Training provider sold out of administration after failed CVA

HEALTH and safety training provider SMTS has been sold to a rival provider after a CVA failed and the company entered administration.

Encompassed Ltd has acquired the Middlesbrough-based company which has subsidiaries in Kenya and Nigeria.

Insolvency practitioners at PKF Geoffrey Martin & Co’s Leeds office brokered the deal for the company which saved 18 jobs at the firm.

It went into administration after plans for a CVA through. It had faced severe pressure from creditors and had suffered cash flow issues, and had been affected by difficulties in the oil and gas sector which it provides services to.

Encompassed Ltd, based in North Somerset, is part of the SMH Group.

Joint administrator James Sleight, a partner in PKF Geoffrey Martin & Co’s Leeds Office commented: “Profitability appears to have declined rapidly over the last 18 months, partly as a result of the contraction in the Oil & Gas sector, a key market for the Company. This had resulted in acute cash flow difficulties and significant creditor pressure.”

“The directors had sought to agree a Company Voluntary Arrangement proposal with creditors, however, this was rejected in early October, prompting the directors to appoint Administrators. We are pleased to have achieved a going concern sale of the business, which preserves the employment of the Company’s 18 staff.”

PKF Geoffrey Martin & Co is a leading advisory firm formed in Leeds in 1983.