Property firm formally enters liquidation

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Modular homes builder Ilke Homes has been formally wound up by administrators.

More than 1,100 people have lost their jobs at the company, which went into administration on 30 June, with debts of more than £319m set to go unpaid.

The Yorkshire-based company explored numerous avenues for fundraising and the firm’s backers hoped to secure a future for the company via a sale or investment, to enable it to complete its 4,200-home pipeline and retain its workforce.

Ilke had reportedly been offered to potential buyers for bids over £1, with some major housebuilders approached.

The firm, which manufactured homes for a range of clients including councils and housing associations, operated from a 250,000 sq ft factory in Knaresborough.

Late last year, the business managed to raise a record-breaking £100m from new and existing shareholders – the largest-ever sum raised by a UK modular housebuilder.

However, a notice of a court order ending administration has now been filed to Companies House.

Homes England is listed as the firm’s biggest single creditor, with an estimated debt of £68.7m. The latest documents suggest that £82,000 is likely to be repaid from the sale of plant and machinery.

Ilke employees are owed £725,000, HMRC is owed more than £2m and other unspecified creditors are owed a combined £249m.

Of the “unspecificied creditors”, £227m is owed to “intercompany creditors”, money which is ultimately owed in equity to the firm’s investors, who have been publicised as comprising TDR Capital, Sun Capital and Fortress Investment Group, among others.

“The administrators do not anticipate that any funds will become available to enable distributions to be made to the preferential or unsecured creditors; however, the likely levels of return are estimated and are subject to change,” the document states.