Administrative receivership

An administrative receiver (AR) is a receiver or manager of the whole (or substantially the whole) of a company’s property. The AR is appointed by or on behalf of the holder(s) of any debentures of the company secured by way of a floating charge dated prior to 15 September 2003.

The AR, who must be an insolvency practitioner, has similar powers to an administrator and can continue to operate the business, whilst trying to sell it as a going concern. The advantage of this is that typically the AR will achieve a higher price than if the company’s assets were disposed of on a forced sale basis.