High Court orders closure of special administration of Alpari (UK)
The appointments of the Special Administrators will cease to have effect upon the registration of the final progress report, the High Court ordered on April 19, 2018.
More than three years after the appointment of special administrators at retail FX broker Alpari (UK), following the January 15, 2015 events, the High Court has ordered the closure of the special administration of the company. As per the Court order issued on April 19, 2018, the appointments of the Special Administrators will cease to have effect upon the official registration of the final progress report.
The balance of the funds available for distribution to the broker’s unsecured creditors and/or clients will be transferred to the Secretary of State.
In late February, the Joint Special Administrators said they would be making a payment of 23.54 pence in the £ (GBP) to unsecured creditors who received the previous 20 pence in the £ (GBP) distributions. The JSAs said they would also be making a payment of 43.54 pence in the £ (GBP) to unsecured creditors who were not included in previous distributions and whose claim has been agreed by the JSAs, providing they have passed the necessary Know Your Client checks.
The 6th progress report, covering the period from July 19, 2017 to January 18, 2018, has shown 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.
The company officially appointed joint special administrators from KPMG on January 19, 2015, with the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) publishing its official stance on the matter on January 20, 2015.
In terms of money, one of the first documents published on KPMG’s dedicated portal for the Alpari UK case, stated that at the date of the Joint Special Administrators’ appointment, there were segregated client money accounts totalling the equivalent of approximately £65.5 million.
Early in February 2015, the sale of Intellectual Property assets of Alpari (UK) Limited to Andrey Dashin was completed.
Starting from February 26, 2015, the Claims Portal was open to the first wave of clients.
