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Lloyds set to lose £57m from Tenon collapse

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24th Oct 2013
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Creditors and shareholders in RSM Tenon, the collapsed accountancy group, will get nothing back while Lloyds is likely to lose up to £57m of the debt owed by Tenon.

A report from joint administrators Matthew Smith, Nicholas Edwards and Clare Boardman of Deloitte said that when RSM was sold to Baker Tilly in August in a pre-pack deal a settlement was made with the bank to repay £22m of the £86m debt it was owed plus a £7m working capital adjustment.

Administrators said that there is no prospect of a return to any class of creditor other than Lloyds, which is expected to get around £29m of the money it is owed.

Unsecured creditors were owed about £7m.

In July, Baker Tilly made an unsolicited takeover approach but did not make a final offer. Tenon went into administration after its bank refused to give it more credit when it was on the point of breaking its banking covenants.

The sale of Tenon’s profitable parts to Baker Tilly saved about 2,300 UK jobs but was criticised for leaving shareholders out of cash.

Baker Tilly bought Tenon for £30m. Of this £1m in cash was paid towards the firm's shares; £22m was paid to settle the bank debt; and a £7m working capital adjustment.

In a statement to AccountingWEB, Lloyds said: "We supported the company over many months as the business considered its options. Ultimately, the directors of the business felt the challenges could not be resolved without the need for administration. The best offer from the bank and other creditors’ perspective – and which saved more than 2,000 jobs – was the one taken forward with Baker Tilly.”

Lloyds did not comment on the figure in the administrators’ report for Lloyds’ expected loss from Tenon but the bank is understood to have already made provisions for it.

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By i.prescott
25th Oct 2013 09:24

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