Margate Dreamland to Go Bust?

It appears that the operators of the Margate’s prestigious Dreamland Amusement Park face the possibility of going bust in just over a week’s time. According to a notice published in the London Gazette on 20^th July. The administrators of  Sands Heritage, Duff and Phelps Ltd, have called a meeting of the company’s creditors on Monday 4^th at 10am at their offices in the  Shard, central London.  

At that meeting Duff and Phelps  will be presenting a Statement of  Proposals to the creditors about how Sands Heritage intends to repay  a massive £2.9 million debt, run up in less than one years trading.  I have been contacted by  well placed  people who have told  me that  the Duff and Phelps Statement of Proposals will make difficult reading for Sands creditors. I understand that  It’s likely that the Proposals  will say that Sands Heritage is extremely unlikely to be able to trade itself out of trouble and that a repayment offer as low as 20p in the pound might be made to the creditors.

I’m led to believe that It’s highly unlikely that the creditors will accept Duff and Phelps proposals and that a petition for the liquidation of Sande Heritage will quickly follow which could result in the sale of many of the Dreamland Amusement Park assets including  some of the fairground  rides and lots  of equipment and hardware.

But my biggest worry is the future of the 100 year  leasehold of the Dreamland Amusement Park. On 27 May 2016 Sands Heritage borrowed £600,000 from offshore , Cayman Islands registered,  Arrowgrass Master Fund Ltd. Security for the loan is the 100 year leasehold agreement  with Thanet Council. If Sands default on loan repayments to Arrowgrass Master Fund, which will happen if they are liquidated, then the 100 leasehold agreement on Dreamland will be become the property of the Arrowgrass.

I previously posted that the Directors  of Sands Heritage have close connections with the  owners of the Arrowgrass Master Fund Ltd, Arrowgrass Capital Partners LLP, with Mr Nick Connington a director having worked with them for 4 years. See my previous  post about this here

http://thanetgreencouncillor.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/margate-dreamlands-new-owner-some.html