Administrators outline end game for Pagan Osborne

With a history stretching back 250-years, Pagans was one of Scotland’s most high profile small law firms when it collapsed at the start of September.

Around 70 jobs were lost, however Thorntons stepped in to save around 50, including 10 partners after it bought the business out of pre-packed administration.

Now, according to an update on the process as reported by The Herald newspaper, Thorntons has so far paid the administrators £230,000 for work in progress and a further £15,000 for a range of fixed assets.

Much of what has so far been paid can be accounted for by the costs associated with the sale, with FRP Advisory charging fees of just under £100,000 for putting the pre-pack deal together and Shepherd & Wedderburn charging £82,000 for the legal work it did in preparing the sale agreements and associated documentation.

Joint administrators Tom MacLennan and Iain Fraser of FRP Advisory said Pagan had 53 secured creditors who were owed around £185,000 in total when the firm collapsed, and at the time of the Thornton’s sale they said it was likely that those owed money would have more change of achieving restitution as a result of the deal.

This week, in an update uploaded to Companies House, FRP have said the joint administrators are expected to generate between £18,000 and £148,000 for preferential creditors and between £2 million and £2.5m for unsecured creditors.

In addition, under the terms of the administration, Thorntons are to gather Pagan’s debts on behalf of Mr MacLennan and Mr Fraser in a deal that will see it receive a five per cent commission.