Peter MacLean, some time Chairman of Fox IT Holdings Limited, until recently parent company of Fox IT Limited and previously 365iT plc – has now dragged Licensed Insolvency Practitioners, MBI Coakley Limited, into the great 365iT plc scam ( although they seem unaware of the chequered history of MacLean and 365iT plc ). MacLean’s long time mates at Moore Blatch solicitors in Southampton sent out a letter to shareholders on the 3 July 2012 saying that there would be a General Meeting of the shareholders on the 2nd August 2012 at which a proposal to wind up the company voluntarily would be put to the members i.e. shareholders .
( This means that MacLean would basically put his proposals to himself, Pieter Hooft of LMS Capital and Derek King of South East Venture Growth Fund – as they were the majority shareholders before and after the sale of 365iT’s companies to themselves ).
So, a company ( Fox IT Holdings Limited ) which sometime earlier had sold nearly all of it’s assets ( companies like e.g. 5i Limited ) to another company ( LMS Capital – where Pieter Hooft is M.D. UK Investments – he is listed as a Director of 365iT plc ) and the holding company of which MacLean was also a Chairman ( 365 it services Limited ) and a shareholder, was now being put into Members Voluntary Liquidation despite the fact MacLean himself had been paid £millions out of it only recently, it had no creditors ( because they had all been paid off when LMS Capital bought the companies ) and the Directors of Fox IT Limited had just done an M.B.O. of Fox I.T. Limited from Fox I.T. Holdings Limited( See Press Release below ).
In fact it turns out that ( according to Fox IT Limited ) the date of the Members Voluntary Liquidation was delayed firstly to allow the M.B.O. of Fox I.T. Limited to take place and secondly ( according to MBI Coakley ) to enable the preferential shareholders to do some fine tuning to the arrangements so that they could get nearly all of the money available in the company’s accounts leaving virtually nothing for the Ordinary shareholders.
The preferential shareholders are not listed but we can take an educated guess that they include LMS Capital, Peter MacLean and South East Growth Venture Fund. Yes folks, Peter MacLean gets even more money !!
Let’s summarise shall we ???? Most of the company’s that were in 365iT plc ( was Impera plc ) and became Fox IT Holdings Limited are now in 365 IT Services Limited which is a company owned by LMS Ventures ( Where Pieter Hooft is on the Board ) AND Peter MacLean ( who is Chairman of 365IT Services Limited ). It is run by Peter Howells, former M.D. of 5i Limited.
So basically, MacLean and LMS Capital sold these companies to themselves. ( Not sure if Derek King and South East Growth Fund is involved in LMS Capital or 365 IT Services Limited )
MBI Coakley have been presented with a nice neat set of accounts which show that everyone has been looked after except the Ordinary shareholders in Impera plc ( as was ) / 365iT plc /Fox I.T. Holdings Limited. There is virtually nothing left for them.
The terms of the arrangement to sell 365iT plc’s companies to themselves remain a mystery.
The people that got paid out when LMS Capital bought these companies remain a secret.
The terms of the sale of Fox IT Limited to it’s Directors are also a mystery.
I have been inundated with Ordinary shareholders calling me. Some of whom have been working with or for Peter MacLean since the early days. None of them have a good word to say about him.
The investigations continue.
Fox IT Limited MBO Press Release
Fox IT: Management Buy-Out
Fox IT Limited, the leading independent UK based IT Service Management specialists, has
been the subject of a full and exclusive management buyout with effect from 24th August,
2012. The current management team of Andrew Gray (Finance Director), Mike Darkens
(Consulting Director) and Ashley Bassett (Sales Director) have purchased in full the shares
from the parent company, Fox IT Holdings Limited (formerly 365iT Plc.) and will form the
new board and operational directorship of the business. The acquisition retains all current
operational and delivery UK based staff as well as its global partner network covering 25
countries and 125 accredited Service Management consultants.
Since 1981, Fox IT, formerly Ultracomp, has assisted over 500 organisations and 200000
individuals on their journey to transform IT Services in order to deliver greater business
value through accredited training reinforced with assessment and implementation tools and
services. This management buyout facilitates a strengthening of Fox IT’s core business
focus and portfolio in supporting organisations through all phases of their continual service
improvement journey.
Ashley Bassett commented “I believe this is great news for our Clients, employees and the
ITSM Industry. We’re genuinely excited and confident that the buyout provides the
opportunity for Fox IT to continue being the partner of choice for Service Improvement and
transformation programs. Since its involvement in the inception of ITIL® and ISO/IEC
20000, Fox IT has continually been at the forefront in establishing, the advancement and the
practical application of Service Management best practice through thought leadership,
content provision and service delivery. Whilst continuing to support organisations with their
core training needs a key focus and challenge for the new Board of Directors is to provide
our Clients with practical education, guidance and tools to accelerate the translation of their
significant training investment into tangible business benefits.
The Fox IT brand has already seen a shift from being purely a world leading ITSM training
company to one of supporting our Clients’ service improvement programs providing
consulting and resourcing services, process development tools, bespoke training offerings
and strategic mentoring and guidance for maintaining service quality. Therefore, Fox IT is
well positioned to meet this change in demand. Part of our new mission is to raise the
profile of ITSM to meet and deliver business objectives”
Mike Darkens added “The success of the business is based on the core attributes of our
people, their experience and energy. This has led to the positive results we have delivered
consistently to our clients and through adding to our strong relationships, we can continue
the current trend of business growth.”
ITIL ® is a registered trademark of the Cabinet Office
http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?itemId=1084615740&type=RESOURCES – Members Voluntary Liquidation Details.
