News

Interpath appoints CAPA on Scottish wind power operator in administration

The administrators of a renewable energy specialist that operated wind turbines around the UK have appointed CAPA to help recover funds for creditors – which include the firm’s bondholders.

Interpath Advisory, the corporate advisory and restructuring firm set up by former KPMG partners, has instructed CAPA to conduct audits on various sites operated by Edinburgh-based Future Renewables Eco (FRE), after the energy firm entered insolvency in September.

Future Renewables owned and operated 10 wind turbines across nine sites throughout England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

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CAPA appointed on subsidiary of famous casino chain Aspers

The liquidators of a subsidiary company of Aspers UK Holdings, the casino chain chaired by entrepreneur and world-famous wildlife conservationist Damian Aspinall, have appointed CAPA to help them recover funds for the subsidiary’s creditors.

Opus Restructuring has instructed CAPA to conduct audits on 29 locations operated by Handy Cash Machines Ltd – whose parent company Aspers runs one of the country’s leading casino chains.

Aspers has set up super casinos in London and around the country during the past decade, running them as premier destinations.

Its Handy Cash Machines arm also operated sites across the country, but it had suffered financial problems even before the pandemic and subsequent lockdown forced national closures.

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CAPA appointed on grand hotel with history spanning two centuries

CAPA has been appointed to conduct audits on a 178-year-old Scottish hotel, famed for pioneering hydrotherapy treatments in the late 1800s, that has now fallen into administration.

FRP Advisory, which is managing the administration of the Glenburn Hotel, has instructed CAPA to undertake a rates audit of the hotel as the corporate restructuring firm looks for a new owner of the historic site.

FRP is looking for a purchaser to acquire a hotel that was built in 1843 on a hilltop site on the Isle of Bute, perched over the Firth of Clyde.

It was believed to be the first ever hotel in Scotland to offer hydropathic treatments when it opened in 1892.

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CAPA instructed on construction firm, after Covid-19’s lasting impact

The administrators of a construction firm that once had a major presence in the north west of England have appointed CAPA to audit sites the business traded from.

KPMG has instructed CAPA to conduct a rates audit on various sites previously occupied by Cruden Group, headquartered in greater Manchester, after the pandemic left the business unable to recover from a series of financial problems.

After their appointment as administrators KPMG announced that the coronavirus crisis had been the "last straw" for the Warrington company after it lost contracts and costs piled up.

Howard Smith and David Costley-Wood, formerly partners at KPMG who are now at Interpath Advisory, the corporate restructuring firm, were appointed joint administrators of Cruden Group Ltd, Cruden Construction Ltd and Cruden Property Services last year.

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CAPA reports increase in recoveries on CVLs and MVLs

CAPA has seen a rise in recoveries from audits on companies that opted for a members voluntary liquidation (MVL), as well as firms in a creditors voluntary liquidation (CVL), during the past year.

When corporate restructuring firms are appointed as liquidators or administrators of insolvent businesses, CAPA’s Audit team assists them in recovering funds for creditors.

CAPA believes there are further opportunities to recover funds for creditors in cases where businesses have entered an MVL or a CVL, at a time where CVL numbers in particular remain comparatively high.

While administrations trend historically low due to prolonged government support, Insolvency Service figures show that of the corporate failures that are crystallising, the majority are CVLs.

The government agency’s Q1 figures show there were 2,384 company insolvencies between January and March. Of this total, 2,047 were CVLs.

Despite a tough environment for businesses trading through and out of a pandemic, recoveries for CAPA’s clients have continued to grow from the audits the team have undertaken on companies in either a CVL or MVL process.

The Audit team has had particular success during the past year across rates audits on firms in these liquidation processes, with the team recovering £160,000 for creditors – recoveries that might otherwise assumed to have been difficult or impossible.

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CAPA appointed on leisure chains, as prolonged restrictions hit Britain’s high streets

Administrators and liquidators of high street restaurants and leisure operators have instructed CAPA to audit sites around the country, as extended Covid-19 restrictions continue to impact casual dining and leisure chains.

Despite the economy re-opening in various sectors in recent months, a number of restaurant chains, cafés, beauty salons and ice cream parlours have not been able to survive an extended period of low or zero trade, leaving administrators to appoint CAPA to maximise returns for creditors.

One of CAPA’s recent instructions was a rates audit on the La Casita: Little House of Tapas chain, now in liquidation, which operated Spanish tapas franchises across Yorkshire.

After the ongoing effects of closures during the pandemic, coupled with growing debts, Julian Pitts and Louise Longley of Begbies Traynor Group, the corporate insolvency and restructuring company, were appointed liquidators of the chain on 20 May.

They have instructed CAPA to conduct the rates audits on five restaurants the company operated, meaning CAPA’s Audit team will now use bespoke software for a forensic analysis of business rates costs paid across the sites.

The auditors will interrogate the data to uncover any anomalies or errors, before recovering any overpaid sums for La Casita’s creditors.

CAPA has recently been appointed on other casual dining operations, including Banh Mi City, the Vietnamese cuisine specialist that was initially expanding up until the pandemic took hold.

With locations in the city of London where footfall remained historically low, even after Covid restrictions were eased, Banh Mi City’s financial problems continued throughout the lockdown and beyond. In the end Alan Simon of AABRS, the insolvency specialist, was appointed liquidator on 25 May, and he has now appointed CAPA to conduct another rates audit.

CAPA will again inspect the data to identify overpayments and recover them for the creditors.

Among CAPA’s other recent appointments include an instruction on Scoop Fine Italian Gelato Ltd, which operated ice cream parlours around London.

The liquidators Jonathan Bass and Freddy Khalastchi of Menzies, the business advisory company, have asked CAPA to launch a rates audit on various prime sites the parlours traded from. CAPA’s forensic analysis of business rates will look to spot errors in overpayments and recover them for the business’s creditors.

In all the appointments, CAPA’s auditors will recover overpaid sums on a no-win, no-fee basis.

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CAPA appointed on hair salon school founded by Vidal Sassoon

CAPA’s auditors have been instructed to undertake audits on a hairdressing school originally founded by Vidal Sassoon more than 60 years ago.

Leonard Curtis Business Rescue and Recovery, the administrators of Haircare Ltd which operates the Sassoon Academy, have appointed CAPA to conduct a rates and property audit on prime sites occupied by the salons and its academies.

The business began to establish its name as one of the country’s premier hairdressing schools in the 1960s, a few years after Vidal Sassoon opened his first salon in London's West End in 1954.

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CAPA appointed on 150-year old courier business

A London-based courier business that counts 156 years of mobilising goods across the capital has instructed CAPA to help find savings across the firm.

Mach 1 Couriers, which trades as Absolutely, was founded in 1865, when the company began transporting clients and parcels by horse drawn carriage around London.

Despite the lockdown and only brief lifting of restrictions through 2020, the business still managed to post an EBITDA of £1.1m for the year, only a marginal drop from the year before.

As the business emerges profitably from the pandemic and looks to continue to control costs, Mach 1 has instructed CAPA to conduct rates and property audits.

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CAPA appointed on café chains amid pandemic’s impact on high streets

CAPA has been appointed to audit a number of café chains around the country, including a start-up that made national headlines, as the pandemic rendered business models unworkable during the past year.

One of CAPA’s instructions is from Smith Cooper, the accountancy and corporate restructuring firm, to conduct audits of Cereal Killer Café Ltd, the chain that operated in two London sites – Camden and Shoreditch – and others across the middle east.

The business became famous for offering cereals from the UK and around the world, past and present, and made headlines for its unique offering. A local protest over its prices in a gentrified area also gained attention from broadcasters and national newspapers in 2019.

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CAPA appointed on 150 Five Guys sites

Five Guys, the American burger chain that has become a staple of Britain’s high streets and shopping centres, has instructed CAPA to conduct nationwide audits of its restaurants.

CAPA will be conducting full property and accounts payable audits on 150 sites the franchise trades from, as Five Guys looks to make savings from its vast portfolio of restaurants around the country.

Five Guys remains one of the major success stories in the UK casual dining market in recent years. Having originally launched in the USA in 1986, it then launched in the UK in 2013 with a flagship venue near Covent Garden in London. After an expansion surge, the business now trades from 150 UK sites in largely prime locations.

The business has orchestrated a similar expansion globally. Some 30 years after the American Murrell family opened the first Five Guys in Virginia, there are now almost 1,500 locations worldwide and another 1,500 units in development, as at 2020.

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