A London court has granted Ince Group more time to appoint an administrator, which will stay any potential legal action by creditors and could give the insolvent law firm time more time to secure a buyer.
Ince filed an initial application on 12 April, stating that it intends to hire Quantuma as an administrator with the aim of selling the business to a third party. The application gave Ince 10 days in which to do so.
It filed a second notice of its intention to appoint an administrator with the court on Wednesday.
The court-approved extension gives Ince a further 10 days to formally appoint its administrator or else liquidate.
A source close to the firm told TradeWinds an outcome to the process is expected soon.
Under English insolvency law, companies can apply for a 10-day extension if a rescue deal looks imminent, but the extension must be in the interest of creditors and must be justified.
The notice period prevents creditors from commencing or continuing legal action against Ince, including winding-up petitions, without court permission.
Ince owes what is understood to be a significant amount in unpaid tax to HM Revenue & Customs. Anglo-South African bank Investec provided £17m ($21.2m) in loans to Ince in 2021, which are secured against certain Ince entities.
White knights
There are buyers who are interested in acquiring Ince in a pre-pack administration deal, but this looks increasingly tricky with such little time remaining.
A pre-pack deal would write off all of Ince’s outstanding debt and establish a successor company.
The firm’s assets have been valued at between £30m and £40m, a source told TradeWinds.
But with most of its high-flying lawyers having already left, there has been serious attrition in its legal talent.
The most likely potential buyer is thought to be corporate investor Beckington, which is the law firm’s largest shareholder with a 9.9.% stake in its issued share capital.
Beckington is part of Knox D’Arcy Investment and is owned by UK businessman Richard Steele, whom TradeWinds has contacted for comment.
Beckington has participated in rescue packages for Ince previously and last year subscribed for large tranches of shares in Ince’s two equity raises on the London Stock Exchange in September and October.
Manchester law firm Horwich Farrelly is also said to be interested in acquiring Ince. However, sources have questioned whether it will be able to put financing in place for the deal with such little time remaining. TradeWinds has contacted Horwich Farrelly for comment.
Finally, are there clues that Ince’s former chief executive Adrian Biles is looking to step in again?
Filings made with the UK’s Companies House business register show that Biles set up four new entities that bear the Ince name, two days before the law firm announced its collapse.
Three days after registering the entities, Biles handed control and ownership of them to family member Jonathan Biles, who lives in Hong Kong.
The companies are Ince & Co UK Limited; Ince & Co Law Limited, Ince & Co London Limited and Ince & Co Legal Limited.
Adrian Biles, whose family was previously the largest shareholder in Ince Group, was fired in September from his position as CEO and managing partner of Ince Group over an alleged conflict of interest.
He is today managing partner at law firm Child & Child, which he acquired out of administration in November. TradeWinds has contacted him for comment.
Major shareholders in the Ince Group this month told TradeWinds they plan to take legal action against its officers for making what the shareholders claim were misleading representations about their investments.
Trading of Ince’s shares has been suspended by the London Stock Exchange since 3 January.
The group comprises Ince Consulting Holdings Limited; Ince Gordon Dadds Services Limited; and members of Ince Gordon Dadds Holdings LLP and Ince Gordon Dadds LLP.
Ince, once shipping’s foremost law firm, collapsed on 12 April after an unidentified major creditor pulled support from the firm, which has blamed its financial problems on a long-overdue audit that it said has sapped its cash flows.
Several senior staff have left in recent months, including its head of shipping, Julian Clark.
Ince had struggled with defections and internal dissension since before its 2018 takeover by non-shipping London law firm Gordon Dadds, which had gone public the year before.
