dublin pilot - lots and lots of different companies all owned by a parent company, however each company a ltd company in its own right - so the loss making ones go into administration the profitable ones are held within the group for re-structure and sell off by the administrator for best value to creditors.... the administrators job is to quickly identify what is viable as a going concern and what is not - clearly shoreham was not as there are no assets, no freehold, no mortgageable equipment
No problem with that. But it doesn't square up with
but the only asset eracinous had that was loss making was Shoreham
If all elements of the group where in seperate companies, and only one of them was loss making, then you close that subsidary only. (As IO540 says, you usually pay off all the debts to save your name). The group would still be profitable and there would be no need to suspend the shares of the holding company.
You certainly don't call in an administrator. If the group is profitable, you handle the matter with your own finance dept, which the help of consultants if needed, and sell the thing as a going concern, or close it down. The idea of a group with lots of subsidaries, all profitable bar one, calling in outside administrators is unheard of. It causes lots of publicity, and casts a shadow over all your other companies business, and gives your suppliers a scare. Credit terms for your profitable subsidaries suppliers goes out the window, and your debtors don't want to pay (thinking the place will be gone in a few months anyway).
The idea of a quoted PLC making such a basic mistake in unprecedented as far as I'm aware.
There has to be a lot more problems for the group, than simply one loss making asset in one subsidary.
dp