A company owned by the ex-bosses of MG Rover has paid back around £3 million taken out of the car maker, according to reports.
The BBC says that Phoenix Venture Holdings - run by the so-called Phoenix Four, John Towers, Nick Stephenson, John Edwards and Peter Beale – paid £3m to the liquidator almost five years after the firm's collapse. The payment is believed to follow an out-of-court settlement after investigations by inspectors and liquidators.
When MG Rover collapsed in 2005, with the loss of 6000 jobs and debts of £1.6 billion, it emerged that the so-called Phoenix Four had, in effect, transferred some of the company's assets to Phoenix Venture Holdings (PVH).
However, there are around 5000 creditors to MG Rover, meaning the returned money will have to be split between them. It is not clear when a trust fund set up by the Phoenix Four following MG Rover's collapse for the benefit of workers will begin to make payments. A spokesman has said it will only begin payments when Phoenix Venture Holdings is wound up, a process that has yet to begin. There are also concerns that it will not have any assets following payments.
A government-commissioned report into MG Rover's collapse recently found the company bosses had awarded themselves pay and pensions worth £42m, which was described by inspectors as "out of all proportion".
However, the Phoenix Four described the report, which cost £16m, as a "witch-hunt" and a "whitewash for the government".
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Re: MG bosses return £3 million
The decision to sell to Phoenix was a political one taken by HM Government because it retained more jobs - in the short term.
Re: MG bosses return £3 million
ooohhh - the creditors will receive a very satisfying 1.875 p in the pound - that's unless the liquidators etc. don't take all the £3m in fees !!!
Re: MG bosses return £3 million
- you look at the way Ford ever so delicately disposed of Aston, making sure it had a future and the people buying it could run it, then the same with Jag making sure TATA could handle the big CAT and the same now with Volvo and how that is being handled.
- then you have BMW and Rover - spot the difference -
-Ford did a superb job, BMW on the other hand, well the difference speaks for itself
-it makes me so sad that Lord Coe rewarded BM (sorry awarded - apologies for the typo) BM with the Olympics contract
(instead of Nissan and Renault and all the great new opportunities they were going to provide to the UK, not to mention the Nissan/Renault fleet would give off almost half the pollutants compared to the BM fleet selected) - that is right the "efficient dynamics" fleet provided by BM will be nearly double the pollution of the Nissan/Renault fleet - by comparison the BM fleet is a really DIRTY polluting car fleet - BM dirty fleet.