Re: Dragon helicopters...make up your own mind
Well, that all depends on the type of insolvency. From the extra Pugzi has added, it sounds like creditors liquidation (which suggests someone did go for the compulsory winding-up order that I mentioned).
Therefore, the order of preferential treatment in these cases is:
1. The liquidator!
2. The Government - outstanding PAYE, VAT etc.
3. Employees but only up to a prescribed limit (used to be £800 but I hope that's gone up since I last did this!). After that the balance gets lumped with trade creditors.
4. Those with a charge against the company i.e. any mortgages where a fixed assets has been charged as security e.g. a helicopter leasing company, banks.
5. Debenture holder (unlikely to be any)
6. Trade creditors
7. Ordinary share holders
All the other ordinary and trade creditors are pooled together and whatever funds are left after 1. to 5. above have been paid is "divvied" up, pro-rata, amongst the remainding creditors. No-one, at this stage, will get preferential treatment, whether they've already lodge a claim or not.
The only time this MIGHT make a difference is if the company goes into Administration. This is where an Insolvency Practitioner is brought in to try and save the company with a view to it trading again. Doesn't sound like Administration although perhaps this business should have called in the Administrators before the Creditors applied for Liquidation!
Liquidation is the winding-up of the company, the company (not necessarily the business - they are separate) will be killed. There cannot be any White Knights here - that would only happen if the company had gone for Administration.
The directors may or may not be disqualified from being company directors again; it depends on whether the courts find they were culpably negligent.
For those who care, Receivership is where a debenture holder or Mortgage holder wants to redeem their loan and so they go in an repossess the asset on which the debt was secured.
Cheers
Whirls
7. Ordinary share holders