The High Court has ordered Bcon Communications Limited, trading as Beacon Communications, to be wound up after finding it could not pay a €151,475 judgment debt owed to Danfoss Ireland Limited when the winding-up petition was presented.
In a judgment delivered on 22 August 2012, Ms Justice Laffoy appointed Danfoss’s nominee, John Foley, as official liquidator. The company’s directors, Walter Batt, Alan Batt and Philip Connolly, were directed to swear and file a statement of affairs within 21 days. The petitioner’s costs were reserved, and the matter was listed for the Examiner’s Court List in the Michaelmas term.
Danfoss presented its petition on 28 May 2012. The debt arose from unpaid rent for premises at Unit A1, Nangor Road Business Park, Dublin 12. A High Court judgment for €151,475, together with €339.63 in costs, had been made on 20 October 2011 and was not appealed. The company acknowledged the judgment debt.
The company disputed that Danfoss had properly served a statutory demand, which could have established deemed insolvency under section 214(a) of the Companies Act 1963. Justice Laffoy found that the evidence did not establish the demand had been left at the company’s registered office. The petition therefore could not succeed on that basis. The petitioner also could not establish that enforcement of the judgment had been returned unsatisfied.
The court instead considered whether the evidence proved the company was unable to pay its debts under section 214(c). The company relied on financial statements and a directors’ statement of affairs showing net assets, but neither had been professionally analysed for the court. The petitioner highlighted the value and liquidity of the company’s stock and debtors, as well as other potential liabilities, including further rent, interest and costs.
The company said it was trading, had nine employees and hoped to pay the debt over time. At the July hearing it offered an immediate €10,000, a further €10,000 the following month and 104 weekly payments of €1,260. The petitioner did not accept. The judge said the offer showed the company could not discharge the judgment debt at that time. Finding it unable to pay the debt when the petition was presented and still unable to pay it, she concluded that the company was insolvent and made the winding-up order, despite the likely redundancies among its nine employees.