NPG settles with group level creditors

North Point Global Group, the Liverpool developer that this summer withdrew from several high profile development sites in the city, has completed a Company Voluntary Arrangement through insolvency practitioner Chamberlain & Co.

The CVA has been completed by NPG at group level, while various businesses set up to deal with individual development sites are still listed as active. The arrangement was supported by 100% of the business’s creditors.

CVAs are a process in which a company agrees to repay some or all of its debts to creditors over an agreed period of time.

In order for a CVA to be approved, more than 75% by value of the creditors owed must support it. A secondary test excludes “connected creditors,” with a requirement of 50% support.

According to documents filed with Companies House by Chamberlain & Co, almost £4.2m was owed by the business to the companies listed in the report.

The bulk of this was owed to subsidiaries linked to the various NPG development projects. Almost £1.9m was owed to North Point (Pall Mall) and £267,680 owed to China Town Development Company. Warwick Road Developments (Manchester) was owed £791,600 and Baltic House Developments slightly more than £1m.

Just £222,580 was reported as owed to unconnected companies. Of the seven unconnected companies listed, former NPG director David Choules is listed as a director of three: Choules Holdings, Inca Management, and Urban Student Life.

Between April 2015 and January 2016, Choules was appointed as a director of NPG Group and then the four development subsidiaries, resigning from all of them in July 2016.

The other unconnected businesses are Acentus Real Estate, where Simon Clarke, who formerly worked in sales for NPG, is listed as its sole director, Blue Ray Enterprises, Celestial Globe Consultancy and Nova Financial.

NPG said that the CVA process does not have any effect on any of the development schemes owned by North Point Global Group, which are in the process of being sold.

Liverpool City Council, which brought matters to a head for the developer in July by issuing a statutory demand for £950,000 owed over the New Chinatown site, is not involved in this process, as its dealings there have been conducted with subsidiary China Town Development Company. A court hearing is scheduled for November.

A spokesman for North Point Global Group said: “The Company Voluntary Arrangement will enable the Group to continue with its operating strategy whilst at the same time working with its subsidiary company directors to dispose of assets in an orderly and efficient way despite the impact of recent controversial and negative media reporting.

“This will include the project at New Chinatown Liverpool where the process has been delayed by the frivolous litigation commenced by Liverpool City Council.”

At the end of July, the group announced that it would look to sell its stalled development projects, following the launch of legal proceedings by the council over New Chinatown and a winding-up petition issued by supplier Bennetts Cranes.