Beetham Organization remains in the red
THE Beetham Organization reduced its net deficit in the year to September 30, 2009, but its liabilities still outweigh its assets to the tune of £9.9m.
A lack of trading activity at parent firm Beetham Holdings Two meant that the company no longer has to file full accounts, but abbreviated accounts show that the value of its investments reduced by £500,000 to £20m during the period.
The total value of its current assets are £19.5m, but when long-term debts of £39.6m are factored in its liabilities outweigh its assets by £9.9m. This is an improvement on the prior year, when larger long-term loans meant that assets outweighed liabilities by £11.4m.
The company had faced the threat of being struck off by Companies House registrars due to the lateness in filing its accounts, but their publication now means this action has been dropped.
Beetham Holdings Two owns many of Beetham’s remaining live investments, including its interest in the proposed One Blackfriars tower in London.
However, it did not own the Beetham West Tower in Liverpool, which was sold during the previous year to Mapfield Properties – a company owned by Steven Beetham and his father-in-law Hugh Frost – for £1. It was subsequently placed into administration in February this year after lender Anglo-Irish Bank recalled its £25.6m worth of loans secured on the property.
The businesses which owned the Beetham hotels businesses in Manchester and Liverpool were part of the group, however, until they were placed into administration in March.
Beetham Hotels Liverpool and Beetham Hotels Manchester had combined debts of £89m, but following a sale by administrators KPMG on March 24 they were sold to Cypriot businessman Loucas Louca for £60m – a deal that left a shortfall of £30m to principal funder Bank of Scotland.
