ilke Homes Limited - Case Update

The proposals recently filed by Catherine Williamson, Deborah King and Clare Kennedy of AlixPartners, the Joint Administrators of ilke Homes Limited, disclose that the company was nearly rescued via a £25m pre-pack sale, but that the deal fell through at the last minute.

The company, together with ilke Homes Land Limited and ilke Homes Holdings Limited, are a modular home builder that provided housing to various developers across the UK. They entered administration on 30 June 2023, after facing significant liquidity constraints largely due to inflationary pressures in the period following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prior to the appointment of the Joint Administrators, AlixPartners and Citibank marketed the companies as a whole with a view to preserving going concern operations. 36 parties were provided a teaser, 16 signed NDAs and one even submitted an indicative offer of £25m in exchange for 100% of the equity of the Group via a pre-pack sale.

AlixPartners completed an assessment of the indicative offer and presented recommendations to the companies and their major stakeholders, but the bidder ultimately backed out of the deal on 23 June 2023, informing the companies it was unable to progress with its offer.

Unfortunately, the Joint Administrators’ proposals indicate that they do not anticipate that there will be funds available for distribution to secured or preferential creditors of ilke Homes Limited, and that the Joint Administrators intend to make an application to place that company into compulsory liquidation. The Joint Administrators currently believe there will be a distribution to secured creditors of the other two entities and preferential creditors of the holding company.

The Joint Administrators have been assisted by Kirkland & Ellis and Macfarlanes (legal advice), Hilco Global (valuation and disposal advice), Naismiths (debtor recovery) and CBRE (land sales), among others. Their proposals can be found HERE.