What you need to know about the Tempo/Bentours liquidators report

By Travel Weekly

The statutory report by liquidators of Tempo Holidays and Bentours has been released, and it makes for very grim reading.

The key point to come out of the report is that it is unlikely creditors will receive any return from the liquidation of the two wholesalers.

“At the current time, we have insufficient funds to declare a dividend to any class of creditors,” the report by administrator William Buck said.

“We anticipate the total chargebacks claims will be greater than the balance of funds remaining in the pre-appointment trading accounts and accordingly no further recoveries are expected from this source.

“We do however dispute the banks’ position and are investigating possible actions to challenge the bank.”

The administrator said any return to creditors is dependent on the “recovery of the related party sundry debtors and the insolvent trading claim against the directors”.

William Buck’s preliminary investigations into the affairs of Tempo Holidays Pty Ltd (which traded as Tempo Holidays and Bentours) indicate the company was insolvent from at least 26 June 2019 and remained insolvent until the date of its appointment as administrator.

Among the sundry debtors are Cox & Kings Japan, which owes approximately $832,000; Cox & Kings Limited in India, which owes approximately $4.9 million; and Cox & Kings Singapore, which is estimated to owe a whopping $25.1 million.

Furthermore, UK-based entity Prometheon owes the company approximately $5 million; and Dubai-based entity Avila owes approximately $1 million.

William Buck said it has notified all of these companies of Tempo’s debt claims, and is currently investigating potential legal avenues to pursue some of these claims further.

“The liquidators note that estimated claims in the liquidation total [approximately] $342 million, represented by [approximately] $1m in priority employee claims and [approximately] $341 million in unsecured creditor claims,” it said.

The report also revealed that while two parties had initially expressed interest in purchasing Tempo’s assets and proceeded with further due diligence, both have since declined to continue past this stage.

Perhaps proving just how close Tempo’s assets came to being sold, one of the interested parties even made a non-refundable deposit of $10,000 during the process.

“No further interest has been received and, accordingly, we do not anticipate any recoveries from this source,” the report said.

Image: iStock/QUAYSIDE

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administrator bentours cox & kings liquidators tempo holidays William Buck