Honeyframe given breathing space

Directors of troubled hardware reseller Honeyframe Corporate Computing have been given an extra 14 days to devise more profitable proposals for creditors.

Directors of troubled hardware reseller Honeyframe Corporate Computing have been given an extra 14 days to devise more profitable proposals for creditors.

The Telford-based firm, which is battling to avoid receivership by pursuing a company voluntary arrangement (CVA), has traded since June 1995 as a subsidiary of Honeyframe Computer Holdings. Sutton Coldfield-based insolvency firm Irwin has been overseeing the CVA process.

At a meeting of creditors last week, proposals included major creditor Unisys (which is believed to be owed about £250,000) to act as an agent for the company and service sales leads generated by Honeyframe.

Under the proposed system, Unisys would sell the equipment directly to Honeyframe customers and pass on the margin to the company.

But at the meeting it was decided that the arrangement would be put on temporary hold to give the directors time to try for a more beneficial deal for creditors.

A representative of the firm said the adjournment was to "allow the directors of Honeyframe Corporate Computing an opportunity to see if the dividend prospects to non-preferential creditors can be enhanced".

The original proposal also suggested that a dividend of 20p in the pound would be made payable to creditors under the CVA. It also claimed that the same creditors may have expected to receive only about 5p in the pound if the firm had ceased to trade.

Eddie Pacey, credit controller at Ideal Hardware, another of Honeyframe's creditors, said he may back the CVA if a higher dividend was reached. "My initial view was that the proposal was not fair to creditors. If directors have been given an extra 14 days to revise their proposals I would welcome that decision," he said.