Alpari (UK) set to exit administration in March 2018
More than three years after the events from January 15, 2015, the joint special administrators of the broker say they will apply to Court to seek closure of the Special Administration.
More than three years have passed since retail FX broker Alpari (UK) said it would enter Special Administration Regime. Earlier this week, Edward Boyle, Samantha Bewick and Richard Heis each of KPMG LLP, the joint special administrators of the now-defunct broker, published a number of updates regarding the latest developments around the administration process.
The administrators give notice that they intend to apply to Court under paragraph 79 of the Rules for an Order seeking the closure of the Special Administration, to be effective 28 days from the registration by the Registrar of Companies of the company’s final progress report. The administration is expected to come to an end in March 2018.
The Joint Special Administrators are additionally seeking an Order that the balance of funds available for distribution to clients and/or unsecured creditors will be transferred to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. The Secretary of State will be taking over responsibility for processing any unclaimed client and/or creditor dividends by accepting payment into the Insolvency Services Account.
The application is set to be heard in the High Court in London.
The 6th progress report, covering the period from July 19, 2017 to January 18, 2018, has also been published.
There has been some positive development with regard to taxes. During the period, HMRC’s enquiry into the corporation tax return for the period ended December 31, 2015 was closed and the broker’s position on the timing of the cessation of trade was accepted, such that no adjustments to the tax return were required. As a result, a cash reserve is no longer required to cover any potential corporation tax liability that might have arisen if the outcome of the enquiry had been different.
The provision of GBP 1,393,000 has been released and that reserve will now increase distributable funds. HMRC have not raised any further enquiries into the returns.
To date FSCS has taken assignment of 12,759 client claims and has paid compensation of USD 55.3 million in respect of their CMP claim. FSCS has also paid compensation totalling GBP 0.06 million in respect of the client claims agreed after October 30, 2016 which are classified as an unsecured claim.
FSCS have confirmed that they will continue to compensate, up to a maximum of GBP 50,000, all eligible clients of the Company who agreed their claim after the closure of the Client Money Pool.
The Administrators say they have continued to take cost effective actions. Following discussions with the creditors’ committee, they have decided that the recoveries from further pursuing debtors beyond March 2018 would not justify the costs of continuing the special administration. Therefore they have concluded their recovery efforts.
