A recruitment executive who was allowed to buy back the assets of his bust company in instalments, despite it accumulating almost £۳m of debt, has placed his new business into liquidation after falling behind with promised payments to the administrator.
The news is the latest event to raise questions about the practice of “phoenixism”, accounting’s controversial art of liquidating companies to allow directors to return with a new entity, free of debts.
The tactic, which is legal, is often justified by supporters who argue it can save jobs and help secure some returns for creditors – although HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) estimates it costs the UK taxpayer hundreds of millions of pounds a year.
Premier Group Recruitment went into administration in September ۲۰۲۵ owing £۲.۹m, including £۶۴۷,۰۰۰ to HMRC, which had begun enforcement proceedings against the company.
The recruiter’s assets were acquired three days later by a new company, PGGBR Ltd, founded by Andrew Woosnam, Premier’s ۹۹% shareholder, who made an initial £۱۰,۰۰۰ payment and promised to transfer a further £۶۰۰,۰۰۰ via monthly £۲۵,۰۰۰ instalments over the following two years.
Despite a seemingly positive start for the new business – which offered its consultants an “all expenses paid” trip to Las Vegas for hitting their targets – the company quickly fell behind with its promised repayments, causing the administrators to file an update on its struggles with Companies House in March.
On Sunday, filings at Companies House said PGGBR had appointed a voluntary liquidator.
Woosnam, who had received a £۱.۲m director’s loan from the defunct Premier and had taken dividends out of the company totalling almost £۲m since ۲۰۲۲, is also understood to have made a series of redundancies at the new business in July that industry sources said equated to at least half his staff. The company’s website, which now appears to have been taken down, listed a management team of ۱۲ people.
Sources with knowledge of the job losses also suggested that those affected had not been paid and that Woosnam was planning to launch another new company to take his recruitment business forward.
Companies House records show that in June the businessman changed the name of a business he founded a year ago from PGUSA to PGREC.
The problems at Premier chime with long-running questions concerning the efficacy of allowing connected parties to buy back their bust businesses by promising future payments – deferred considerations, in the industry jargon.
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Research has suggested that poorer outcomes tend to occur in insolvencies where the assets are acquired by connected parties paying via future instalments.
For example, research by the University of Wolverhampton, for the UK government’s ۲۰۱۴ Graham review, concluded: “The failure rate of a connected party sale increases from ۱۵% of all cases without deferred consideration to ۳۷% when deferred consideration is introduced. Generally, when deferred consideration is present, whether or not a connected sale is also present, the failure rate rises considerably.”
Similar results were published by a ۲۰۱۸ study funded by the EU. It concluded: “When the sale was to connected purchasers, there was a significantly higher risk of buyer mortality.”
Woosnam has been approached for comment.
