The Compendium

is the Liquidation of Carillion, a British multinational construction and facilities management services company headquartered in Wolverhampton. Its Liquidation, in 2018, was the largest ever trading Liquidation in the UK at the time and it was managed by the OR’s office.

The Official Receiver’s function, as Liquidator, is to collect in and realise the company’s assets, and to distribute the proceeds to the company’s creditors and, if there is a surplus, to the persons entitled to it. A Liquidator has wide-reaching powers. Such powers include bringing legal proceedings in the name of the company, carrying on the business of the company and paying debts.

[See ‘Liquidation’, ‘Official Receiver’, ‘OR’ and ‘Director’.]

Wind Up

The phrase ‘wind up’ is synonymous with ‘Liquidation’. The two phrases are often used interchangeably and mean to engage in a process to end a company’s legal existence, by going through either a voluntary or Compulsory Liquidation, taking in the company assets, realising them and maximising realisations to creditors.

Quite literally, the phrase ‘wind up’, in the context of a company, means to end its existence and dissolve it – take it off the Register of Companies.

[See ‘Liquidation’, ‘Voluntary Liquidation’, ‘Compulsory Liquidation’ and Register of Companies’.]

Withdrawal Notice

A withdrawal notice should be in a standard form. It is used for an Insolvency Practitioner to notify the Pension Protection Fund that a pension scheme rescue has occurred.

Section 23 of the Pension Protection Fund (Entry Rules) Regulations 2005 state that:

• A withdrawal notice under the Act must be in writing and contain the following information:
  • the name or type of the notice issued;