Rok collapsed last November with debts of £360m and the loss of 3,400 jobs. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) was appointed administrator.
The Daily Telegraph reports today that PwC has uncovered the £90m hole. Scheme members are likely to end up in the pension protection fund, under which the best they would get is 90% of their entitlement.
First in line for anything are the banks – the secured creditors – who are Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC and Clydesdale, who are owed £73m. But they have already been told not to expect it all. Unsecured trade creditors are unlikely to get anything.
The Telegraph offers Rok pensioners hope, citing the possibility of the Pensions Regulator issuing a financial support direction (FSD), bumping the pension fund to the top of the list of creditors. The regulator is currently in a legal tussle with the administrators of Lehman Brothers, and the outcome of that will determine what teeth, if any, the regulator has.
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