One of NTI's greatest clients and friends, Anchorage Chambers, rode to the rescue of the clients of the now defunct IVA Advisor in September when the debt solutions business entered Administration owing more than £26 million. The IVA Advisor had administered over 8,500 cases from its base in Cheadle and employed 48 members of staff when yet more of our friends, at FRP Advisory, were appointed to oversee the business in the latter part of the summer, with Anthony Collier and Simon Farr leading in on the white chargers.
Immediately after the appointment, 29 employees were made redundant, followed by two more on August 31. Approximately 8,000 of the company's Individual Voluntary Arrangement clients have now been transferred to Salford-based insolvency management firm Anchorage Chambers, whose hands are very safe and caring.
According to a new document filed by FRP with Companies House, Balbec Capital LP, a global private investment firm with expertise in sourcing alternative credit investments, had advanced £26 million to the IVA Advisor since May 2021. The money was mainly used to purchase IVA cases from lead generators.
Preferential creditors were also owed £72,000 for arrears of pay, unpaid pension contributions and holiday pay. HMRC were in it up to £400,000, while unsecured creditors were owed a neatly estimated £426,702.
When quizzed, FRP said it "anticipated that there would be insufficient funds" to pay back preferential, HMRC or unsecured creditors. The document also reveals that the company turned over £7.1m in the six months to June 30, 2022, but made a pre-tax loss of £122,000. Enter Anchorage Chambers, whose website proudly announces they are delighted to welcome the clients of the IVA Advisor, who are doubtless delighted to be so welcomed.
Anchorage have an extensive and well-managed book and will do for those very clients what could never have been done by the IVA Advisor.
