Administration at Wanderers and Bolton Whites Hotel to cost £1.45m

Two main secured creditors must be settled before the hotel can come out of administration.

Prescot Business Park Ltd, the company co-owned by Westhoughton businessman Michael James, has a £5.5m fixed floating charge secured against assets, and Ken Anderson, the former club owner and chairman, has a similar fixed floating charge, but its value is described as “uncertain” in a 61-page document available at Companies House.

It is currently predicted more than 180 unsecured creditors will be paid a dividend of 15.33 pence for every pound they are owed.

That includes £1,221,652 owed to the football club itself, of which it would receive £187,279.

The report also notes a debt of £727,775 is owed to the hotel from the club – although this may also be subject to a dividend of 35 pence in the pound.

Between both the club and hotel, Wanderers owe £22,503 to their own charity, the Bolton Wanderers Community Trust. They are due to receive back just £5,114.

Bolton Council are owed £674,887 in rates and stand to receive £103,460 of that amount.

It is also expected some of the totals will be contested – most notably that owed to former catering partners, Heathcote & Co, who estimate their claim at around £150,000.

Other credtors owed more than £10,000 include Blackpool-based Express Linen (£13,524), audio-visual firm mclcreate Ltd (£42,929), hospitality giants Onyx Centre Source (£55,181), tech company Oracle Corporation (£13,080), lift engineers Otis Ltd (£18,190) and the Performing Rights Society – who look after music royalties (£14,065).

Although the hotel was closed when Ken Anderson placed the business into administration on May 14, Quantuma were quickly able to re-open and restore operations to normal.

Administration costs of £342,766 have been racked up so far, although Quantuma expect the eventual costs will be £499,873.

That means the predicted administration costs of both the club (£976,113) and hotel will be a staggering £1,475,986.

The Football Ventures consortium were officially revealed as the preferred bidders for the football club by their administrators, David Rubin and Partners, on July 1. But they have put the deal on hold as they attempt to buy the hotel concurrently, much to the supporters’ frustration.

Quantuma announced on Tuesday that completing the sale could take “four to six weeks” – a hold-up which it is feared could have a serious impact on Wanderers’ season and which is said to have sparked a player strike at the training ground this week.

The report offered more explanation, adding that the sale of the hotel was very much dependent on the sale of the club.

“This has been delayed since the commencement of the administration due to the amount of operational issues that the company has faced since the commencement of the administration, including reopening the hotel. Additionally, since the company in inextricably linked to the football club, the sale of the hotel is highly contingent on the sale of the football club.

“As such, given the preferred bidder of the football club administrators was only conformed recently, the joint administrators considered it appropriate to delay marketing the hotel until such time that the sale of the football club was further progressed.”

The report also provided some detail of the so-called “commercial arrangement” between the club and Prescot Business Park Ltd in January 2016.

“Originally, the football club grand the company two separate leases to occupy the hotel area and the conference and banqueting suites. The initial hotel lease (dated May 24, 1999) was for a term of 25 years, expiring May 31, 2024, at an initial rent of £280,000. The conference and events lease was for a term of 14 years expiring May 31, 2013, at an initial rent of £370,000.

“On January 29, 2016, these leases were varied such that the term was extended to 125 years expiring May 31, 2124, at an annual rate of £1 per annum.”