New owners of Worcester Warriors collapse into administration
Worcester Warriors’ new owners have fallen into administration, just over a year after the firm took over the rugby club.
Jim O’Toole and James Sandford’s Atlas consortium were appointed as Warrior’s new owners in February 2023 by administrators at Begbies Traynor. The pair have since departed as Wasp’s owner Chris Holland became a majority shareholder in Atlas last September.
Holland and his company Loxwood Holdings is reportedly a 97% shareholder in Atlas as well as owning Wasps which he was a director at before it also fell into administration.
TheBusinessDesk.com can reveal that administrators have been appointed at Atlas and understand that an announcement will be made later today regarding the fate of the company and club.
Worcester Warriors’ Sixways stadium and the surrounding land were sold to Atlas for £2.05m in February 2023. A non-refundable deposit of £500k was paid on February 1 and the consortium then agreed to pay a deferred consideration of £1m over a two-year period.
Instead, the date was brought forward to October 9, but Atlas missed this deadline.
The 43-page progress report also revealed that the club owed £24m to unsecured creditors when it went under.
Begbies Traynor said there was a lack of funds available to repay these unsecured creditors, which include the likes of banks, ticket and season ticket holders, trade creditors and directors.
