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A cracking entry from the comments section - this has to be reader post of the day. It seems that Worthington PLC (WRN) is just five days away from its first notice of being struck off for failing to file documents at Companies House. Also up for strike off is Law Financial which is trying to extract money from Rangers (#RFC) but will clearly fail if this is an indication of how organised it is This cracking post reads:
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Comments
MrMoto
The gazette/strike off is a bit of a non story really. Easy to get a strike off suspended. You just have to look at Merchant Turnaround PLC, the Madoff style bond scheme launched by Craig Whyte and James Holmes. Now over 5 years old, has NEVER filed accounts and still remains active.
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/07116894/filing-history
Wonder how them Brazilian bonds turned out……..
Interesting to see Spurway getting involved in Rangers debacle (proof as if we couldn’t see) at how desperate they are. Considering how they tried to distance themselves from this as “just a small part” when the sun was shining.
Ironically Bernard Sumner has been appointed direct a couple of days ago, he was a director of CPS Energy Resources. The Worthington collapsed deal. Maybe this is going to be one of Worthington 10 deals, lol
Richard F
Worthington Group PLC subsidiary and Rangers FC Group sister company Fresh Business Thinking Ltd, (Company number 08249865) is about to be struck off having been founded by Sian James.
So what about the insolvent firm, Business Edge Network Ltd, referred to by Joint Liquidator Brian Johnson as “Business Edge Network Ltd T/A Fresh Business Thinking” (Company number 7417591) with Nick James identified as founding Director?
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/07417591/insolvency
Allan Biggar (Director of insolvent All About Brands PLC and Equity media Partners) is still a Director, Nick James has resigned.
The last Companies House filing on 17 Jun 2015 for Business Edge Network Ltd is “Voluntary arrangement supervisor’s abstract of receipts and payments to 9 April 2015”.
In this document, Mr Johnson the Liquidator states “when the position since the inception of the Voluntary Arrangement is taken as a whole, the business [Fresh Business Thinking] appears to have just about broken even”.
It appears that between 2012 and April 2015 the Fresh Business Thinking operation only generated £113,000 in total, all paid to creditors. This falls short of the £121k projected for the 3 years to date of the Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) and means creditors were receiving as little as 8 pence in the pound. HMRC are the largest creditor owed over £259,000. All About Brands PLC is the second largest creditor, owed £99k, with lots of SMEs owed the balance of Fresh Business Thinking debt which totals more than £500,000.
As Fresh Business Thinking is not meeting it’s agreed financial projections this leads the liquidator to say in his report of April 2015 that “it is probable that the arrangement will need to be extended”.
So why is it that the Worthington Group PLC view is so much more positive in their RNS of September 2014 when they announce the acquisition of Fresh Business Thinking’s Great British Entrepreneur Awards and other seemingly worthless, amateur websites and publications?
Worthington CEO Doug Ware enthuses “The portfolio of media assets are expected to generate net profits of US $1.5m in 2015 having already generated US $345,000 in the six months to end of June 2014, with further substantial growth in 2016 forecast.”
The RNS continues “Upon completion of the transaction, which is subject to shareholders’ approval and the production of a prospectus, the vendors will be issued with 2.5m Worthington ordinary shares.”
http://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/news/market-news/market-news-detail/12098826.html
If the profits are so good for Worthington PLC, why are HMRC and the other creditors of Business Edge Network Ltd T/A Fresh Business Thinking not seeing more of their debts repaid?
Perhaps it also begs the questions as to why Allan Biggar and Nick James are being gifted 2.5 million shares in Worthington Group PLC, rather than Worthington paying cash for this (apparently profitable / valuable) asset to the Creditors of Business Edge Network Ltd, which may – or may not – be the REAL Fresh Business Thinking)?
As you say Tom, this really stinks.