ABERYSTWYTH marina has crashed into administration after its parent company collapsed with estimated debts of £14 million and owing the taxman £1.8m, a report outlines, as administrators battle to get to grips with the books ahead of a planned sale.

Damian Webb and Chris Lewis of RSM UK were appointed as the administrators of The Marine & Property Group Limited after it entered administration in April, and now administrators have been called in to Aberystwyth Marina Limited after HMRC launched a petition to wind it up.

A hearing on 28 June has led to the appointment of administrators for the Aberystwyth marina on 6 July as the group’s woes continue.

The Cambrian News has been reporting for months on financial issues at Aberystwyth marina, and in the wider group which comprises marinas in Cardiff, Burry Port, Watchet and Port Dinorwic, Gwynedd.

The group’s sole director, Switzerland-based Chris Odling-Smee, told the Cambrian News the recent insolvency action is voluntary and to protect its marinas, creditors and staff members, but the company has faced issues paying staff salaries or pensions, anger from berth holders and a string of legal disputes with contractors.

The “significant” losses have left bailiffs visiting the company’s sites “daily”, administrators said, while staff are owed a total of more than £140,000 in unpaid wages.

An administrator’s report into the financial health of the company, seen by the Cambrian News, shows “historic arrears” to HMRC of £1.8m and creditors owed £13.842m.

The losses which led to administration could now lead to the group as a whole – including Aberystwyth marina – to be sold.

The report says: “The group has historically traded well, however the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on marina occupancy and inflation in 2022 meant that trading performance declined significantly.

“The group has experienced cashflow difficulties with the build-up of significant arrears.

“In March, the directors were pursuing another refinance of the group to assist cashflow issues.”

The refinancing proposal was “delayed”, the report said, leading to insolvent of both the main company and two of its subsidiaries.

On top of cashflow issues, the report finds the groups’ finance team “left and were not adequately replaced”, meaning accounts were only up to date to May 2022.

The lack of a finance team has left the administrators with no current balance sheet to work from, the report added.

When looking through the company’s books, the joint administrators found that the “current position of the group is considerably worse than anticipated”.

“As the group has been loss making and is under-capitalised it has managed trading by deferring payments to all creditors (staff, suppliers, finance creditors),” the report said.

“These deferrals are now leading to aggressive creditor action with High Court enforcement officers visiting sites on a daily basis.”

The report said that administrators are “prioritising” using any cash to pay unpaid staff wages.

“As there was a high risk of a number, or even all, staff leaving the group due to non-payment of wages, the administrators have prioritised using the cash to catch up on outstanding arrears,” the report added.

Administrators warned there may be no money to pay unsecured creditors of the company as “due to the cash flow issues across the group it is uncertain whether any debt would be able to be recovered.”

The administrators said it is in the “preliminary stages of a formal sales process for the group” and that “a number of interested parties” have contacted them to express interest.

A sale process started on 26 June for all five marinas, including Aberystwyth.

The administrators say the end result of administration, which can last no longer than 12 months, will be dissolution of the group.