Since £3bn-turnover contractor Interserve’s 15 March prepack administration, the new bank-owned company that emerged has been very keen to stress that it remains business as usual for suppliers, clients and partners. The move put the group’s parent company, Interserve plc, into administration, while its banks were allowed to take the assets into a new business – now called Interserve Group – in return for writing off £485m owed to them. While shareholders have lost everything, the firm’s PR people say this arrangement leaves the business, under existing chief executive Debbie White, with vastly reduced debts, new credit facilities and a strong position to carry on, almost as if nothing happened. 

Clients, employees and subcontractors of the support services and construction giant will – largely – be relieved. 

However, big questions remain about what exactly the reborn Interserve Group has taken on from the failed plc, and what it has left behind. Prepack administrations, while saving jobs and limiting the chaos caused by company collapses, are notorious for giving a legal escape route for businesses to effectively carry on trading while escaping their creditors. 

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