Claims total £62m against energy firm

REPORT REVEALS AMOUNT OWED TO CREDITORS

CREDITORS are owed £62 million following the collapse of Robin Hood Energy, an administrator’s progress report has revealed.

Nottingham City Council’s energy firm was established in a bid to tackle fuel poverty and take on the “big six” power companies such as British Gas, the parent company of which – Centrica – has since boughy the customer list for £800,000 following RHE’S failure.

At its peak the firm had more than 125,000 customers until what was described as continued “institutional blindness” and a negative council culture led to its demise resulting in multi-million-pound losses.

The latest administrator’s progress report, published this month, has detailed exactly how much is owed to creditors, all of which are unsecured.

Deloitte was overseeing the breakup of the company until its UK restructuring practice was sold to Teneo Restructuring Limited on May 29, meaning the administration is now in the hands of Teneo.

Teneo’s progress report covers the period from January 5 to July 4 this year.

According to the report the company had 109 employees, with 61 made redundant on January 15, a further 45 on January 31 and the final three on February 28.

The report says payroll and employee queries that have arisen “have been dealt with” and wages and salaries of £865,000 were paid in respect to work completed up to their redundancy.

Costs of redundancy will be reimbursed to the estate by the parent company out of its divided entitlement as an unsecured creditor “in due course”.

Not one creditor is secured, but HMRC is classed as a secondary preferential creditor, meaning it will be paid in full.

It is estimated HMRC’S claim is worth around £670,000 and an initial claim of £1,700 has already been received.

Teneo says it is in the process of filing a pre-appointment VAT return, which is expected to decrease HMRC’S claim by around £500,000, and it is anticipated that there are “sufficient funds” to pay the final claim in full.

There are then a further 417 unsecured creditors.

To date, the report states, 36 creditors have filed claims totalling £13.4m.

It is expected the unsecured creditors will be paid in the region of roughly 20p to a pound and the distribution of the money will start when Robin Hood Energy enters creditors voluntary liquidation (meaning the moment directors of the company formally close the insolvent company on a voluntary basis, rather than on a compulsory basis, because there are funds available to distribute to the creditors).

The report also details Robin Hood Energy’s current accounts and its balance in hand now sits at £10,798,297.

Receipts totalled £11,827,831 before payments went out, including the £800,000 from the Centrica/ British Gas transaction, £3,489,209 cash-at-bank and £10,119 from the sale of furniture and equipment.

Payments totalled more than £1m and included the £864,000 for wages, £73,240 for debt collection fees, £46,293 for IT costs and £21,474 for legal costs.

The administration process is expected to end at the beginning of next year.

Teneo’s report states: “We do not anticipate that it will be necessary to extend the period of the administration, which is due to end on or before January 4, 2022.”

The Post approached the city council for a comment but had not received a reply at the time of going to press.