Zolfo Cooper: 12 bidders for Balls Brothers

A detailed report by Balls Brothers administrator Zolfo Cooper shows a total of 12 offers were received for the company or most of it with a further 20 offers for multiple sites or single sites.

Novus Leisure won exclusivity on acquiring the London-based Balls Brothers business on Monday afternoon but the report indicates that Zolfo Cooper was able just previously to focus on five bidders for the whole company and five for single sites — a total of 85 Information Memorandums were issued on the business originally.

Zolfo Cooper reports that indicative offers to buy Balls Brothers suggests that Barclays Bank will get back the entire £7.1m it is owed by the company.

Unsecured creditors are owed £2.8m and there is likely to be enough money left over from the sale price to suggest "a distribution to unsecured creditors" will be possible.

Trading well​

The Zolfo Cooper report show that the Balls Brothers business traded well between administration on 26 November 2010 and the end of the year with a trading profit of £400,000 — the administrator had to settle an accrued wage bill of £200,000 from the run-up to its appointment.

The Zolfo Cooper report states: "Whilst the first weeks trading was down on the previous year due to disruption caused by the heavy snowfalls, subsequent strong trading results for the period to 31 December 2010 — up 10% on the previous year — resulted in sales up 2% on the prior year."

The report reveals that Zolfo Cooper decided to vacate one trading site in St James's, London, on Christmas Eve prior to the expiration of the lease rather than risk extra cost.

Review​

Zolfo Cooper was engaged in early 2010 by Barclays Bank to review Balls Brothers financial position and business plan.

Zolfo Cooper states: "A turnaround strategy was developed which sought to reinvigorate the Balls Brothers brand, introduce new members to the management team and implement an extensive site refurbishment programme to deliver a recovery in performance.

"The company appointed Zolfo Cooper in September 2010 to raise additional equity to fund the turnarond strategy and address the high leverage within the company. "(Barclays) agreed to continue to support the business while this course of action was pursued.

"Prior to finalising an Information Memorandum required by potential interested parties, the directors of the company decided to terminate the capital-raising process and pursue an alternate strategy based around fund-raising via the sale of a selection of trading sites and non-core assets.

"The constraints within the business were such that the directors had a very limited timeframe to raise the additional funds required under the alternate strategy - this was not achieved within the timeframe."

Bills​

The Zolfo Cooper report also shows that Balls Brothers is owed £2.074m from the Lewis & Clarke business it acquired in 2007 — the inter-company debt arose as a result of the company's on-going funding of Lewis & Clarke losses made since 2007.

Zolfo Cooper's bill stood at £344,748 on 13 January — 1,112 hours charged at an average of £307 an hour.