The Innovate group, which collapsed in the summer, owed parent company Eimskip around £20m. A month ago MT revealed that the estimated total deficiency of the 15 businesses ran to a staggering £54m, but the amount owed to its parent was unclear.
Icelandic shipping group Eimskip gained full ownership of Innovate in June 2007. Despite injecting funds into the business when cashflow issues became evident, Eimskip failed to inform its shareholders of Innovate's condition until 11 June 2008,
when it revealed its plan to divest itself of the business and write off its then-current book value of £58.7m.
The statement of affairs supplied by the former directors of the Innovate group to administrators, contains some anomalies, not least that Eddie Stobart was owed exactly £1m by Innovate Corby Chilled Distribution - the business it bought from the administrators in July. A spokeswoman for the administrators at BDO Stoy Hayward has confirmed that Stobart is not an unsecured creditor.
Reed Business Information Limited.©2008
