Maplin creditors braced for huge losses

Rutland Partners, which bought Maplin in 2014, has so far been paid just £11.3m of the £102m it was owed as a secured creditor in the business.

The figure was revealed in the latest administrator’s progress report published by PwC and seen by The Times.

The £102m owed to Rutland is thought to include at least £40m of interest on loan notes that was never paid out.

PwC said in its report that Rutland and other investment funds would receive up to a further £3.5m.

Unsecured creditors who are owed a total of £198m are likely to receive less than 1% of their claims.

Maplin collapsed back in February – on the same day Toys R Us’s UK division went out of business – with the loss of around 219 stores and 2,300 jobs, after failing to secure fresh investment.

In a similar report also published yesterday, Toys R Us administrator Moorfields said it had generated more than £50m from the sale of stock and other measures since its appointment.

However, those funds will not be fully available to creditors, since costs of the administration will have to be deducted.

Moorfields’ report also revealed that Toys R Us had a pension deficit of £93.2m at the time of its collapse.

The Pension Protection Fund is expected to submit a claim as an unsecured creditor for that amount.

In total, Toys R Us owed more than £1bn to creditors when its British business slumped into administration.

The retailer’s failure came after its American parent company filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US last year.