partners Nigel Morrison, Alistair Wardell and Richard White, jointly appointed.
According to a creditor report and statement of affairs by the administrators, there is a £4.6m shortfall on the amount of assets available and what can be paid to creditors. So far, unsecured creditor claims such as that owed to the taxman (£186,000), traders and IT contracts are estimated to be about £5.7m.
Grant Thornton administrators believe there is just £1.3m in assets for realisation to pay unsecured creditor liabilities – there are no secured creditors, such as lenders.
The administrators have billed £204,000 for time costs to 31 August, and £29,000 for pre-appointment time costs.
Earlier this year, the administrators warned there would be insufficient funds to meet creditor claims and that the Financial Services Compensation Scheme would need to pick up the shortfall.
A spokesman for the administrators at the time said: “Honister Capital is insolvent – it can’t meet its existing claims and the administrators expect the claims to accelerate in the future. We anticipate claims to escalate in due course and the FSCS will need to take claims.”
On 19 June, Grant Thornton were called to look at the financial health of the business. Honister was concerned it would be unable to continue trading when its professional indemnity insurance expired and the existing provider declined to renew, in early July.
Shortly after this meeting the company entered administration, putting about 930 advisory jobs at the business at risk.