The joint administrators say the company operated from six sites in the UK and also had a Spanish subsidiary, Peters Spain SL, which operates from five sites in Spain.

The last accounts filed for 2005, the year of the Fairline break up, showed the company had a turnover of £88.9m, a gross profit of £11.6m and an operating profit of £1.9m.

KPMG says the directors of the company blame over capacity by boat manufacturers, leading to reduced margins, lower residual values and a highly competitive retail market.

No mention is made of the Fairline loss, but the directors appear to blame the termination of the Sealine agreement (by Sealine) as another contributory factor, leaving the business with no high volume motor boat brand or dealer network. Finally, the directors say the company had an inherently high cost structure which had been supported by high margins, but which were not supportable on considerably reduced margins.

KPMG says no offers were received for the business as whole, but it has completed five separate sales of the majority of the assets.

The boat sale operations at Chichester, Brixham and Swanwick, the shipyard maintenance operations, the boat show equipment and the rights to the name Opal Marine Ltd were purchased by R&M 1050 Ltd for £146,000. R&M also paid a £7,500 fee for a three week exclusivity period to review options to purchase the shares of Peters Spain SL.

The business and assets of the boat lifting and handling operations were purchased by Premier Marinas for £200,000.

The chandlery stock at Chichester was purchased by Lansdale Marine for £112,000.

The Ipswich chandlery and marina business was purchased by Burton Waters Marina Ltd for £75,000.

The assets of Port to Port business were sold for £202,000 resulting in a net realisation to the company of £180,000.

All relevant employees were transferred to the purchasers.

The company had taken £1.311m in customer deposits, but the client account currently holds £775,000. KPMG has applied to the courts to establish how these monies are to be distributed.

Barclays had a cross guarantee over the freehold of Birdham Pool Marina, on which Heads of Terms were signed for £6.5m on July 30 with Castle Marinas, which owns a small group of mainly inland marinas. KPMG says Barclays should be repaid in full.

A separate parcel of land next to Birdham Pool is under offer at £280,000.

KPMG says it understands Peters Spain SL may be insolvent and the directors are seeking legal advice.

The company owned a stock of 28 unencumbered boats, mainly second hand trade-ins. Those boats have been sold for £1,044,000.

Lombard had marine mortgages on 56 boats, which have been repossessed and are for sale. Lombard was owed £8.9m at the date of administration. GE financed 13 boats, which the company is selling.

The gross debtor book shows £2.2m, but KPMG reckons a large proportion of this is ‘uncollectable as there appear to be numerous errors on the ledger’.

The KPMG report shows around 350 creditors with sums ranging from a few pounds to £53,970.00 at the other end of the scale.

The summary of assets shows an estimate of realisation amounting to £3,311,267. Subtraction of the summary of liabilities leaves an estimated total deficiency as regards members of £,525,996. 

The creditors meeting is to be held on Friday October 19 at the Hilton Hotel, Avisford Park, Walberton, Arundel, West Sussex.