Cathco Property Holdings in administration

A COMMERCIAL property developer which was working on schemes to develop a 90,000 sq ft foodstore in Bolton and a town centre redevelopment scheme at Denbigh in North Wales, has been placed into administration.

Cathco Property Holdings, which was owned by Monaco-based property entrepreneur Nathan Kempkin but whose registered office was in Wigan, appointed Nigel Nutting and Mark Fry from the London office of insolvency firm Begbies Traynor as joint administrators of the business on September 16.

The last set of accounts filed for the company for the year to May 31, 2008, show that it posted a pre-tax loss of £6.6m on sales of £1m. It owned assets worth more than £85m – including £80m of land and buildings, but owed £69m on long term loans.

Cathco Property Group was in the process of building a huge 90,000 sq ft Tesco foodstore at Longcauseway in Farnworth on the site of the former Farnworth Neighbourhood Shopping Centre. The firm was also building 50,000 sq ft supermarket and 19 retail units at the Station Yard site at Denbigh in North Wales, where work has already stopped.

Cathco had also recently completed the Menai Shopping Centre in Bangor and its investment portfolio contained high street units at Northwich and Macclesfield.

A spokeswoman for Begbies Traynor confirmed that Nuttall and Fry had been appointed as joint administrators to Cathco Property Holdings.

“They are currently assessing the company’s affairs and will be able to comment further in due course,” she said.