Administrators for collapsed mechanical and electrical (M&E) firm HE Simm have warned that trade creditors are unlikely to receive a payout.
The Liverpool-based family business owed almost £15m to trade creditors when it went into administration last month, said Patrick Lannagan, Richard Hough and Adam Harris of Forvis Mazars.
A statement of affairs has not yet been submitted by HE Simm’s directors, although they were requested to do so by 26 September.
But the administrators estimated that the firm collapsed with just £55,000 in fixed assets and £530,000 of cash at bank and in hand, with £3.9m of work in progress.
The supply chain is owed £14.9m and unsecured creditors are owed £18.1m, they noted, warning: “Assuming the realisations and expenses are as expected, it is unlikely that there will be sufficient funds available to allow a distribution to unsecured creditors.”
HMRC’s secondary preferential claim is expected to be in the region of £276,000 but it was also “unlikely” that the tax body will receive anything, the administrators said.
A total of 127 employees were laid off when HE Simm went under on 8 September. Claims totalling about £214,000 have been submitted to the Redundancy Payments Service.
As preferential creditors, the former staff are likely to receive a “partial dividend”, the administrators added in their notice of proposals, signed off on 6 October.
HE Simm’s most recent audited accounts covered a 17-month period from 31 July 2022 to 31 December 2023. They showed a £10.4m pre-tax loss from turnover of £118.3m.
In the previous 12-month period, it generated a profit of £900,000 from turnover of £54.2m.
The administrators’ report described “increasing commercial pressure” on the M&E firm’s London jobs from August 2023, with losses confirmed “across multiple schemes”.
A review subsequently found that six M&E jobs in southern England incurred a combined £20m loss, they added.
Shareholders pumped £17m into the company, including £9.9m of share capital issued in June this year.
But an undisclosed number of credit insurers withdrew their cover, “adding to the cashflow pressures on the business”.
Forvis Mazars said it was eventually called in after further challenges arose in June that strained HE Simm’s working capital.
These included “the administration of a key client, increased creditor pressure, the loss of a number of projects, delays to major schemes, challenging practices from main contractors and further losses on London projects”, the report said.
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Ben Vogel