HMRC’s winding up petition against Patisserie Valerie dismissed
Crisis-hit cake retailer Patisserie Valerie has survived a winding up petition brought by HMRC, while the company also said it is looking into share option accounting irregularities.
HMRC had sought to liquidate the firm over unpaid tax of £1.14m by seeking the order against parent company Patisserie Holdings’ principal trading subsidiary, Stonebeach Limited.
However, the High Court of Justice, Business and Property Courts dismissed the request, the company announced today.
This morning, Patisserie Valerie also said that 666,666 shares granted to finance director Chris Marsh and 1m granted to chief executive Paul May in 2016 “are now considered by the company as being unlikely to become exercisable under the rules of the LTIP [long term incentive plan].”
Two identical option grants in 2014 and 2015, exercised by May and Marsh in February 2018 and July 2018, were not correctly accounted for in Patisserie’s financial filings.
“The company, as part of the ongoing investigation, is seeking to understand why the grant of options relating to 2015 and 2016 have not been appropriately disclosed and accounted for in its financial statements,” the company said.
The news comes as leading investors in Patisserie Valerie are thought to be pushing Johnson to give up control of an internal investigation into a £40m hole in its accounts over concerns that the review is not sufficiently independent.
The chain was saved from collapse earlier this month after its chairman Luke Johnson joined forces with investors to plug the firm with cash.
Johnson made £20m available in emergency funding to prevent the company’s collapse, keeping its 200 stores open while securing 2,800 jobs.
Shareholders, including fund managers Schroders, Invesco Perpetual and Miton, bought in at 50p-per-share to provide £15.7m of funding.
Its shares were frozen after the company’s debt and potential fraud were uncovered.
Marsh was arrested on suspicion of fraud shortly after. He has since been bailed.
