Written ByKeith Steven
Managing Director
Keith is the Managing Director of KSA Group Insolvency Practitioners which has been established for 25 years. The company has undertaken more CVA led rescues than any other firm. Read our case studies to see how.
KSA Group Seminars!! At KSA Group we are passionate about saving companies and feel that education is the key for business people and their advisors to ensure that good viable businesses are not thrown away. There is much ignorance about the rescue mechanisms available, such as informal turnaround, or company voluntary arrangements, and it is often the case that business people leave it too late to act to solve cashflow problems.
What is more, saving a viable business should be an aim of many company’s advisors. Many of these seminars are aimed at advisors that will learn that they can keep a client and be renumerated for helping to bring about the turnaround.
We have already held seminars in London, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Nottingham and Crawley to spread the word. If you want to attend any of these events and would like to have details of the next one then you should get in touch.
Upcoming Seminar is to be held in Leeds on the 20th of June. CVA’s explained and debated. Please get in touch with robertm@ksagroup.co.uk if you want to attend
Next Seminar is Turnaround from a Local, National, and International Perspective to be held in Reading on June 12th.
Latest Seminar to be held was CVA versus Pre Pack debate on the 8th May 2013 in London. Read the review of the event published in Accountingweb.co.uk
Bromley 18th April 2013 – The Kent Triple A event was well received and it was interesting to hear HSBC’s approach to lending requests from small businesses.
Seminar in Nottingham on the 19th March 2013
This CPD event was a great success with over 30 people in attendance.
Seminar Edinburgh 19th February 2013
The meeting was addressed by a lawyer, a funder and a turnaround professional, who – drawing on their considerable experience in the field of restructuring – explained some of the options available to distressed companies in order to survive in the current tough economic conditions. The event was a sell out
Date: Tues 19 Feb, 6pm
Venue: Gillespie Macandrew LLP, 5 Atholl Crescent, Edinburgh EH3 8EJ
KSA Group along with HSBC, Turnaround Management Association (UK), and Advantage Business Partnerships hosted and sponsored free evening Seminars in Birmingham and West Sussex
See details and a review of the Birmingham Event
See details and a review of the West Sussex Event
KSA Group are Gold Sponsors of the Turnaround Management Association UK and we will be sponsoring events throughout 2012/2013
Attendees at these events will get our our USB toolkits with hundreds of pages on how to save companies.
KSA Group are keen to explain the benefits of the CVA mechanism to as wide a range of people as possible. As such, we were presenting at the Turnaround Management Association in Birmingham which was attended by 43 people. You can see the video of Keith Steven presenting below.
We also aim to bring the CVA mechanism to the attention of professionals in Scotland. We held a seminar in Edinburgh on the subject which was well attended. In 2011 there were a total of 14 CVAs done in Scotland compared to 765 in England and Wales….Recent statistics out has shown that only 1 CVA was approved in the first quarter of 2012.There are some legal issues as to why it is harder to get a CVA approved in Scotland but the differences do not account for the huge disparity.
Hadden Construction Goes Into Administration
Hadden Construction, the Perthshire housebuilder established in 1992, has gone into administration with the loss of 66 Jobs.Work on active sites including supported living apartment developments and affordable homes will stop depending on an evaluation of ongoing projects.This week joint administrators Ben Cairns and Jonny Marston from Alvarez & Marsal were appointed to "wind down" company operations.The failure of the company was blamed on rising materials costs and an increase in labour rates.Mr. Cairns said: "Like other contractors, Hadden Construction has been battling a number of headwinds in recent years, including inflated materials prices, rising labour costs and supply chain interruptions.“As administrators, we will seek an orderly wind down of the operations and will welcome any investor interest in the company’s assets.”Mr Cairns added: “We understand that today’s news is unsettling for the company’s employees and will be doing all we can to support them over the weeks ahead.”With a turnover of £30.2 million, the most recent figures for the company for the year ended March 31 2023 show a pre-tax profit of £260,503.Hadden was appointed by the Scottish Procurement Alliance to its £100 million Refurbishment and Modernisation (RM3) Framework in March of this year. Apart from several other public sector frameworks including Scotland Excel's New Build Residential Framework, Wheatley Group, Link Group, Hub East Central, Hub South East and The City of Edinburgh Council, Hadden was already appointed to SPA's Public Buildings and Infrastructure (PB3) Framework and New Build Housing Construction (H2).In addition, it was preparing to replace 20 chalets on a permanent Gipsy Traveller site near Perth, the company signed a £1.9m design and construct contract in April to deliver 10 reasonably priced homes for rent in Newtyle for Abertay Housing Association.Elsewhere, Hadden had worked on a £6.25 million renovation at the Muirhead House student residence at the University of Stirling.The construction industry has the highest insolvency rate when compared to other industries. This is due to a number of factors.Below are some of the common problems we’ve seen happen in the industry: Contract arguments and QS problems. Bad debts. Delays in repayments from HMRC, regarding CIS deductions (which are connected to PAYE scheme). HMRC can be slow in making CIS refunds, leading to issues with cash flow. Time to pay deals with HMRC for PAYE and VAT (where applicable) being too expensive for your cashflow. Losses made on large contracts, where large clients or main contractors slow down payments and sometimes go into administration. Hitting YOUR cashflow. So called “subby bashing”. Issues with sub-contractor non performance or slow completions. Difficult customers, be they private individuals, clients or contractors – who add extra work on and won’t pay extra! Lengthy contracts with material prices agreed at beginning. I.e. quotes do not keep up with rising costs. Especially tough after huge price rises in recent years. Less focus on financial accounts, financial management due to directors and management being onsite. Hard to win new contracts if cash flow is tight, perhaps due to low credit rating. Retention sums not released at agreed times. Suppliers taking legal actions such as County Court Judgments, or even issuing winding up petitions.
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