Orthios Update - April 2023

As bondholders will be aware, the Orthios project went into administration last year. The bonds issued by the various bond companies to fund Orthios were secured by way of legal charges over the land, and control of the security created by those legal charges was via a security trustee.  The land was subsequently sold by the administrators who received the sale proceeds of circa £35 million.

The net balance of the sale proceeds (which is estimated to be enough to repay outstanding capital amount full) is now held by the new security trustee, Mr Pagden of Menzies LLP, whose responsibility is to distribute the cash in accordance with the terms of the bond security documentation.

In his capacity as a director of the bond companies, Sean McCormick has arranged for Best Administration Services Ltd (BAS) to provide Mr Pagden with updated copies of the various bond registers detailing how much is owed to each bondholder to the best of the directors’ knowledge.  Despite no longer retaining an active instruction to administer bond holdings or associated finances, BAS has fulfilled this request from Mr McCormick which is intended to expedite the process to the benefit of the secured parties.

Any bondholder wishing to verify the amount owed to them and enquire as to arrangements for payment should contact Mr Pagden who can be contacted as detailed on his corporate profile below:

https://www.menzies.co.uk/people/laurence-pagden/

The bond companies do not hold any assets and all the funds available for distribution are held by the security trustee who will distribute them in accordance with the bond security documentation in due course.

Accordingly, the directors have proposed to apply to dissolve the bond companies which will have no role in the payment process.