12:47 pm, January 17, 2023
Anyone owed money after the collapse of Carzam is unlikely to get anything back – including founders Peter Waddell and John Bailey who together stand to lose more than £12m.
The online used car firm went into voluntary receivership last June and since then administrators at Evelyn Partners LLP have been seeing if anything can be salvaged.
But the latest progress report by Adam Stephens and Greg Palfrey reveals that there is only some £310,000 of assets.
And industry experts told Car Dealer today that once the lawyers and administrators had taken their cut, there’d be nothing left for the creditors.
Among them are Waddell and Bailey, who ploughed £50m into it when they established it in 2020.
The list of creditors showed that Waddell was personally owed £2m and more than £4m via Peter Waddell Holdco Ltd, while Bailey was owed £6.25m.
The insolvency experts said that having seen the report, it looked as if the only people who would get any money would be the administrators, their lawyers, agents and potentially the former employees, labelling it ‘a pretty poor outcome, but it is what it is’.
Another progress report is legally due within the next few months, but if everything is sorted before then, the administrators will send a final report to the creditors.
Waddell quit as director of Carzam in April, a month after ex-Paddy Power chief executive Andy McCue left his post as Carzam’s executive chairman just over three months after joining.
Carzam chief executive Kirk O’Callaghan resigned from his post of director soon after.
Pictured at top are Peter Waddell, left, and John Bailey
Car Dealer Live – the future of the car dealer – exclusive conference features talks from leading car dealers, Google and Auto Trader among much more. Find out the full event details and book tickets.
