Bank of Ireland was owed around £1million by Nu-Track Ltd when the Ballymena company formally entered administration in October 2022, most of which will not be repaid.
The figures were revealed in an administrator's progress report published today, Thursday 11th May, six months after Deloitte began working on the Administration. News of the local company's difficulties first became known at the end of last September when upwards of 60 employees were made redundant.
At the time of entering Administration Nu-Track was owned by Rob Shiels, son-in-law of former Wrightbus boss Jeff Wright. The business was previously owned by Wright, before he relinquished his position as a 'person with significant control' on 1 June 2022.
Deloitte's report confirms:
• All stock belonging to creditors of Nu-Track was returned.
• Remaining plant and machinery were sold at auction. Funds totalling £76,913.00 after the deduction of agent costs and expenses was received into the Administration estate.
• Stock sold outside of the auction totalled £1,560.00.
• Nu-Track's premises have been fully cleared and returned to the landlord.
• All employees have received their entitlements from Redundancy Payments Service (RPS) including redundancy, pay in lieu of notice and an outstanding holiday pay.
Money owed from Nu-Track Ltd to creditors:
• Secured creditors - Bank of Ireland owed around £1m - the amount was secured by way of a fixed and floating charge. Deloitte notes, "it is not expected that the secured creditor will be repaid in full".
• Preferential creditors - it is anticipated there will be a small first preferential claim from RPS in relation to employee pensions and arrears of wages, that may be paid in full.
It is expected that the secondary preferential creditor, HMRC, will not be paid in full.
Deloitte notes that they have yet to receive a final claim from Redundancy Payments Service in relation to their preferential claim saying, "on present information, it is likely that this claim will be paid in full".
• Unsecured creditors - It is unlikely that there will be a distribution for unsecured creditors
Legal claim:
Legal proceedings against a key customer have now concluded. A settlement figure of £50,000 was agreed between the parties.
Other assets:
The Joint Administrators became aware of a fully converted vehicle that was yet to be paid for.
Negotiations were commenced in respect of recovering the amounts due to the company. After negotiations, the conversion costs were received into the Administration account totalling £11,491.00 plus VAT.
Refunds:
Refunds totalling £2,898.05 in relation to payments made on account to suppliers were paid into the Administration.
Balance in Hand:
Following work undertaken by the appointed Administrators a total £136,188.99 remains to be distributed between Bank of Ireland, Redundancy Payments Service and HMRC.
However to date, the Administrators have not been paid, and on a times cost basis are also owed £160,242.00
The report reveals investigations remain ongoing into the conduct of the director and company prior to the Administration, with an interim report submitted to the Directors Disqualification Unit.
The report concludes saying, "As there will not be any funds to distribute to unsecured creditors, other than under any Prescribed Part, the Administrators consider dissolution to be the most appropriate exit route from the Administrations".
Meanwhile a hearing will take place today in the High Court over legal proceedings against 14 people connected to Wrightbus Ballymena, including the controversial former owner Jeff Wright.
Wrightbus went bust in 2019 owing £60m before the main business was taken over by Industrialist Jo Bamford, and successfully seen a dramatic turnaround with order books full and workforce expanding.