Parent company MWB Group Holdings has collapsed into administration under the weight of its huge debt pile
A for sale sign has been hoisted over boutique hotel chains Malmaison and Hotel du Vin after its listed parent company collapsed into administration under the weight of its huge debt pile.
Shares in parent company MWB Group Holdings were suspended earlier this month after it was unable to resolve a dispute with its subsidiary, the office space provider MWB Business Exchange, to which it owes £8m. On Friday night the company confirmed the formal appointment of Deloitte as administrators and Phil Bowers, one of its restructuring partners, insisted it was business as usual for both the Malmaison Group and MWB Business Exchange: "The administration appointment is to MWB Group Holdings only and does not impact on the ongoing operation of its trading subsidiaries. All trading subsidiaries of the group continue to run as normal."
MWB owns 26 hotels across its Malmaison and Hotel du Vin brands and at the end of last year had amassed debts of more than £200m. The company was a stock market darling before the credit crunch hit with its shares touching almost 300p in 2007. When they were suspended at the end of October they had slumped to just under 5p and shareholders were warned their investment could be worthless.
In a separate statement Malmaison and Hotel du Vin chief executive Gary Davis reiterated the collapse of its parent would not impact on day-to-day operations: "This development has no impact on Malmaison and Hotel du Vin trading, with both subsidiary businesses performing strongly with both sales growing and profits ahead by 14% over the last four month period on a like-for-like basis."