Creditors of
Evesham
Technology are rumoured to be stewing over the rejection of a genuine offer
for the troubled system builder that would have saved it from going under.
However, the Evesham brand looks set to live on after former Time/Tiny
founder Tahir Mohsan, salvaged the company with a $22m injection as part of a
pre-pack administration deal under accountancy firm Leonard Curtis, which saw
150 staff axed (CRN Online, 6 August).
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Dubai-based investment firm, PCC Technology, which is owned by Mohsan, bought
the assets of Evesham and granted new firm, GeeMore Technology, the rights to
sell goods under the Evesham brand.
Former Evesham chairman Richard Austin is now managing director of GeeMore
and a company owned by Tariq Mohammed, another Time/Tiny founder, is listed as
secretary.
GeeMore, trading as Evesham Technology, has 138 former Evesham staff on board
and plans to focus on consumer electronics and high-end PC systems. Austin told
CRN: "I'm excited to be part of a firm that is on an upswing instead of a
downswing."
Mark Ancell, head of intelligence at
Graydon,
said: "GeeMore is going to have to build up its reputation before anyone will
give it substantial credit. Distributors will trade with it, on a lower level to
start with, while credit insurers will need to see a business plan and know what
the new company's plans are."
However, some channel players are concerned over revelations that an offer
for the firm was knocked back.
Nick Smith, marketing director at
Elonex, said: "Legally,
directors have to do what's in the best interests for a company and its
creditors and I'm not sure that has been the case here. We put on the table a
genuine offer of £1m for Evesham several months ago. We had lawyers draw it up
and had the extra investment needed to prop up the business.
"Our offer also involved a plan to keep the business afloat rather than send
it into administration. It will be interesting to find out if the administrators
were aware of this offer," he said.
Nitin Joshi, founder of advisory firm ChannelMoney, added: "I'm representing
some of the creditors and it will be disappointing if the directors didn't
investigate a genuine offer for the firm. Going forward, creditors will want to
know what the offer was and why it was rejected."
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