You may recall our previous story about UK Exim Limited and UK Exim Finance. The businesses owed millions to Assetz Capital and Archover respectively.

There was an article in the Telegraph about how Mark Runiewicz provided funding via these businesses to a business called Packaged Water Limited which was run by his partner Mary McErlain. The article can be reviewed here: https://pressreader.com/article/281642487623557

The administrators progress report for UK Exim Limited filed on 28th September 2020 shows a total shortfall of over £5.5m with over £2.4m of that due to Assetz Capital. You can see the report here: Administrator’s Progress Report

Mark Runiewicz and Mary McErlain continue to work together at SC Advisors. Given the potential fraud with UK Exim, UK Exim Finance, Packaged Water and the losses suffered by lenders it is interesting that Mark and Mary continue to work together to advise businesses. They advise that their business, “advises SME companies by arranging funding through the whole supply chain”.

Archover describe what happened as a fraud. In a response to an investor on a TrustPilot review, they advise, “The company you refer to is UK EXIM Finance (UEF) not EXIM. The company was not introduced by our parent company. As you are well aware this fraud has affected a number of other lenders as well as ArchOver but our monitoring team was the first to uncover it. UEF had been a legitimate borrower for a number of years until this year. As you are aware from the multiple updates from ArchOver we are pursuing a wide range of avenues for recovery with the full support of Hampden Group, who themselves are also exposed as a lender in UEF.”

It will be interesting to see what further action Assetz Capital and Archover take in these matters. It will also be interesting to see what the final outcome is in terms of recovery with UK Exim Finance Limited. The Administrators progress report can be viewed here: Administrator’s Progress Report

In summary it advises that at the date of appointment, UK Exim Finance Limited owed £4.74m to Archover. It goes on to say that Archover will “suffer a substantial shortfall”. There is a move to liquidate the business so it will be interesting to see what the final shortfall is. It would appear that Archover may have moved the debt into a separate SPV company and it would appear that they have made some progress in recovering some of the funds.