Unsecured Midas creditors told to forget about getting missing millions back

Unsecured creditors of collapsed contractor Midas have been told they won’t be getting any of the money they are owed back.

In an update by administrator Teneo Financial Advisory, firms were warned it was “unlikely that sufficient funds will be realised to enable a distribution to be made”.

Exeter-based Midas sank into administration earlier this year owing unsecured creditors £22.5m with administrators saying the firm, which was set up in 1976, suffering a “rapid deterioration in trade from November 2021 to January [this year] as the group was unable to pay subcontractors to complete ongoing works”.

An administrators’ report earlier this year showed nearly 40 firms are owed at least six figures by the collapsed firm – with one contractor looking at a black hole in its accounts of more than £600,000. Nearly 1,800 firms unsecured firms have been left with nothing.

A progress report filed at Companies House last week said the firm’s Newton Abbot office had been sold with the figure thought be around £1m. Teneo is hoping that a second office in Newport will fetch in excess of £1m.

Teneo has previously said Midas collapsed after being impacted by the pandemic as well as higher labour and material costs.”

It said delays on jobs meant that in the year to last October it suffered “significant working capital and cash challenges”.