High noon for Oddbins: formally in administration

The adminstration orders for both Oddbins Ltd and Oddbins Properties Ltd was formally agreed by Mr Justice Morgan sitting in Court 19, Royal Courts of Justice at 12.15pm today. The judge had, however, already indicated on the stroke of noon that he was prepared to sign the orders. The winding up petition presented by British Gas due to be heard on the 20th April was dismissed at the same time. British Gas were not present at the hearing.

Mr Justice Morgan was swiftly persuaded that Oddbins Ltd was both cash flow and balance sheet insolvent and that the business had to go either in administration or liquidation. Oddbins had been due to pay a bill of £1.5 million followed by one of £1.9 million. The judge quickly accepted that administration was the right course for Oddbins Ltd (the trading company) but toyed with the possibility of putting Oddbins Properties Ltd into liquidation. However, he was persuaded that this would make the administrators' job more difficult, more burdensome and would cost more, so he agreed on administration for both companies.The liquidators are expected to be Matthew David Smith and Lee Manning of Deloitte – more details soon.

Oddbins was placed in administration on the basis of a pending sale of the business and the need to keep the business and its assets viable during this process. It was not put into administration as a going concern.

There was a brief discussion of the debt of £17.5 million owed to Oddbins by Ex Cellar Investments Ltd. This was money lent by Oddbins "to buy itself" and it was described both by the judge and by counsel for Oddbins as "a whitewash procedure" and that the debt has been "whitewashed". It was accepted that the debt was "realistically worthless"as Ex Cellar Investments Ltd's sole asset is Oddbins.

It was agreed that notices and correspondence to creditors could be sent electronically.