Two weeks after they were called in, the administrators of Granville Technology Group (GTG) and its Tiny and Time computer brands have been unable to establish who owned the company.
And, despite calls from MPs for an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the collapse, the Department of Trade and Industry has admitted that it is powerless to act while the company remains in administration.
The ownership question been an issue since before the company went into administration two weeks ago. Trade union sources warned on 26 July that there was "concern" over the ownership of the company and on Wednesday a spokesman for the administrators, Grant Thornton, told ZDNet UK that "the administrators are still looking at the ownership question".
Finding who really owns GTG's assets, especially the Time, Tiny and Computer Shop brands, is crucial for Grant Thornton. The administrators must establish this before it can work out how to use the assets or dispose of them as part of the administration process.
The administrators are dealing with a very complex situation. For example, a commercial Web site called P400 is currently operating from an address close to GTG's Burnley offices, selling IT components from companies like HP, Brother, Intel and others, as well as consumer products such as iPods. When ZDNet UK called P400's support line, it was answered by Tiny Computers.
A spokesman for Grant Thornton confirmed on Wednesday that P400 is one of the companies where the administrators are "still looking into the ownership question".
Meanwhile, the spokesman also confirmed to ZDNet that "unsecured creditors are unlikely to receive any money from the administration".
The financial picture for all creditors remains bleak. When a company goes out of business, there are different ways in which creditors can try and recoup some of their losses, but this normally only applies to companies that have gone bankrupt. A spokeswoman for the DTI confirmed to ZDNet UK that, while the company was in administration, everything "was in the hands of the administrators".
Normally, the administrators will try to keep the company going in the hope of selling it off as a going concern or a collection of workable component. As part of that process they will try, on behalf of the shareholders, to recoup some of those losses.
Grant Thornton's ongoing failure to establish the ownership of GTG's various assets appears to leave both the administrators and the creditors in a Catch 22 situation.
Faced with this confusion, several MPs have called for a government inquiry into GTG's collapse.
But according to the DTI, the government will not normally investigate any company while it is in administration.
Talkback
since when most big companies collapse, the owners tend to walk away with huge fortunes, regardless of who got hurt by the bankruptcy...I'm willing to take over ownership of Tiny! (assuming i can get some sort of immense golden-handshake or something)...problem solved!
There is a real robbery going on Granville/Time Computers.And it has been planned for some time already.
Suppliers has lost mountains of money. I know a few of them have been losing more than 5 Million each!
But in my opinion the worst part is that in France the founder of Time (Tahid Moshan) has another company called Granville France. They have a lot of orders from big customers for the 'back to school'.
Now there are strong rumours that Mr Moshan will arrange so that these orders can still be delivered from Time UK, from the stock of the bancrupt company!
Then I ask myself, how is it legally possible that they can use goods which is not paid to suppliers and produce and deliver to the owner's company in another country?
Tahid Moshan also have built himself a big new assembly factory in Dubai with a capasity of 1 million PC systems per year. The timing of this seems suspicious. Because the new factory was ready to start production at the same time as Time UK was closed.........
As I said, this is robbery in open daylight, and nobody react!? How is it possible that the UK government can let this happen? Even the newspapers are pretty silent about the matter, why?
How can they not know of the owners??? If it was a Limited Company, Companies House has records of all Directors and all other companies that they are Directors of. If any Director has not declared all interests, it's a criminal offence. If it wasn't a Limited Company, they only have to look at the accounts and they'll soon know who owns what by the amount of money they have received. What the Administators should be doing at this stage is calling in the Serious Crime Squad. The police should be investigating, making arrests and seizing passports. If it's left too late, we could soon be reading of some of these criminals disappearing, possibly to Dubai...
hi im just a consumer and purchased a pc from tiny online for £838 on my barclaycard but never recieved the goods anybody know where i stand ................
If your Barclaycard is a credit card, then you should be safe. Your payment by credit card protects you against failure of vendors not supplying goods. Speak to your Barclaycard help line, and see what they have to say.