Almost three months after King & Wood Mallesons‘ (KWM) European arm halted a recapitalisation programme that would ultimately fail, the legacy SJ Berwin partnership, which has been carrying more than £30m in debt, has moved into administration.
Andrew Hosking and Sean Bucknall from restructuring company Quantuma have been appointed as administrators to the EUME entity, after legacy SJ Berwin filed a notice to appoint administrators before Christmas, and extended it in January. The European arm’s major creditor Barclays tightened security over borrowings last August with a debenture, and beefed up provisions with another before the end of last year. Last week managing partner Tim Bednall blamed the bank as he told staff they would cease being paid.
