Dawnay firms call in receivers
Two property companies held by Dawnay Day, the financial services and property conglomerate owned by Guy Nagger and Peter Klimt, have been placed into receivership.
It comes as Dawnay Day told its staff this week that redundancies were likely to be made. A spokesman said while job losses are not certain advice has been given on what to do if redundancies are made.
BDO Stoy Hayward has appointed receivers for the group’s property companies Starlight Investments and Insureprofit, following a move by Norwich Union to recover loans. Combined, the two companies hold assets worth nearly £500m and debt of more than £350m.
The Grosvenor Square-based firm is also working with a corporate restructuring team from Ernst & Young to assess a range of options for several of its other companies.
It may be forced to sell off assets to pay off an £80m-plus loss incurred on the sale of a stake in F&C Asset Management following a margin call from one of its banks. Dawnay Day holds stakes in a plethora of companies, which have sought to distance themselves from the group’s financial woes.
Two Aim-listed property funds, Dawnay Day Sirius and Dawnay Day Carpathrian, on which Nagger and Klimt are directors, immediately issued statements saying they were not affected by the holding group’s troubles.
They both then announced they were to change their names by scrapping the Dawnay Day prefix. Meanwhile Dawnay Shore Hotels, a joint venture with Shore Capital, said earlier in the week that the group held only an 8 per cent stake in the venture.