Ernst & Young appointed to redevelopment project with 拢502m debt

The Battersea Power Station redevelopment scheme has crashed into administration with debts of more than 拢500m.

Alan Hudson and Alan Bloom at Ernst & Young were this morning appointed administrator to the scheme, which is being carried out by Real Estate Opportunities (REO) and backed by Victor Hwang鈥檚 Oriental Property.

Four subsidiaries of Battersea Power Station Shareholder Vehicle Ltd, the holding company of the project formed after a restructuring in April, together owe 拢502m to Lloyds Banking Group, Ireland鈥檚 National Asset Management Agency (NAMA), and Oriental Property.  

Of that 拢324m is owed to the senior lenders Lloyds and Nama, and 拢178m to Oriental Property. The company admitted in November that the subsidiaries were 鈥渃urrently not in a position to satisfy these demands for repayment.鈥�

High Court judge Geoffrey Vos this morning placed  REO Power Station Ltd, REO Site Assembly, REO 8 Brooks Court and REO 88 Kirtling Street into administration following a demand from Lloyds subsidiary the Bank of Scotland for repayment.

REO said in a statement the administration does not apply either to the whole of REO or to Battersea Power Station Shareholder Vehicle Ltd.

It added that REO鈥檚 other assets, which are situated in Ireland, are unaffected by this development. REO owns 54% of Battersea Power Station Shareholder Vehicle Limited.

The administrators will now seek to sell the site in order to recover the debts. Alan Bloom, joint administrator, said: 鈥淏attersea Power Station is an iconic building and the associated parcels of land under Administration are attractive assets with a great deal of development opportunity.  

鈥淲ith such a large piece of prime real estate development land there are many stakeholders and during the Administration process we will be working very closely with all parties.鈥�

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