Wine investment company goes into administration

Wine investment company Vinance plc has gone into administration, affecting thousands of investors

Vinance was put into administration in London’s High Court on 16 November.

Herron Fisher, insolvency practitioners based in Croydon and Eastbourne, has been appointed as administrator.

According to Herron Fisher, which says it will try to rescue the company as a going concern, Vinance manages more than £50m of wine assets for thousands of investors based in nine countries.

Herron Fisher believes that those clients where ‘all of their wine has been allocated to them and is either held in bonded warehouses or they already have control of it themselves’ will be unaffected.

Unfortunately there are some investors who have yet to be allocated wines or are waiting for en primeur wines to arrive who are likely to become unsecured creditors.

It will take some time before the total deficiency is known.

‘We will perform our functions in the interest of the company’s creditors as a whole. We understand that many clients will be unaffected as all of their wine has been allocated to them and is either held in bonded warehouses or they already have control of it themselves.

‘There will unfortunately be some investors who have not been allocated all of their wines and there are no wines awaiting allocation, nor are we able to buy any more wine. Unfortunately the company records are not perfect and it will take some time for us to establish the exact position,’ Nicky Fisher of Herron Fisher said.

‘In the meantime, we will endeavour to find a buyer for the business.’

Vinance was based in London’s Greenwich. Investors were originally with Morgan Aston Ford Ltd, which was established in January 2002. Clients were later transferred to Vinance plc, under similar ownership, which was founded in August 2008.

Written by Jim Budd