COUNCIL tax payers were owed hundreds of thousands of pounds when a manufacturer at a site owned by Eastleigh council went into administration, documents suggest.
Aim Altitude (UK) Ltd, which makes interiors for commercial aircraft, was placed into administration in June, along with parent company Aim Altitude Ltd.
Most of the companies’ assets were sold straight away to another arm of their Chinese owner, AVIC, for £2million.
A report by administrators says Aim Altitude (UK) Ltd owed £288,000 to Eastleigh Borough Council. The authority bought its factory site near Bournemouth Airport for £18.7m in 2017 as part of its investments in commercial property.
Eastleigh council says the debt is the “type of risk that any landlord builds into the management of their commercial portfolio”.
The council has already faced criticism from its MP, Paul Holmes, after it emerged that it was owed more than £3.7m in rent from its business tenants.
It is among authorities being urged by the government to “reduce their level of risk” amid claims that it could be £650m in debt within three years.
The report on the Aim Altitude companies by administrators at Grant Thornton said Aim Altitude (UK) owed a total of £6.7m to unsecured creditors.
It is not clear how much money will be available to those creditors, because parent company Aim Altitude Ltd is expected to make a claim against its subsidiary Aim Altitude (UK) Ltd for intercompany loans and management charges.
There could also be “potentially significant breach of contract claims” which could run into tens of millions of pounds.
Aim Altitude Ltd also owed £2.7m to unsecured creditors, but its own parent business – AVIC Cabin Systems Co – was expected to make a claim against it and to be its largest unsecured creditor.
All 383 jobs at the group were saved when most of the assets were sold to AVIC Cabin Systems (UK) Ltd, another business owned by AVIC Cabin Systems Co.
The company is also listed as owing £332,000 to Christchurch Borough Council, the local authority which previously covered its Bournemouth Airport site.
Christchurch council has since been replaced by BCP Council, which said: “Our records show that on the date that Aim Altitude went into administration no business rates were owed to the former Christchurch Borough Council.”
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