Commercial Finance Specialists

A property investment firm from Lancashire has gone into administration, it has been announced.

A Lancashire-based property investment firm has gone into administration with £76 million worth of debt.

Proinvest LLP, run by entrepreneur Tim Knowles, has been placed into administration by accountants at Chantrey Vellacott DFK, Property Week reports.

The long-term borrowing of the company outweighed the commercial development assets on its books by some £13.2 million, according to the publication.

Assets included industrial estates in Bicester, Runcorn and South Wales, contributing to a portfolio worth £65.5 million, according to the last set of accounts for the company, for the 12 months up to January 31st 2009.

Property Week notes that Mr Knowles' main property investment vehicle, First Investments, is not in administration.

Estate agent CB Richard Ellis recently noted that the growth rate for commercial development asset values is still slowing, falling to just 0.4 per cent in July.

Such a situation is going to force UK banks to offload many distressed commercial properties, the Wall Street Journal has predicted.

Posted by Hadji Singh.