Lowcost administrators inundated with over 30,000 emails
Over 30,000 emails have been sent to administrators dealing with the collapse of Lowcost Travel Group two months ago.
A statement released by joint administrators Smith & Williamson and CMB Partners UK said emails continue to flood in.
"The administrators recognise the frustration felt by people caused by the failure of Lowcost," said the statement.
"Since appointment, the administrators have been working to make the best of the very difficult and complex situation arising from the collapse of Lowcost and its subsidiaries, not least by providing information and assistance to the many travellers/customers."
It said many customers who paid by credit or debit card have been able to make, or are in the process of making, successful claims through their card issuer.
But it said although this helps individual customers, it doesn’t reduce the size of the overall losses but simply moves them elsewhere.
"In this case, the losses are potentially being assumed by the banks and financial institutions who underwrote customers’ transactions. We are therefore currently in discussion with a number of financial institutions to ascertain the position regarding their losses as ultimate creditors of the Lowcost Group," the statement said.
It said the total estimated shortfall in assets for the group and its subsidiaries at the time of the administrators’ appointment runs into ‘many tens of millions of pounds’.
The final figures cannot be known for some time, it said, due to customers and other creditors continuing to formulate their claims.
It said the group had ‘few realisable assets’ and the value of those assets was ‘fast eroding’.
"Attempts to sell significant parts of the group’s business by the directors had failed in the immediate run up to the date of the administrations," it said.
"Notwithstanding this, the administrators immediately sought to sell any parts of the group’s business which were saleable. As it transpired, there was unfortunately very little interest in acquiring any sizeable parts of the group’s business."
Administrators said there was considerable interest in the group’s database, held by the Spanish subsidiary, but it wasn’t able to sell it due to strict data protection laws in Spain.
It said it continues to investigate the behaviour of the company’s directors leading up to the failure of the business.
"These investigations are ongoing and will take some months due to the complexity of the business," it said.
Lowcost and its UK subsidiaries went into administration on July 15 with around 27,000 customers on holiday and a further 110,000 with future bookings.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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