Take cab deal or miss out

Creditors will share $250k

CREDITORS of collapsed cab company P2P Transport have been told to accept a $250,000 deal with one of its own subsidiaries, or face the prospect of receiving none of their money back.

The insolvent ASX-listed company, and two of its subsidiaries TGT and Taxi-Link, went into administration on December 5 with debts of $24.6m.

P2P managed more than 2400 taxis across Australia, including the Black & White fleet, which it launched on the Gold Coast two weeks before the company went into administration.

Its network division, Black & White Cabs, was recapitalised to operate as usual.

In their report to creditors, administrators Tracy Lee Knight and Damien Lee Hou Lau of Bentleys said company assets included a fleet of 369 taxis, spread throughout Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Sydney, Victoria and Western Australia.

They were sold to Black & White for a total of $750,000 – an average of just over $2000 per vehicle – with proceeds going towards a secured debt of $3.974m with lender MMMGW Pty Ltd.

The administrators said the sale was in line with valuation and that the costs of removing taxi infrastructure to sell the vehicles to the public was prohibitive. The company reported a $19.8m loss in FY19.

Administrators have recommended a deed of company arrangement be agreed with Black & White Holdings, which P2P acquired in May 2018.

“In our opinion there will be no funds available to distribute to unsecured creditors of the companies if they are placed into liquidation,” administrators said.

The arrangement would include a contribution of $250,000 for distribution between unsecured creditors, with those owed $4000 or more to receive a payment of $4000 by the end of April.

It also has an agreement from related unsecured creditors owed $16m to “stand aside” from receiving any dividend, enabling other creditors to receive more.

The administrators said the companies had likely been insolvent as early as April 2020 after COVID-19 scuttled plans for a recapitalisation and an arrangement with Westpac, a secured creditor, expired.

They said they’d had limited time to investigate the company but had not found any evidence of voidable transactions nor breaches of directors’ duties.

“Gregory Webb, director of all three of the companies, advised that the number of operational vehicles was not sufficient enough to sustain the debt levels in the group, and the uncertainty as to the timing, if ever, of when the market would return to pre COVID-19 levels was such that without refinancing, the group was unable to continue in its current form,” the report to creditors said.

A second creditors meeting has been scheduled for 11am on Tuesday.