CR-2018-009110 - [2025] EWHC 2115 (Ch)

Both of the Applicants are properly regarded as creditors of the Company until their proofs are adjudicated. The precise value of their claims will, in both cases, fall to be determined by the Administrator acting quasi-judicially.

The fact that the Applicants constitute the majority of the creditors of the Company is a fact to which the court should have regard, but does not mean that their request to replace the Administrators should be given any special status. As with any request of this kind, the court will only accede to it if they can show that they have good grounds for making it.

It is accepted by the parties that the administrators have a conflict of interest. I do not think that the conflict which arises on these particular facts is a conflict of a kind which could be managed by the taking of appropriate measures. The only proper response for the current Administrators is therefore for them to step down.

The Applicants seek to show that they have good grounds to have lost faith that the Administrators will in future act solely in the real, substantial and honest interests of the administration. I think they have succeeded in that aim. I am therefore satisfied that a majority of creditors have good grounds for a loss of faith in the existing administrators. In such circumstances the court should order their removal.

There are a number of disputes currently ongoing between the Applicants and the Administrators. However, that does not mean that the Applicants are in a position which is fundamentally adverse to that of the body of creditors as a whole. There is therefore no obstacle to the appointment of administrators nominated by them.

I am therefore prepared to order that the current administrators be removed, and the new administrators identified by the Applicants be appointed.