Corporate Recovery

Our Corporate Recovery group has achieved a pre-eminent position as one of the leading insolvency and turnaround specialists in the South East. It acts across the spectrum of corporate recovery and pure insolvency, with particular focus on assisting and supporting insolvency practitioners, banks and asset based lenders.

The group has particularly strong relationships with a number of banking and finance organisations including HBOS, Bibby, Eurosales Finance (now part of RBS), HSBC, Clydesdale and Allied Irish. There are also established relationships with the Big 4 accountants PWC and Deloitte as well as a full range of mid-tier firms including BDO Stoy Hayward, Baker Tilly, Chantrey Vellacott DFK, Kingston Smith and Tenon as well as smaller practices including Wilkins Kennedy, Bridgers, The Norton Practice and Hurst Morrison Thomson.

Our Corporate Recovery Lawyers also work closely with provisional liquidators. Recently immediate action was required to obtain freezing orders to prevent dissipation of assets abroad where fraud was alleged. As a result of this work the group has also developed a strong working relationship with HM Revenue and Customs. Recoveries for creditors often exceed seven figures.

Recent Corporate Recovery work includes:

• Representing a liquidator, who made an application for production of documents held by the company’s former administrative receivers, relating to their remuneration and conduct of the receivership. The receivers resisted the application on the basis that the documents did not relate to the company's business, and was an “abuse of process” designed to bolster an application to fix the receivers’ costs. The court made the order sought by the liquidators, rejecting the receivers’ arguments, noting that it was important for the liquidator to have a comprehensive understanding of the company’s affairs (the case is now reported as Re Delberry Limited [2008] EWHC 925).
• Acting for the administrators of Electronic Health Media Limited (EMH) the market leader and registered supplier to the NHS of digital screen network broadcasting, providing communication solutions to patients, visitors and staff in NHS hospitals and GP practices. Boyes Turner acted on the sale of EMH’s business and assets to Amscreen Healthcare, Alan Sugar’s digital signage venture, securing the maximum value for creditors.
• Acting for a £30million turnover contruction company facing insolvency, in light of a number of substantial projects having been postponed due to the current recession, coupled with the adverse weather in early 2009 bringing other projects to a standstill so that completion and payment were severely delayed. With 3 winding-up petitions having been presented, an application was successfully made to the High Court to place the company into administration, in order to realise the full value of the in-progress contracts, and significantly reducing the risk of damages claims for uncompleted projects.