Ashley House announces intention to appoint administrator to subsidiary F1 Modular
Modular housing start-up F1 Modular is to go into administration, according to its parent company.
AIM-listed Ashley House told the stock exchange this morning that it had been informed by creditors that they were about to take action to recover money from F1 Modular. It had therefore “filed a notice of intention to appoint an administrator”.
Ashley House said it was looking to sell the business in the coming days and had instructed accountants to pursue an “accelerated sale process” to find a buyer. Discussions with two potential purchasers are already underway.
F1 Modular, which is 76% owned by Ashley House, an extra care housing and medical facilities developer, was set up in 2016 to provide modular affordable housing to the public sector through agreements with local authorities and registered providers.
The firm builds its homes from an 80,000sq ft factory in Newton, Powys, and looked to supply homes to Ashley House itself, as well as the wider market.
Its most recent accounts – to April 2018 – show the business made a loss of £1.2m on turnover of just £2.6m, and at that time employed 50 people. Last month it said the firm had signed framework agreements and memoranda of understanding with a customer for a pipeline of 900 homes.
Shares in Ashley House were suspended on the AIM today as the wider group reiterated that it was looking for additional funding, without which “the company will not be able to continue to trade as it would be unlikely to be able to honour its obligations to creditors”.
The firm said it was also seeking legal recourse to recover £1m in unpaid bills from customers.
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