Kroll sells Ferrous Protection out of administration

The appointment of Kroll for an administration has helped secure 20 jobs in Lancashire. The professional services firm quickly sold Ferrous Protection’s assets in a pre-pack deal.

Ferrous Protections is a surface preparation and industrial coatings contractor with more than 30 years of experience protecting structures from corrosion. Based in Delph, Saddleworth, Lancashire, the firm has been delivering complex and high risk projects worldwide since 1987. The company’s offering includes a particular emphasis on quality as well as health and safety. This includes tank cleaning, bund sealing, tank lining, and external painting.

Since the pandemic, construction and industrial firms across the UK have struggled to secure business amid lockdown. At the end of August, these pressures led to Andrew Knowles and Stephen Clancy, both of Kroll Advisory, being appointed Joint Administrators of Ferrous Protection.

The appointment was made by the director of the company, while on appointment the Joint Administrators completed a sale of the business and certain assets of the company. The acquisition was made on a pre-packed basis to a third party initially listed as FPL2021, which is now trading the former business of the Company as Ferrous Protection having acquired the company name as part of the transaction.

Andrew Knowles, Joint Administrator, stated, “The transaction has maintained continuity of the Company’s customer base and supply chain, which has preserved the value of the Company’s business and assets as far as possible. This will also ensure that debtor recoveries are maximised.”

The deal also allowed all 20 staff who were employed by the company to transfer to the purchaser under TUPE. This helped to reduce both preferential and unsecured creditor claims in the administration. The Joint Administrators are now continuing with their duties, realising assets, and distributing funds to creditors as well as investigating the financial affairs of the Company as part of their statutory duties.

Kroll is a global provider of services and digital products related to governance, risk and transparency. With nearly 5,000 professionals in 30 countries and territories around the world, the firm works with clients across diverse sectors in the areas of valuation, expert services, investigations, cyber security, corporate finance, restructuring, legal and business solutions, data analytics and regulatory compliance.