NCP administrators test sale options as closures mount

The administrators of National Car Parks are pursuing a sale of all or part of the business while continuing to shut loss-making sites and renegotiate leases across one of the UK’s largest private parking estates, according to proposals filed by PwC.

The report, prepared by joint administrators Zelf Hussain, Rachael Wilkinson and Toby Banfield, provides a clear picture of the restructuring of NCP since the company entered administration on 16 March 2026. It updates the position reported in April, when PwC had closed 24 car parks in two stages and was assessing whether the remaining estate could be stabilised through landlord negotiations and continued trading.

NCP, founded in 1931, operates one of the UK’s largest private car park networks, with more than 150,000 spaces across city centres, transport hubs, retail parks and healthcare locations. At appointment, the company operated around 170 leased car parks, one leased office and employed about 674 people. Its estate remains heavily concentrated in locations exposed to changes in commuter and city-centre demand.

PwC said the business had been hit by the slower recovery of parking demand following COVID-19, particularly across city-centre and commuter sites, while inflationary pressures, high fixed lease costs and an inflexible property portfolio left NCP unable to reduce costs quickly enough or exit loss-making sites. The result was sustained trading losses and a funding requirement the wider group could no longer meet.

The administrators have continued to trade the business while undertaking a review of performance across the estate, which identified sites that were not commercially viable because of continued underperformance, weak outlooks or the absence of a viable landlord deal. In total, 31 employees were made redundant on 27 March when 20 leased sites were closed, and a further four sites closed on 16 April, resulting in ten more redundancies.

The latest proposals show that closures have continued beyond the sites identified in April. Two further car parks have exited where landlords exercised contractual rights to take the locations back, including one on 2 April after a rent review, and another on 21 April.

PwC said a further 141 leased sites remain open and continue to trade as normal while negotiations continue with landlords. The administrators are seeking rent reductions, lease exits or alternative arrangements intended to maximise the value available through a sale, while warning that further closures may be required if revised terms cannot be agreed with landlords for the remaining underperforming locations.

The report also confirms that PwC has launched a structured sale process. Marketing materials, an information memorandum and supporting financial and operational information have been prepared, with more than 300 parties contacted and 56 interested parties, including parties that received information through the company’s pre-filing M&A process, submitting indications of interest.

The sale process is broad. PwC is considering a sale of the business and assets as a whole, one or more portfolios of sites including the leased estate, or individual assets and contracts. Potential buyers include strategic operators, infrastructure investors and other financial buyers. Any transaction is expected to depend on landlord consents, the ability to assign or vary leases, operational arrangements tied to managed service contracts, employee implications and the expected outcome for secured, preferential and unsecured creditors.

The administrators said NCP’s business remains operationally viable in the short term and that a transaction may preserve value better than an immediate shutdown. They cited the continuing operation of profitable leasehold and managed sites, NCP’s customer relationships and brand value, and interest shown by potential purchasers. The key question is whether the sale process can translate that platform into recoveries for creditors while shedding uneconomic sites.

PwC’s estimated outcome statement shows Times24 UK Ltd as NCP’s fixed and floating charge secured creditor, owed about £37 million. The administrators said the recovery position remains under review and depends on the outcome of security analysis, asset realisations and the sale process. Barclays Bank Plc is also listed as a chargeholder in respect of a historic fixed charge over certain bank accounts, but PwC said there is nothing currently due to Barclays.

Preferential creditor claims at NCP are estimated at about £883,000, with an anticipated 100 pence in the pound recovery within three to six months. Secondary preferential claims are estimated at about £788,000, also with an anticipated full recovery over the same period. Unsecured claims at NCP are estimated at about £216 million, but PwC described the dividend as uncertain, with any distribution expected no earlier than 12 months.

Read the administrators’ proposals here. They have been assisted by RPC.