Michelle Mone-linked PPE Medpro wound up after being ordered to repay £148m | EUROtoday

PPE Medpro, the corporate linked to Baroness Michelle Mone, has been wound up at a specialist corporations court docket.

The choice, made by a decide at a listening to on Thursday, might imply that the Government is unlikely to see many of the £148 million owed to it by the corporate after it was discovered to have breached a contract to provide 25 million surgical robes in the course of the coronavirus pandemic.

PPE Medpro, a consortium led by Lady Mone’s husband, businessman Doug Barrowman, had been ordered to pay the sum after shedding a High Court battle towards the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) in October.

But it filed for administration on September 30, the day earlier than the ruling, with the cash nonetheless unpaid.

At a listening to on the Insolvency and Companies Court on Thursday, barristers for the three joint directors requested for PPE Medpro to be stored in administration to repay some collectors.

Barristers for the DHSC, an unsecured creditor, requested a decide to wind up the corporate, which they mentioned was “hopelessly insolvent”.

In a ruling, Insolvency and Companies Court Judge Sebastian Prentis positioned the corporate into liquidation.

He mentioned: “I remain of the firm view that the correct course is now to discharge the administrators and to compulsorily wind up the company.”

Records filed by PPE Medpro’s directors final month confirmed that, in addition to the cash owed to the DHSC, HM Revenue and Customs was additionally claiming £39 million in tax from the corporate.

But the filings revealed it solely had round £600,000 obtainable to pay unsecured collectors.

Simon Passfield KC, for PPE Medpro’s joint directors, mentioned in written submissions that the corporate had one secured creditor, Angelo (PTC) Limited, which, based on Companies House, is registered within the Isle of Man.

He continued that the DHSC was the agency’s largest unsecured creditor and had “expressed a clear preference for the company to move immediately into compulsory liquidation”.

In court docket, the barrister mentioned that PPE Medpro had “sufficient property” to repay a debt of round £1 million to Angelo, and that the directors believed there would “also be a return to the unsecured creditors”, together with the DHSC.

Mr Passfield continued that there have been “potential” authorized claims by the corporate towards “third parties”, which, if profitable, “could result in substantial recoveries” of funds, however no additional particulars got in court docket.

He mentioned: “The administrators are as best placed as any liquidator to achieve the best outcome for creditors as a whole.”

David Mohyuddin KC, for the DHSC, mentioned in written submissions that there was no “realistic alternative” to winding up the corporate.

He mentioned: “The only order that the court needs to, and should, make is that Medpro be wound up.”

He continued: “The court’s discretionary power to make a winding-up order against Medpro is clearly engaged: it is obviously and very significantly insolvent.”