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BUYERS INTERESTED IN IMAGESTATE
May 15, 2006
A month ago on April 12, 2006 Peter Mark Saville and Andrew John Pepper of Kroll Limited in the UK were appointed joint administrators of Image State under the UK Insolvency Act of 1986.
Very little official information has been made available since that time as the administrators will not answer press calls and their office is not giving out their email addresses.
They have sent a letter to creditors and suppliers indicating that "the Company is continuing to trade under our supervision." We also know that the offices in both New York and London are closed and the building manager in New York has been notified that the rent will continue to be paid, but no one should be allowed in the office without the specific permission of the administrators.
I understand that the administrators are now examining at least one offer to purchase the entire company and approximately 22 offers to purchase various parts of the company. It is believed that the part of the company that most potential buyers are interested in is the wholly owned 17,000 image John Foxx collection.
Is is also our understanding that there are a few more buyer interested in making offers, but that they have been told that for the time being no more offers are being accepted. Under English law Insolvency Practitioners are required to consider all legitimate offers. Therefore, it seems likely that the administrators are organizing the bids already received before accepting further bids. It would seem that it will be some time before any decisions are announced.
The letter sent to suppliers says among other things, "Please provide details of the amount owing to you as at the date of appointment. If you contend that you hold any form of security or reservation of title, would you please forward details in writing to us as soon as possible." It would seem prudent for photographers to send a letter to the administrators informing them of the number of your owned images that are on file with Image State and expressing your desire to have those images returned. The mailing address of Kroll is 10 Fleet Place, London EC4M 7RB. The court case number is 2681/2006 and the company number assigned to the case is 04187014.
The letter also says, "We are currently formatting our proposals which will be sent to creditors in due course and if appropriate, details of a creditor' meeting." From this statement it sounds like there is no assurance that there will ever be a creditor's meeting. If there is such a meeting it will likely be in London and no such meeting is likely to be held in the U.S.