The Administrators of WCP Finance (formerly Working Capital Partners) have published their progress report and grim reading it is too
Salient points include the fact that at the date of their appointment the company’s book debts totalled £1.1m and of that sum £745,000 is considered to be bad debt where either the customers have gone bust themselves, the invoices are disputed, long term repayment plans have been agreed or where “funds have been misdirected away from the company to borrowers’ bank accounts in breach of the funding agreement” (whatever that means)
It seems that at the date of the Administration 68% of the book debt was bad or doubtful which is a shocking figure and symptomatic of a very poorly run factoring company.
In addition it seems that a significant sum due from SME Tradeflow has been disputed. I am aware that when a company goes bust their customers will often try and find ways to wriggle out of paying but in this instance SME Tradeflow is owned by the very same Perry Burns who owned Working Capital Partners so it seems that his left hand is disputing the amount owing to his right hand.
Hopefully Mr Burns has given up trying to run a factoring company as he has registered The Electric Motorbike Company Ltd which last month registered a charge to Berkeley Trade Finance Ltd which is itself a fairly new company being registered in March 2019
It will be interesting to see how these two companies fare and I will watch their activities at Companies House with interest.
Additionally Mr Burns is also a director of Working Capital Partners Ltd (formerly WCP Capital Ltd) which is the result of a name swap prior to Administration plus a company called Confidential Invoice Discounting Ltd so let’s hope that both companies remain dormant