Details of the sale have emerged in a progress report published on Companies House on 3 May by the administrator Interpath Advisory, which was called in by the chemical recycling company in September 2022 (see letsrecycle.com story).
Interpath noted a £22.8 million ‘deficiency’ at the company, the difference between the valued assets and what was owed to creditors, in November (see letsrecycle.com story).
Noticeable names owed money include Wiltshire Council, owed £935,000, and HMRC, owed £875,000.
In the progress report, which details activity in the period between 26 September to 25 March 2023, Interpath said it undertook a sales process to explore offers for the company.
While 59 parties expressed an interest, only one remaining business remained with an offer of £1.1 million, but the unnamed company pulled out due to costs of transporting assets.
A £310,000 offer was then received from an unnamed party, the report says, which was “ultimately agreed as being the best option for creditors as a whole”.
However, given the scale of money owed and costs of the administration process, Interpath noted that it is “highly unlikely there will be a dividend” to preferential creditors, secondary preferential creditors (HMRC) or unsecured creditors. HMRC was owed £875,000, the report says.
Between September and March, the company’s debts increased by £496,381, which includes administrator fees.
“An offer was received [which] was ultimately agreed as being the best option”
- Interpath
Machine
The £310,000 offer was largely made up of £298,995 for the ‘RT7000’ machine which Recycling Technologies said can turn plastics into oil. Recycling Technologies had initially valued this at more than £6 million.
The report says: “It was ultimately concluded the transaction with the purchaser was a significant improvement on the only other likely outcome which was a piecemeal disposal strategy”.
Costs
Interpath said that between being appointed and 25 March, it has incurred costs of £665,753, which represents 1,517 hours at an average of £439 an hour.
Interpath has drawn £300,000 of these fees, while nearly £42,000 has been paid to landlords, £37,452 in wages to the small team of retained staff and £25, 578 to HMRC of PAYE and national insurance contributions.
This means Interpath is still owed more than £365,000 from its work during this period, while Addleshard Goddard is owed £145,268 for legal advice.
Plastics to oil
Recycling Technologies was founded by its director Adrian Griffiths in 2011.
The company said that the machine it created, the RT70000, could transform plastic waste into a chemical feedstock called Plaxx, “which can be used in the manufacture of new, virgin quality plastic.”
Recycling Technologies was funded through a number of different sources, including government grants such as £2 million from Zero Waste Scotland, equity investment and convertible loan notes. It also ‘crowdfunded’ more than £2 million.
Mr Griffiths previously claimed the Recycling Technologies process could turn the “most challenging of plastics wastes into valuable oils” via the RT7000 machine.
Mr Griffiths explained: “Our RT7000 machine will help feedstock recycling take off around the world. This will allow crisp packets, sachets, films etc to become widely recycled back into virgin quality plastics.”
Recycling Technologies was also due to install its machine in Scotland as part of an ‘advanced plastics reprocessing facility’ on the Binn Group’s site in Perthshire.
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