 Poster: A snowHead
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Aviermore Highland Resort has been facing financial difficulties but its future may now be safe. The Scottish resort has been bought Macdonald Hotels and Resorts Ltd, which has been running the hotel that dominates the town.
...Jobs will be transferred to the new owner and bookings will also be honoured. The deal means the summer and winter resort is saved from closure. However, some creditors will not be seeing their money again.
Source: http://www.planetski.eu/news/537
For further deails see this story on BBC Scotland: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/8109052.stm
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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A pre-pack deal.
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| A pre-pack is a powerful business rescue technique that gives owners and managers of a financially distressed company a second chance; it saves businesses and on average secures employment for over 90% of the company's workforce. A pre-pack is an abuse of process, allowing the management of a failed business to deprive its creditors of adequate remedy and/or return. You can take your pick. |
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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achilles, IMO pre packs are designed to get back the Banks money and pay fees of administrators, I did one once and bought a business that had no VAT or Tax due to the government and bought the business for the bank loan plus administrators huge fees for very little time plus a pound....
We did later make payments to small local creditors and key suppliers but had no legal obligation to do so.
an abuse IMO , if a business is in trouble it should go into administration and allow the administrator the time to look after all the creditors not just the administrators accounting firm and the bank loans.
Funny how the banks actively promote them...
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Prepacks are good for banks because they get their cash out quickly but not great for other stakeholders.
It depends on what your position is - if you're a small business creditor who sees the directors effectively stiff you and then set up again under different ownership with essentially the same business you'd be unhappy. If you're an employee saved from redundancy or the uncertainty of a business that may or may not continue then its got to be good for you.
I think the main concern in a prepack is that it doesn't really bring an opportunity for a "market value" sale and that they are abused as "mates' deals".
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| Quote: |
think the main concern in a prepack is that it doesn't really bring an opportunity for a "market value" sale and that they are abused as "mates' deals".
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precisely, the admin fees are silly high for the level of work and the banks get their cash back without the bad press shutdown or job loss. if there is enough interest in at least one party doing a prepack the business is typically viable and should be given time to find other buyers.
From what i have seen they are generally used when a parent company or investor shareholder wont stick anymore cash in and the management take a stake with new outiside investors. in that case not such a bad deal for all involved but open to abuse..
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Prepacks are frequently used by retailers to get rid of stores that are underperfroming ie to walk away from their mistakes. No thought to the poor man on the street whose pension fund takes a hit as the result of the massive loss in value of the properties held within it. The examples I'm thinking of are generally very creditable retail brands who would be pretty likely to find a buyer, therefore negating the "saving jobs" argument.
I think they should be more tightly regulated (I don't know how) but it is much too easy.
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I don't think anyone (or any group) with a shareholding (above some threshold) in an existing concern should be able to buy a significant proportion of its assets but walk away from its liabilities. I was a creditor-victim of this during the dotcom bust. I can't see how it differs from fraud.
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Eagerly awaiting Winter Highlands view on this one 
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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it helps when one of the biggest banks in the world (ie RBS) is one of the major shareholders being bought out and that the hotel group doing the buying is also one of the original main players (I wonder which bank is backing/invested in the buyout) 
not really big news, they've struggled (failed) to meet projections but said projections were based in no small part on an ambitious phased expansion plan in the village that has been the subject of some controversy and challenge over a few years and hasnt progressed at all really. That said, not sure where it leaves them. They havent been too quick to attract local trade (bizarrely), with pricing structures and other issues highlighting that, and have seemed to isolate themselves from the local punters - really not sure what's gone on there, but it's an uneasy relationship at best. They do of course employ a good number of local folk. I imagine it will be business as usual, ie this development makes no meaningful difference to operations, though they likely want to sort something out longer term around stalled expansion plans etc. (it's safe to say there are some mixed feelings as to these plans locally)
It should also be stated that this has nothing to do with the ski area or company on cairngorm - just in case the language in the press report could be interpreted that way
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barry, what exactly does it include then, do you know?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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It's a hotel complex in the town, with a rather expensive swimming pool, an expensive shopping arcade (sorry, I think it is actually a 'shopping experience') and a few other things.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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totally separate company. as Yellow Pyranha says, it comprises many of the buildings/hotels of the old Aviemore centre, they've built a conference centre, leisure centre, refurbished some of the hotels -and the shopping experience of course! Plans for expansion included supermarkets, shops, more leisure (even an indoor ice climbing wall and an ice rink - Aviemore used to have one years ago). They've also got what by all accounts is a pretty good golf course at the edge of the village (was expanded from an existing course). Sounds great, and in theory it all is - the expansion plans tend to viewed as perhaps excessive and possibly detrimental to other businesses in the area, and certainly their marketing and pricing strategy hasnt endeared them to many. Would love the true potential of the place to be realised in a sensitive (to surroundings and existing enterprises) way, but time will tell
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AHR has lot around £45million of debt, the debt that Macdonald Hotels used as leverage to push through commercial and residential developments which they insisted were always necessary to pay of the capital loans required to fund phase 1. The claim was broadly that the it was interest payments on this debt that overwhelmed AHR causing ever mounting debt because they did not expect it all to take so long.
It was Bank of Scotland that was the funding bank not RBS, and it seems Bank of Scotland have been the main player here and are on the face of it the sole creditor losing the vast bulk of the total sum. Macdonald Hotels now own 100% of the structural assets of AHR, have lost the debt, but Bank of Scotland have 50% of the company now. One imagines that thus the bank hopes to recoup a reasonable chunk of that 'loss' in profit from the next phase of development and future trading profits. Whether it's actually all so neat and tidy and 'victimless' maybe time well tell!
Macdonald Hotels have been damming over the planning process and planning authorities, but IMHO they also need to look closer to home. They tried to ride roughshod over the due process and found that they couldn't do what they liked, if they had been more cooperative and less confrontational, such as their 'Berlin Wall', on which repeated removal orders have been served they might have found the planning authorities more accommodating to their plight. Hopefully it's a lesson that has been learnt. Aviemore would take a big hit if AHR closed, but Macdonald Hotels must realise they need the rest of the community and area as much as they need AHR.
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You know it makes sense.
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| Winterhighland wrote: |
| ............ the debt that Macdonald Hotels used as leverage to push through commercial and residential developments which they insisted were always necessary to pay of the capital loans required to fund phase 1. .... |
Pesky folk the MacDonalds - ask a Campbell. 
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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^ LOL, too true!
The redeveloped centre is a pale shadow of the old centre in terms of facilities (leaving the architecture aside, although I may be one of the few who misses it in a nostalgic sort of way believe it or not!). It seems to exist completely apart from the main street in Aviemore where most of the shops and local facilities are these days, whereas when the old centre was there shops and facilities were split between the two.
IMHO something went wrong with the whole project from the start and I suspect the crucial missing element was the proper involvement of the local community and businesses - why on earth those behind the initial development believed repeating the mistakes of the past and parachuting in a large leisure company which seems to have ignored the local community even more than was the case with the original Aviemore Centre beats me!
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Poster: A snowHead
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