The sell off of businesses within failed property services firm Erinaceous began in earnest this afternoon.
Manchester and Leeds-based property services firm Eddisons bought the property management, facilities management and landlord and tenant teams from Erinaceous, which went into administration this morning.
Last summer Erinaceous was seeking to buy Eddisons for around £10m as part of its rapid expansion plans.
Eddisons said the teams would continue to operate from their existing premises in London, Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow ‘with the full support and involvement of their management team and support staff in order to provide a seamless transfer of services to all their clients’.
Failed rescue
Last minute rescue talks between Erinaceous and its lenders, to whom it owed more than £250m, failed late last week, and KPMG was appointed as administrator this morning.
Talks are ongoing with outside buyers and the management of individual businesses regarding further business sales. The commercial property arm of the company employs around 550 staff.
It follows the news that two of Eddisons most senior directors have led a management buyout of the Yorkshire based commercial property company from its shareholders.
Platform for expansion
Managing director, Nigel McDonald and director Richard Roe, have together acquired 100% of the company’s share capital from the remaining six directors. Barclays Commercial bank provided funding for the deal which was completed on Saturday.
No figure has been given for the buyout.
McDonald has been a director with the group since 2002, whilst Roe joined as a director from PricewaterhouseCoopers five years ago. The six directors who have been bought out are Ken Whittington, John Liddiment, Anthony Spencer, Tony Webber, John Padgett and Matthew Scholey.
The buyout will be used as a platform for the company’s expansion outside of Yorkshire, says McDonald.
