A creditor of the troubled Omega Infinite venture capital company has successfully petitioned the High Court to have the business wound up, ending any hopes that the 'ground breaking' firm might come back from its financial collapse.
One of the official receivers attached to the court is, by virtue of the winding up order, liquidator of the company once known as Avocet Infinite whose management promised to revolutionise agricultural and fuel production from their base on farms in Berwickshire.
The move to wind up the Avocet operation is in addition to the appointment of joint liquidators by UK Business Secretary Alok Sharma. The two insolvency experts from accountancy firm Begbies Traynor moved in at the end of April after a separate petition to the court.
A post on the Companies House website yesterday confirmed the wind up petition had been granted in the Business and Property Courts in Leeds by His Honour Judge Klein.
The petitioner is named as London law firm Fieldfisher LLP, described as a creditor of Omega Infinite. The submission seeking to wind up the Berwick-on-Tweed-based business was originally made in November 2019 before being transferred to the Leeds division by Insolvency & Companies Court Judge Mullen on March 5th this year.
Perhaps ironically, the petition was supported by Orrdone Farms PLC (in administration), a subsidiary of the Avocet 'Group' which was rendered insolvent in January with debts of more than £3.5 million.
According to the new notice: "The court, having read the documents on the court file, it is ordered that [1] Omega Infinite PLC be wound up by the court under the Insolvency Act 1986; [2] the costs of the petitioner and of Orrdone Farms Ltd of the petition and the petitioner's costs of the administration application be paid out of the assets of the company as an expense of the liquidation".
Winding up and liquidation are separate steps in the process of shutting down and dissolving a company.
An official description of the difference between the two states: "Winding Up involves ending all business affairs and includes the closure of the company (including liquidation or dissolution), whilst Liquidation is specifically about selling off company assets in order to pay creditors and then closing the company.
A winding up petition is different to a voluntary winding
up.This is a forced procedure when someone is owed money. A Winding Up
Petition is submitted to the court by a creditor of a company who has failed to
collect the debts that they are owed.
"If this petition is granted by the court,
the company will then be investigated and liquidated by the Official Receiver. The
Official Receiver will make it their business to conduct a very intrusive
investigation into whether any misfeasance or wrongful trading has been
conducted."
As already reported here Martin Frost, a director of both Omega Infinite and Orrdone Farms, told the farming company's joint administrators that all of the assets held by Orrdone had been sold to Avocet Infinite (as it then was) in May 2019. As a result Orrdone Farms had ceased trading.
More recently Mr Frost told The Sunday Times that 'the real worth' of Omega Infinite - intellectual property alleged to be worth £60 million - was preserved and intact after being vested in a new 'relatively debt free' company called Avocet Natural Capital plc.
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