Morris property group in administration
THE property group owned by former Leeds United director Simon Morris has gone into administration with debts of more than £50m.
Leeds-based residential and commercial property business SRM Holdings and 36 of its subsidiaries have been put into administration with most of the major UK high street banks the main creditors.
Administrators from insolvency specialists Begbies Traynor in Leeds have been appointed to the business, which has its headquarters at Brewery Wharf in Leeds and owns a portfolio of more than 500 properties, mostly flats in Leeds, and employs 30 people.
The remaining seven subsidiaries in the group are expected to go into administration by the end of this week.
A spokesman for Begbies Traynor said that SRM Holdings and its subsidiaries had collapsed “because of the downturn in the property market, particularly within the residential new build market in Leeds” and said that job losses were “inevitable”.
The spokesman added: “Many residential property businesses have been hit by the downturn because people just can’t get mortgages to buy flats.”
Administrators are currently examining the books of SRM Holdings and its subsidiaries and assessing their assets and are due to carry out an investigation of the directors of the companies as part of the administration process.
Meanwhile, it has been revealed that administrators from KPMG have been appointed to 20:20 Developments (Management) and Skinner Lane (Commercial) – two of the companies which were run by Mr Morris.
Together, the two companies hold a development site of approximately 272 residential flats in Skinner Lane in Leeds.
Richard Fleming and Mark Firmin from KPMG’s restructuring practice in Leeds have been appointed as administrators of 20:20 Developments (Management) and Skinner Lane (Commercial).
Mr Morris, 31, was a member of a consortium of Yorkshire-based businessmen who bought Leeds United in 2004 before it was sold to former Chelsea chairman Ken Bates 10 months later.
Once listed in the Sunday Times Young Rich List with an estimated fortune of £69m, a residential property firm owned by Mr Morris was the subject of a BBC Panorama investigation last year.
