Woodford crashed owing HSBC £25m
A LANCASHIRE land remediation business, owned by an entrepreneur who twice appeared on the Sunday Times Rich List, collapsed owing HSBC £24.7m.
The Woodford Group, based near Chorley, is owned by Stephen Daubney who oversaw the rapid growth of the company.
It specialised in cleaning up polluted land but later became a developer and also owned golf clothing wholesaler Bobby Jones Lifestyle, which went into administration in February.
Bolton-born Mr Daubney was ranked at 633 in the 2006 Rich List and 770 the following year. Its authors valued his fortune at £92m. But the fast-growing business hit the buffers in August when administrators from the accountancy firm Deloitte were called in.
In a recently-published report to creditors the administrators say HSBC will not recover all its losses and there will be no payout to unsecured creditors who are owed £3.7m, according to a statement of affairs.
Some £3.8m has been paid back to HSBC and the bank is expected to get 22p in the pound for its outstanding debt. Administrators said they had recouped £4.9m from the sale of Woodford’s headquarters and another property is up for sale for £1.8m.
Loans worth £2m were paid by the company to a director but this is not expected to be recovered. “Following pursuit of these amounts no payment proposal has been made,” stated the report. “The administrators continue to pursue the amounts outstanding.” The directors of the company are listed as Stephen Daubney and Jason Parkinson.
Before its demise the Woodford Group sponsored one of the stands at Bolton Wanderers’ Reebok Stadium, the team supported by Mr Daubney.
