BrewDog creditors owed £190m will not be paid in full, say administrators

The investments of BrewDog’s 200,000 ‘equity punks’ are now worthless. Photograph: Islandstock/Alamy View image in fullscreen The investments of BrewDog’s 200,000 ‘equity punks’ are now worthless. Photograph: Islandstock/Alamy BrewDog creditors owed £190m will not be paid in full, say administrators There are ‘insufficient funds’ to pay unpaid wages, tax owed to HMRC and overdue bills, accountants say Accountants picking over the remains of BrewDog, the “punk” beer company that collapsed earlier this year, have said that creditors who are owed about £190m will not be paid back. In an update on their progress, administrators at AlixPartners warned there were “insufficient funds” to pay debts in full related to unpaid wages, tax owed to HM Revenue and Customs, and overdue bills from other businesses. Earlier this year, the US cannabis and drinks company Tilray snapped up BrewDog’s brand, intellectual property, UK breweries and 11 bars in a rescue deal for about £33m, agreed after the brewer fell into administration. But the deal in March did not includemost of BrewDog’s chain of bars, with 38 closing and 440 staff losing their jobs. The collapse rendered worthless the investments of 200,000 “equity punks”, the small investors who crowdfunded the business. AlixPartners admitted on Thursday that creditors owed more than £190m were also unlikely to get their money back. It cited increased costs owing to “unauthorised occupiers” having to be removed from BrewDog’s shuttered bars and the limited sums recovered from the sale of assets, such as vehicles of “old age and varying roadworthiness”. Supposedly “preferential” creditors of the bars business who will not get their money back in full include the UK government. View image in fullscreen The US cannabis and drinks firm Tilray snapped up BrewDog’s brand, intellectual property, UK breweries and 11 bars in a rescue deal for about £33m earlier this year. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The GuardianStaff who were owed £489,000 in wages and holiday pay have already been compensated under the government’s redundancy payment scheme. But AlixPartners said there were not enough funds to repay the government, or to pay £2.4m in taxes owed to HM Revenue and Customs. However, a separate sum of £3.6m owed to HMRC will be paid back. Unsecured creditors, including a host of British businesses such as Lord’s Cricket Ground, West Ham United FC and Manchester University, will receive less than a penny in the pound. Private equity investor TSG, which bought a 22% stake for £213m in 2017, had its investment wiped out and will not recoup debts of nearly £28m.