THE BOSS of a firm that owns four Welsh harbours says the administration of a sister company would not result in the loss of £109,000 in unpaid debts to Aberystwyth marina.

Pressure is once again mounting on the Marine and Property Group Limited after the subsidiary that runs Port Dinorwic in Gwynedd also received a petition to wind up from HMRC on 25 May.

After questioning from the Cambrian News, the company’s sole director, Switzerland-based Chris Odling-Smee, failed to guarantee Aberystwyth would not soon find itself in a similar position - or in administration.

He said: “All of this is adjourned based on our capital funding deal. HMRC has sight of the deal details.”

The failure to complete the long-awaited deal has been held up as the reason staff have been going without pay and why subsidiaries have been suffering financially.   

Across the firm’s marinas, it has failed to pay staff salaries and pensions, berth holders have threatened not to pay mooring fees, equipment has been impounded by bailiffs and it has been embroiled in legal disputes with contractors.

The firm last month sent out a statement to its berth holders at the Y Lanfa site, as well as those across its four other marinas, informing them its holding company had gone into administration.

Now it has been joined by the associated firm Bayscape Limited, which oversees the management of a block of luxury apartments next to Cardiff marina, which has been listed as insolvent as of May 16 on the Companies House directory – after which an administrator was appointed to it.

To make matters worse, one of the firm’s subsidiary companies also narrowly escaped being wound up by HMRC over unpaid taxes and has until 14 June to pay any money owed. Mr Odling-Smee says everything is in hand to settle debts.

It also reported that Bayscape Limited owes significant sums of money to the marina subsidiaries in the group, including £109,000 to Aberystwyth and £1.5million to Burry Port marina. The firm, established in 2008, has been listed for compulsory strike off four times since 2018.

Mr Odling-Smee told the Cambrian News there was no risk the debts payable by Bayscape Limited to the marinas would be lost – and did not mean money had ever been taken out of those subsidiaries," he said.

“There’s a settlement agreement with our old funders... and this just reflects the delay and that’s why it’s been put into administration.

“To be clear, this is not because any money or cash has gone from the Marine Group to Bayscape at any stage – in fact, it’s the other way around.

“The reason it’s showing in Burry Port and Aberystwyth (debts) is because it’s all reflected in a group inter-company account and the individual balance within the subsidiaries needs to be reversed out.

“It’s just invoices payable from the group, not because cash has ever come out of it.”

He said the debts would be repaid through the money generated via the completion of Bayscape Phase Two.

Last month, Mr Odling-Smee told us that ‘all salaries are expected to be updated in the next 10 days’. It has now been more than a fortnight.

The Y Lanfa marina recently suspended boatyard works and a highly anticipated dredging campaign. 

The Marine Group owns a mixture of freeholds and leases at the marina. It owns the old office and toilet block as well as the pontoons and the gates - other parts, like Harbour House and the car park, are only leased to it. Harbour dues are paid to Ceredigion County Council to effectively lease the water space beneath the pontoons. There have been calls for the authorities to intervene. 

He said the press and social media activity had painted a ‘distorted picture’ and everyone involved including staff are ‘frustrated by the innuendos that come through.’ He promised further capital deals, investment in Aberystwyth and future acquisitions for the company. 

Despite concerns over the group’s finances, the latest accounts filed with Companies House in October 2022 show the firm – the parent company of nine other subsidiaries including Aberystwyth Marina Limited – posted before tax earnings of more than £1.7 million between December 2020 and December 2021 on a gross profit of more than £4.3 million.