PC Harrington subsidiary asset sales investigated

Administrators handling the collapse of PC Harrington Contractors subsidiary Slipform International have said the sale of the firm’s assets to PC Harrington Holdings is being investigated.

Mercer & Hole, administrators for concrete specialist Slipform, said in an update filed at Companies House that they are investigating whether the £450,000 sale of the Slipform business and assets to the then ultimate parent company PC Harrington Holdings was undervalued.

The administrators are also investigating whether Slipform should be paid £65,000 for the sale of the “Slipform” business name to PC Harrington Holdings, monies they claim have not been paid.

The administrators said this could amount to a “breach of duty” by the Slipform directors – named at Companies House as Patrick Harrington, Eileen Harrington and Anne McGann. All three are all also directors of PC Harrington Holdings.

Slipform fell into administration last December, seven months after its sole shareholder and fellow concrete specialist PC Harrington Contractors fell into administration, while related business Crystal Formwork was placed into liquidation the same month.

PC Harrington Holdings and a number of related businesses are still trading.

The sale of Slipform’s assets took place last November. The following month, Slipform was placed in administration with £380,168 in cash in the bank and owing £10.8m, of which £10.4m was to sister company Crystal Formwork.

Slipform did not directly employ any staff, but anyone who carried out work for it was employed initially by Crystal and then by Structural Systems Ltd, another related company not currently affected by administration or liquidation.

The administrators have also revealed that the business and assets purchased by PC Harrington Holdings Ltd were transferred just before Christmas to another company, Slipform Ltd, that lists Patrick and Eileen Harrington as directors.

The directors of PC Harrington Holdings have been contacted for comment.