FRP - A guide to managing financial stress in your company

Administrative receivership

Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA)

In rare circumstances, a secured creditor may be entitled to appoint an Administrative Receiver (AR). The AR is appointed over all the assets of the company but has a primary responsibility to the secured creditor that appointed them. specific and increasingly

A CVA enables a bespoke and legally enforceable settlement to be brokered between a company and its creditors (often resulting in creditors writing off a portion of their debt). The usual structure of a CVA results in historic creditor liabilities being ring-fenced within the CVA, whilst the company meets agreed obligations to the CVA, including monthly payments to the CVA. The CVA is overseen by a supervisor, a licensed insolvency practitioner. The directors remain in control of the company and payments to historic creditors are often funded out of future profits.

Creditors Voluntary Liquidation (CVL)

This is a liquidation process for an insolvent company initiated by its directors and shareholders. A CVL can often be commenced within a matter of a few weeks. A licensed insolvency practitioner is appointed as liquidator and realises the company’s assets to seek to generate a return to its creditors. CVL is a terminal procedure.

Fixed charge receivership

When a lender has a fixed charge, such as a mortgage on a property, a fixed charge receiver might be appointed by the lender just to enforce the security of their asset. A receiver will deal with the sale of that specific asset to repay the secured creditor, but the directors will remain responsible for all other aspects of the company, including any ongoing trading.

Compulsory liquidation (WUC)

A compulsory winding up is a court-driven procedure that is the predominant option sought by HMRC or creditors to force a company into liquidation. In certain circumstances, a WUC may be initiated by directors or shareholders. Usually the official receiver (the government’s version of an insolvency practitioner) will automatically take the role of liquidator, but creditors may seek for them to be replaced by an insolvency practitioner to act as liquidator. It is usually more time-consuming and expensive to place a company into WUC, and value within assets may dissipate as a result of any delays. Once in liquidation, the process of WUC and CVL generally results in similar outcomes for creditors.

Administration

Administration allows one of three statutory purposes to be pursued. These purposes are the rescue of the company as a going concern; the achievement of a better outcome for creditors compared to liquidation; or the distribution of monies to one or more secured or preferential creditors. The administrator takes over the management of the company and has extensive protection from the company’s creditors to enable the pursuit of the statutory purpose. A administration can be combined with an RP or CVA to deliver a rescue of the company as a going concern, but more commonly there is a sale of the underlying assets and business on a going concern basis (sometimes shortly after appointment, referred to as a ‘pre-pack sale’) to meet the second statutory purpose.

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