Collapsed firm owes £200m as administrators find flawed accounting
Plus: Openreach meeting brings hope in telegraph pole battle
Hello and welcome to the midweek edition of The Southport Lead.
Today we turn our attention back to the proceedings at the Seventy Ninth Group as its administrators shed light on messy matters at the international firm and police continue to investigate.
We also have cause for hope for residents who are fighting against having telegraph poles installed outside their homes as part of Openreach’s efforts to introduce the high speed broadband connections.
Administrators find complicated web of affairs as police investigation continues
By Jamie Lopez
More than £200m is owed to thousands of investors by a Southport firm which collapsed weeks after a police raid.
The Seventy Ninth Group, based at Southport Business Park, was an international asset management company involved in property development and gold mining, having grown from a small, family business to one with operations in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Canada.
However, an investigation by the City of London Police led to raids of multiple properties connected to the business in February, resulting in four arrests. Police said the investigation relates to “suspected widespread fraud” and also seized cash, luxury watches and jewellery during the raids.
Weeks later, a string of businesses under the Seventy Ninth Group banner entered administration. Administrators Quantuma and Kroll have been jointly appointed to handle that process in respect of some of the group’s many companies and are in the process of untangling the complicated affairs to achieve a return for those owed money.
According to the joint administrators, the group comprises approximately 55 companies but they have only taken responsibility for those which hold assets or “contain information considered relevant to achieving the strategy of maximising creditor returns”.
However, they have also made clear that the operations are deeply complicated in terms of the inter-company dealings. A first update from them has now shed light on matters within the operation, including:
Company ‘debanked’ in UK after police raids
All but three staff immediately made redundant
No statement of affairs has been provided by the directors
Court order may be needed to combine administration processes
Individual companies did not have separate bank accounts
The company faced cashflow problems after the police raids in February through a combination of investor caution and frozen assets. Around £800k became no longer available for immediate use when the company was effectively ‘debanked’ by its providers, including Natwest which held £700k.
Quantuma was initially drafted in to help with those cashflow problems but it became apparent it was unable to meet its current and future liabilities and administration became inevitable.
Immediately following their appointment, members of the joint administrators' staff attended the group's head office. On April 29, all but three members of staff were made redundant. One of those kept on resigned in May and it is thought that more than £100,000 will be owed in wage arrears and holiday and redundancy payments.
The report details that as of April 23, 2025, the total investment value raised from investors stood at around £150m with a total redemption value of approximately £203m owed to 3,700 investors.
It is believed that although there are contractual arrangements between the loan note holders and the loan note companies, “these arrangements may not reflect the actual arrangements between loan note holder and the 79th Group of companies”.
As such, it also has been found the various loan note companies did not appear to have established any specific funds or ringfenced any monies for any group entity or for any stated purpose, meaning all the investments were pooled together in group treasury bank accounts held, in the most part, by separate group companies.
There is also a lack of any records of how these monies were moved between the companies and investigations are ongoing as to how and where the funds have been utilised.
The report states: “Investigations are at an early stage and ongoing, but the Joint Administrators believe that it is likely to be in the best interests of investors for the Joint Administrators to work towards consolidating all the 79th Group administrations such that investors are invited to prove in the administration of the key treasury fund group companies directly.
“A court application is likely to be required for this purpose at the relevant time. Until notified otherwise, investors should continue to participate in the relevant loan note company administrations relating to their investment(s).”
The lack of information available about the operations is such that its management says no intercompany matrix - a record of dealing between the group’s different entities - even exists. Further, the directors have said they are unable to provide an accurate statement of affairs outlining assets and liabilities.
The report adds: “At this stage, the investigations are confidential, and further details cannot be disclosed so as not to prejudice ongoing enquiries. The Joint Administrators will provide updates in future reports, particularly where any assets are identified which may be capable of realisation.”
The police investigation remains ongoing.
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Openreach meeting boosts hopes of telegraph pole victory
By Elliot Jessett
A ‘guerrilla war’ has been avoided in Southport as local residents continue their campaign against the installation of telegraph poles – vowing ‘we are even stronger and we’re not going away’.
The campaign against Openreach’s plans to to install telegraph poles around Southport has been ongoing for the last 17 months as the tech giant looks to roll out a FTTP (Fibre to the Premises) project and link properties to its Ultrafast Fibre optic broadband network.
However, the proposed installation of the poles has been objected to by an increasing number of residents who say they feel the “alien” objects are being forced onto them without consultation.
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