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The assets of insolvent holding company Amiry & Gilbride Healthcare (A&G) are being sold as a “large portfolio” of pharmacies alongside “several smaller portfolio and individual sales” following offers from interested parties, administrators have said.

In a recent six-month progress report following their appointment at the end of April, administrators from BDO gave an update on the fate of the holding company, which is linked to 15 NHS pharmacies and three private pharmacies that have continued to trade as normal.

With regard to the company’s pharmacies at Thurso, Lairg, Wishaw, Airdrie and Uddingston, new companies will be incorporated for each respective pharmacy sold.

The administrators said in a June report that A&G has had “poor” trading performance since its incorporation and relied on cash injections from Rossinver, a company owned by John Gilbride, who is also a director at A&G alongside Mahyar Nickkho-Amiry and Audrey Gilbride.

The sales of A&G’s assets is expected to see creditors paid in full, said the administrators, adding that these are being conducted as share sales to provide “a better outcome to creditors”.

These include the Royal Bank of Scotland, a secured creditor owed £6.7m, Mr Gilbride, who is owed £4.8m, and various entities relating to Rossinver Holdings, which are collectively owed £4.4m.

The sale is also expected to see £28,933 paid out in redundancy settlements and £5,322 in other employee claims after 17 out of 219 staff members were made redundant as a cost-saving measure during the administration.

BDO said that during the administration, the company’s day-to-day trading has been supported by “post-appointment cash injections” from Mr Gilbride, who is currently owed around £600,000 in relation to this outlay and “will be repaid as an expense of the administration”.

The report added: “The joint administrators have attended the Hub [the company’s distribution centre in Govan] on a weekly basis and held meetings with the management team to ensure there was constant supervision of trading and to monitor the company's cashflow together with that of the wider A & G Pharmacy Group due to the interconnectedness of the companies' trading activities.

“Where necessary, the joint administrators' team provided pharmacists with signed purchase orders to provide to suppliers, thus ensuring a continued supply of stock and no delays with the ordering process to ultimately satisfy the needs of the company's customers.”

Regular meetings have also been held with the Royal Bank of Scotland and Tradebridge, with which the company has a credit facility.

The administrators had incurred time costs of £419,862 as of November 10, the progress report detailed. 

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