A Devon office building owned by South West construction giant Midas has been sold for £1m but the proceeds will only make a small dent in the £70m owed from the firm’s collapse. The former Midas offices in Newton Abbot have been acquired by business accountancy and tax firm Marsland Nash Associates.
Exeter-headquartered Midas Group and its subsidiaries Midas Construction, Midas Retail, Mi-Space (UK), Mi-Space Property Services, Midas Commercial Developments and Falmouth Developments all fell into administration in January 2022 blaming a toxic cocktail of Covid, inflation, money owed to them but not paid, and cash flow problems for causing a financial doomsday. Midas’ Newton Abbot building, along with another Midas block in Newport, were listed as assets by administrators at global business advisory firm Teneo Financial Advisory. They are worth a combined £2.7m and are being sold to pay millions of pounds of debts.
Meanwhile, the detached, two-storey Exeter building formerly known as Midas House is still on the market for a new tenant. It was not owned by any of the Midas group of companies and so any income from a new lease will not go to administrators dealing with claims from nearly 2,000 creditors.
The building is understood to be owned by former directors of Midas and is therefore not an asset. It is vacant and being marketed by property experts at JLL under the name of its address 7 Woodwater Park, Pynes Hill, Exeter.
However joint agents Vickery Holman and PACT Property & Assets have now completed the freehold disposal of the building on Silverhills Road, Newton Abbot, which was owned by Midas. The property consists of a part vacant high-specification office building with parking for 35 cars set within a landscaped forecourt.
There is about 8,618sq ft of office accommodation over the ground and first floors, with the benefit of a commercial lease to Blue Glue over the 4,137sq ft first floor. The property is notably one of the highest specification office buildings in the town and is strategically positioned as an ideal HQ to service Torbay and Teignbridge areas.
“It was clear from the beginning of the marketing campaign that this class of asset was going to prove very popular in the market and we were not surprised when we were approached by multiple, mid-sized businesses to acquire the building for their own occupation, giving them room to expand into the first floor in the future,” said Zach Maiden, commercial agent at Vickery Holman. “The market remains strong for well positioned, high-spec buildings and while demand is outstripping supply, the market values are holding up.”
Although headquartered in Exeter, Midas was involved in huge construction projects across the South West and among many Plymouth firms listed as creditors, for example, are Collaton Safety Management, D&L McBride Building Consultancy, EDF Energy, LTC Powered Access, Plymouth Removers, DCA Public Relations, Western Power Distribution, ADS Window Films, All Seasons Group Services, B&C Carpentry, and BPUK Environment.
Reports from administrators at Teneo Financial Advisory show the two main companies in the Midas family - Midas Group and Midas Construction - have realisable assets of just £8,354,644. But when preferential and secured creditors are paid it means there will be a predicted shortfall of £60,290,904 for the hundreds of small firms and individuals in the supply chain.
In addition, Midas’ housing arm Mi-Space (UK) owes more than £12m with more than £10m of claims unlikely to be paid. This means the overall Midas deficit is now in excess of £70m.
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