Re Ww Realisation 1 Ltd ((in Administration)) (claimant/Respondent)
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 12 November 2010 |
| Neutral Citation | [2010] EWHC 3604 (Ch) |
| Court | Chancery Division |
| Date | 12 November 2010 |
| Docket Number | Case No: 10670 of 2008 |
[2010] EWHC 3604 (Ch)
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE CHANCERY DIVISION
COMPANIES COURT
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand
London WC2A 2LL
Mr Justice David Richards
Case No: 10670 of 2008
08834 of 2010
MR G MOSS QC and MR D BAYFIELD (instructed by Linklaters LLP) appeared on behalf of the Claimant
MR JUSTICE RICHARDS: There is before the court an application by the joint administrators of WW Realisation 1 Limited, formerly Woolworths PLC, by way of petition, seeking a number of orders and directions from the court.
The administrators seek an order that their appointment as administrators shall cease to have effect and that the company should be wound up, and further that two of the three administrators should become the joint liquidators of the company.
The company remains insolvent, and the purposes of the administration having been secured so far as possible, it is therefore appropriate that the company should now go into liquidation.
The slightly unusual feature of the application are the particular directions which are sought by the administrators, to be given to them both as administrators under paragraph 63 of schedule B1 to the Insolvency Act 1986, and as joint liquidators under section 168(3) of the Insolvency Act.
Before the company went into administration, its principal business was as a general retailer and it operated some 807 High Street stores around the country, together with four distribution centres. At the time of the appointment of administrators it employed approximately 27,000 staff.
The administrators decided following their appointment by an order of Norris J made on 27 November 2003, to pursue a strategy of continuing to trade in stores for a limited period and seeking a sale of the business or parts of it. They continued to trade the business so as to take advantage of the Christmas trading period.
The administrators were unable to find a purchaser for the business or part of it as a going concern on acceptable terms, and as that became increasingly apparent, the administrators embarked on a discount sale of stock at the company's stores starting on 5 December 2008.
There followed a phased programme of closing the stores, which was announced on 17 December 200The first stores were closed on 27 December 2008, the distribution centres on 29 December and all stores were closed by 6 January 2009.
There were, at the date of administration, two principal secured creditors comprising a £350 million syndicated asset-backed revolving facility and a £35 million second lien term loan made to a finance subsidiary of the company but which had been guaranteed by the company.
Following the closure of the stores the administrators gathered in the assets of the company. They have made distributions to secured creditors and they have investigated potential claims. To enable them to continue that process, their appointment has twice been extended by order of the court, most recently until midnight on 26 November this year.
The senior lenders under the £350 million senior facility have been repaid in full and a total of £3.5 million has been distributed to the security trustee in respect of the second lien term loan.
All preferential claims have been agreed in a total sum approximately £4.5 million. Most of the preferential creditors have been paid in full and the remaining claims will be paid shortly. There remains in the hands of the administrators a sum of approximately £3.8 million.
The directions which are sought by the...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Powertrain Ltd ((in Liquidation))
...a Deputy High Court Judge, in Tombs v. Moulinex SA [2004] EWHC 454 (Ch), [2004] 2 BCLC 397; and the decision of David Richards J in Re WW Realisation 1 Ltd [2010] EWHC 3604 (Ch), [2011] BCC 382. Those cases bear out the propositions for which Mr Bayfield cited them. In particular, WW Reali......
-
: Powertrain Ltd ((in Liquidation))
...a Deputy High Court Judge, in Tombs v. Moulinex SA [2004] EWHC 454 (Ch), [2004] 2 BCLC 397; and the decision of David Richards J in Re WW Realisation 1 Ltd [2010] EWHC 3604 (Ch), [2011] BCC 382. Those cases bear out the propositions for which Mr Bayfield cited them. In particular, WW Reali......
-
Autoquake Ltd v Car Care Plan Ltd
...of which might exclude a creditor from participating or limiting their ability to do so. However, I was referred to Re WW Realisation [2010] EWHC 3604 (Ch), a decision of David Richards J, in which he approved the distribution to a second tier of secured creditors without the provision for ......
-
Insolvency Update
...date of the Deed of Surrender and P would therefore be entitled to a dividend. Meanwhile, in Re WW Realisation 1 Ltd (In Administration) [2010] EWHC 3604, the Court held that a distribution could be made to secured creditors without any further provision being made for liabilities that may ......