Irwin Mitchell Advises On Deal

The Leeds office of law firm Irwin Mitchell has helped safeguard all 120 jobs as part of a combined deal which has seen an engineering business in the North East of England being bought out of Administration.

Keith Marshall and Steve Ross of RSM Restructuring Advisory LLP were appointed Joint Administrators of Altec Engineering Limited on 29 June 2017.

Altec Engineering, headquartered in Bowburn, Co. Durham is involved in the design and manufacture of automation equipment and in the machining of high precision component for the aerospace, defence, oil & gas and other leading industrial markets.

Following the appointment of Joint Administrators, Altec’s engineering business and assets were subsequently sold to an MBO team. At the same time, another Altec group company, Ronco Engineering was also sold to the same team in a solvent share transaction. The combined deal safeguards over 120 jobs in the North East of England.

Whilst performance of Altec Engineering has stabilised recently, the Administration resulted from significant creditor stress following losses last year and a debt structure incompatible with the level of turnover and profitability.

The sale of both businesses allows a new smaller group of companies to obtain further investment as they seek to grow, improving both sales and profitability. The new group will continue to trade using the Altec name.

Lawyers at Irwin Mitchell worked alongside RSM and the Administrators as the legal advisors and helped to successfully deliver a time critical transaction.

Partner Andrew Walker led the team which included Doug Robertson, Sophie Shuttleworth, Rob Malloy, Olivia Bell from the Restructuring & Insolvency team. Rebecca Denvers and Padma Tadi from Employment, Banking & Finance specialist Rob Farrell and Claire Stockhill and Liz Maloney from the Commercial team, also worked on the deal.

Expert Opinion

“Safeguarding so many jobs is a great result and we are delighted and proud to have worked on this deal. The timeframe for completion was very tight, but the experience and expertise of both our team and that of RSM’s ensured that a speedy resolution and positive outcome was achieved.” Andrew Walker - Partner

Keith Marshall, Joint Administrator and the RSM partner, said: ‘This was a challenging transaction to deliver within a tight timescale, but the deal will safeguard two regional businesses, and importantly, 120 jobs in the North East.

‘Group companies’ Altec Hydraulics and Sigma Technologies Limited, also entered Administration but regrettably these businesses have now ceased to trade.’

Altec Hydraulics, which had 20 employees based in North Shields and Wakefield entered Administration on 23 June and was closed immediately. Sigma Technologies Limited, which had 28 employees based in Bradford, entered Administration on 1 August and closed on 7 August after a short subsequent period of trading.