BELEAGUERED Watchet Marina operator Christopher Odling-Smee has offered to buy the company’s parent The Marine and Property Group (MPG) out of administration.

MPG, which also owns four marinas in Wales and four other companies, went into administration in April with £16 million debts.

Administrators for two of the group’s Welsh marinas said the size of debts meant neither of the individual companies could be saved.

And they said in statements to creditors that Mr Odling-Smee was yet to co-operate with them over inquiries into how the marina’s troubles came about.

Burry Port Marina administrators said the company had not been servicing repayments to its bank or contributions to HMRC, and had not paid staff since April.

Consequently, the Revenue presented a winding up order to the High Court before the bank appointed administrators.

The bank was owed £2.7 million and there were other debts estimated at £1.7 million. 

It was decided to continue trading the company as the best way to obtain maximum value for creditors and to avoid forfeiting the remaining 145 years of a lease from Carmarthenshire County Council.

A £20,000 a month council support package had been agreed to meet the day to day operational costs.

The administrators said they could not value the marina because company was in breach of its lease by not carrying out dredging of the harbour and not meeting health and safety obligations, meaning the council might be able to seize it.

They said Mr Odling-Smee had ‘expressed an interest in purchasing the Marine Group and its subsidiaries’, with the viability of the ‘offer’ currently being assessed along with any other potential purchasers.

A questionnaire had been given to Mr Odling-Smee to help the administrators with their initial assessment of the company’s affairs but he had not returned it.

They said a summary of the company's estimated financial position as at June 7 had been requested from Mr Odling-Smee.

“Despite having chased the director for this, the information remains outstanding,” they said.

Port Dinorwic Marina administrators presented a similar picture to its creditors and said after realising assets the company was estimated to have debts of £3.8 million which would not be met.

They said there was a ‘lack of meaningful financial information available’, but the company had not been servicing its bank repayments or contributions to HMRC, with the Revenue presenting a winding up order to the High Court before the bank appointed administrators.

The administrators said they had formally asked Mr Odling-Smee to prepare a statement of the Port Dinorwic affairs but he had not yet provided it.

They said the bank had provided a further £35,000 loan to cover day to day operations as they continued to trade the company in order to raise as much as they could for creditors.

Meanwhile, Somerset Council has continued negotiations with Mr Odling-Smee for a 200-year lease on the marina in Watchet.

The council this week threw a wall of silence around the prospective deal with Free Press requests for comment being ignored by executive Cllr Federica Smith-Roberts, whose portfolio includes responsibility for the harbour, and the authority’s press office promising but failing to provide any statement.

Mr Odling-Smee told the Free Press this week the information requested by the administrators had now been provided, ‘it just took a while to assemble’.

He did not comment on the possibility of buying-back MPG.