Administrators find 50,000 missing invoices from suppliers and say there鈥檚 only 拢600,000 to pay unsecured creditors

Connaught鈥檚 debts could be as much as 拢100m after administrators found 50,000 unaccounted for invoices.

According to a report in the Financial Times, KPMG has said it had believed the social housing arm of Connaught owed 拢46m but that the discovery of suppliers鈥� invoices means that figure could more than double.

The paper quotes David Costley-Wood, joint administrator and restructuring partner at KPMG, as saying: 鈥淲e were surprised at the level of backlog of invoices that had not been processed for a listed company.鈥�

KPMG鈥檚 has also found out that there is only 拢600,000 available to the unsecured creditors, which means they could receive less than one penny in every pound.

The administrators have also said that the company鈥檚 employee records were 鈥渦nreliable and in a poor state鈥�.

Costley-Wood said: 鈥淩elative to its size, it鈥檚 one of the worst payroll records I鈥檝e seen in 20 years.鈥�

Connaught issued a profit warning back in June blaming public sector cuts for its woes, and in July its RBS-led backers provided short-term funding of 拢15m to tide it over.

It fell into administration two months ago after its banks rejected a three-year rescue plan that required a 拢50m cash injection.

Topics