HSBC faces steep losses from the unravelling of the Barclay family’s sprawling business empire, new documents show.
The British banking giant is owed £143m by the Barclay family’s delivery business, which fell into administration in March.
Restructuring experts at Teneo overseeing the administration have warned that, based on the current outlook, the bank “will not be repaid in full”.
Documents filed for The Logistics Group, which owns delivery business Arrow XL and formerly owned Yodel, reveal the financial impact facing HSBC as its sole secured creditor. Teneo estimated it could recover £57.5m from a sale of Arrow XL, which is the company’s main asset.
The Logistics Group collapsed into administration earlier this year after HSBC demanded repayment of money owed, a demand the business was unable to meet.
The company’s downfall represented another setback for the Barclay family, which was recently forced to put their online retailer Very Group up for sale in a bid to tackle its mounting debts.
Brothers Aidan and Howard, who oversee the Barclays’ dwindling business empire, were both listed as directors of The Logistics Group at the time of its failure.
Administrators have warned that the company has “significant levels of borrowing which would need to be restructured in order to rescue the business as a going concern”.
They added: “However, having regard to the likely value of the underlying assets, there appears little prospect that this could be achieved”.
As well as losing control of The Logistics Group, and potentially Very, the Barclays also sought to sell The Telegraph and The Spectator to RedBird IMI to settle debts owed to Lloyds Bank.
The deal was blocked by the Government over concerns about foreign state ownership of the media. RedBirdIMI is an investment fund largely backed by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, an Emirati royal who is deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates. The Telegraph has now been put up for sale once again.
In its latest set of financial accounts, The Logistics Group recorded a loss of £8.9m for the year ending June 2021, which represented a vast swing after posting profits of £91.4m in 2020.
As well as HSBC, a total of 10 other creditors are also owed debts of £18.3m which they are unlikely to recover from The Logistics Group.
The Barclay family declined to comment. HSBC was contacted for comment.